In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of the Christian ministry and the role of the messenger. He highlights the need for ministers to focus on the message they are bringing to the people, stating that many churches today are struggling because they are not delivering a true biblical message. The speaker warns against misrepresenting God and emphasizes the seriousness of standing before people as God's representative. He concludes by emphasizing the accountability ministers will have before God for how they represented Him.

Let's turn to 2nd Corinthians chapter 4. Therefore, seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not, but have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world has blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed. We are perplexed, but not in despair. Persecuted, but not forsaken. Cast down, but not destroyed. Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake. That the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So then death worketh in us, but life in you. We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed and therefore I have spoken. We also believe and therefore speak. Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise us up also by Jesus, and shall present us with you. For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God. For which cause we faint not, but though our outward man perish, yet the inner man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. While we look not at the things which are seen, but the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. Paul is describing the Christian ministry. He is describing the messenger. This is a description of what a minister is. What a minister does. It's a description of the ministry. God's messenger. Now God has called you to the ministry to be his messenger. And thus the fourth chapter of 2 Corinthians is very important for all of us. Something that we need to study. Something that we need to draw out concepts from this. Someone playing with the speaker in the back room or something? It's the whole system's gone. Tom, why don't you lead us in one more chorus while we're checking out the systems here. Do I lift up my soul unto Thee, O Lord? Do I lift up my soul, O my God? I trust in Thee. Let me not be ashamed. Let not my enemies triumph over me. They have done that way. I'll not be ashamed. They have done that way. I'll not be ashamed. O my God. I trust in Thee. Let me not be ashamed. Let not my enemies triumph over me. They have done that way. I've made the law. I can't be seen by others. I've passed the law. O my God. I trust in Thee. Let me not be ashamed. Let not my enemies triumph over me. They have done that way. I'll not be ashamed. They have done that way. I'll not be ashamed. O my God. I trust in Thee. Let me not be ashamed. Let not my enemies triumph over me. I love Thee. No other man has anything. He has better health than I do. I love Thee. No other man has any. He has better health than I do. My knees shall praise Thee. I will not spare thy mercy I will lift up my hands unto thy feet I lift my hands up Unto thy feet I lift my hands up Unto thy feet Thy hand shall bring me Thus will I bless thee I will not My hands unto thy feet His hand and mine Thy hand shall bring me Thus will I bless thee I will never My hands unto thy feet Thus will I bless thee I lift my hands up I lift my hands up When I get to heaven I wonder what heaven will do When I get to heaven I'm gonna sing yesterday's When I get to heaven I'm gonna walk with Jesus Staying by his wonderful ways He's gone and I'm staying Staying wonderfully safe Lost in the love of the Lamb Staying, staying wonderfully safe And I'm so glad I am Hallelujah When I get to heaven I'm gonna walk with Jesus When I get to heaven I'm gonna sing yesterday When I get to heaven I'm gonna walk with Jesus Staying by his wonderful ways Therefore seeing we have received this ministry As we have received mercy We faint not But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty Not walking in craftiness Nor handling the word of God deceitfully One of the first things concerning the ministry Is that we are ministers of God's word And there are many people Who have been guilty Of handling the word of God deceitfully It is tragic What goes on in the name of God And in the name of religion And in the name of Jesus Christ The Reader's Digest this month has an interesting article on Scientology And the guy who started Scientology Back in 1950 or so Was a writer And he wrote for a penny a word And he said writing for a penny a word Is ridiculous You can never get rich that way The only way to get rich Is to start a new religion And so he decided to start a new religion Which he called Scientology And you know all of this science fantasy Fiction kind of stuff And the book on Dianetics and so forth But it was all started with one purpose in mind To get rich And it worked The guy is rich, very rich And there are many people Who have gone into the ministry With the concept of an easy way of life It's a good living And there are many who handle The word of God deceitfully Using craftiness James said be not many masters Knowing that you are going to receive The greater condemnation I take the ministry very seriously I take standing before people very seriously I take representing God very seriously Because you see as a minister I am God's representative But the heavy thing is Is that God is going to hold me responsible As to how I represent him I'm going to have to stand before God one day And give an answer Or how I represent God What attitude do people get Or what idea or concept do people get from my life God's a smoothie God's a fast talker God will put one over on you If you give him a chance God's always broke He's always begging for funds God needs man's support To keep his work going These are the types of concepts of God That have been put upon people And someday We are going to give an account As God's representatives You might be able to put it over on the people You won't put it over on God You might get by with it As far as man is concerned You won't get by with it With God The Lord speaks about that servant To whom the master entrusted his goods As he went away into a far country And how this servant did wickedly And how he Mishandled his master's affairs How that he used it for his own enrichment And how when the master returned He required that he give an accounting And he said cut him off And give him his portion With the unbelievers For the Lord said to whom much is required Given much is required And he spoke about him being beaten With many stripes Yet he who knew not the will of God Yet he did things worthy of many stripes Will be beaten with few For unto whom much is given Much is required Unto whom little is given Little is required And as you dare to stand up before people As God's representative God is going to require That you represent him properly Or else you're going to stand responsible Before God With a greater responsibility Than just an ordinary person Who makes no move towards the ministry at all Or no move towards being God's representative We're familiar with Moses At the water of Meribah When the second time around Through the wilderness The people were murmuring and complaining And it got to Moses He couldn't take it anymore He came before God and said God I can't stand it I've had it, I'm through All I've heard for 40 years Is this miserable griping and complaining God I can't take it And God said Moses they're thirsty They need water Go out and speak to the rock That it might bring forth water That didn't satisfy Moses He came out before the men, the people And he said Must I smite this rock again And give you water And he smote the rock In anger Water came forth God was merciful But God is also just He said Moses I'm going to talk to you Moses You did not represent me Before those people You were representing your own anger Your own feelings Your own emotions You weren't representing me I told you to speak to the rock I didn't tell you to smite the rock I said speak to the rock But in anger you smote the rock That wasn't representing me Moses And because you failed to represent me You cannot go into the promised land Now this all is a picture And that is why it was so important That Moses followed the instructions Exactly and carefully For in the New Testament We are told concerning the whole Wilderness experience The rock and so forth That This whole experience was The rock in the wilderness Paul said that rock was Jesus That rock from which the water of life Came forth for the people That was Jesus It was all a picture of Jesus How that the water of life For us from God Comes to us through Jesus But it was necessary That the rock be smitten Before the water came forth So the cross was a necessity In order that the water of life Might come forth to us from him But Once the rock was smitten It needs never to be smitten again For he died once and for all And from that time on All you have to do is speak to the rock And the water of life is available Moses broke the whole analogy In smiting the rock twice He destroyed the illustration That God was seeking to create Of the once smitten rock Giving forth the water of life And from then on Just speak to the rock And the life of God is yours And though Moses sought the Lord diligently The Lord refused his prayers Refused his requests And he could not Go into the promised land Because he had failed to represent God At the waters of Meribah You stand before the people Representing God Never forget it Never lose that awareness Whenever you stand before people Realize I am God's representative Standing here before them And they're going to get their ideas And concepts of God From what they see in me I represent God That is surely the heaviest obligation That could ever be upon any person To be God's representative I do not take that at all lightly I take that very seriously And thus with Paul There are times when my body is spent There are times when I am so tired My eyes start to cross As I'm standing after a service And talking with people And they keep coming up And keep coming up And keep coming up And I get to where my head I can't even concentrate It's difficult to listen To what they're even saying And my eyes start to pull in And just cross I'm so tired And I look And I see there's still others waiting And I think Oh God, I can't do it But I've got to do it I am their link with God And I can't really represent God As being impatient with them Or God not wanting to hear their problem Or God not being concerned with their need And I just have to say God give me the help and the strength I don't have it, I'm through I've wiped out God Strengthen me Lord Because I want to represent you I don't want to get in a hurry I don't want to get pushy with people I don't want to push them away Because I don't want people to think that God Is pushing them away God's representative The ministry that is ours And so as we have received mercy We faint not God gives us that help and that strength Now, in verse 5, Paul said For we preach not ourselves But Christ Jesus, the Lord And ourselves, your servants For Jesus sake We have an incurable desire To receive glory and honor from men Our old flesh And you're all living in a body of flesh None of you have received your metamorphosis yet And your old body of flesh delights In receiving glory and honor from men I love it When people think that I am more spiritual Than I really am Isn't that horrible? That my old flesh delights In people thinking that I am deeply spiritual What a horrible thing to delight in I delight in the glory and the attention of man My flesh does That's how evil my flesh is And if I would allow my flesh It would color the stories And tint the stories So that some of the glory Or much of the glory would come to me I become the hero in the story I become the wise man with the answer It was my prayers that finally broke through And if you will examine what you've been saying Much of it has been to draw the glory of people to you That they might think that you are really more spiritual Than you really are But one thing God will not do Is share his glory with man And therefore it is absolutely vital That I keep my body under Under control The old flesh desires that I keep them under Because if I don't keep my flesh under It's going to be up there Taking the bows Seeking to take the glory and the credit And receive the applause of the people And the oohs and the ahhs And the more success God gives to your ministry The more prevalent is the tendency of man to elevate you And thus the greater is the necessity Of keeping your body under As we were walking away from the Anaheim Stadium The other night About 25,000 people there And my son Jeff was with me And he said, well what did you think of it dad? And I said, this thing could be extremely dangerous And he said, what do you mean? I said, did you notice how much exaltation there was of man? Personalities Now the real danger is that When they begin to magnify the personalities I noticed that many of these personalities that they were magnifying Began to take on The star studded aura That was being pumped towards them by the people In other words all of a sudden I am important Oh my, that's me they're applauding for And so you go into a little act You're not real, you're not yourself Now it's, you know, I'm trying to over emote So that they will really know how wonderful I really am Kind of a thing And I become impressed with myself Because of the way the people are responding or reacting And I told Jeff, I don't like to be in situations like this I don't like to be up there, you know, where Chuck Smith That's bad That's bad Because I'm not above My flesh isn't above Thinking Chuck Smith And my flesh could pick up on that real fast And it is something that you've got to Constantly be keeping in balance in your ministry Because people are going to try to Put you up on that pedestal But as sure as you try to stand on that pedestal You're going to get cut down God's not going to share his glory So we preach not ourselves Be careful that we don't preach ourselves That we don't seek to set ourselves in a Beautiful, glorious light But we preach Christ It is a tragedy, I think, that God has to use man It seems to me that angels could do such a Much more effective job But God has chosen to use man And God has chosen to use you But to be used of God is a heavy responsibility And to be continued in that use by God You must keep your body under You cannot allow the flesh to arise And begin to exalt your flesh For he that exalteth himself shall be abased And God will abase you Paul's fear was And the reason for his keeping his body under Was lest having preached to others I would be put on the shelf I would become a castaway I'd be cast aside, no longer usable by God And you can see throughout the world So many men who once had powerful, mighty ministries Sitting on the shelf Because they failed to keep their bodies under But we preach Christ, Jesus, the Lord And ourselves, servants That's what the word minister means Jesus set the example for us, for his disciples The night in which he was betrayed He took the towel and girded himself with the towel And he went around and began to wash the disciples' feet Which was the duty of the servant when you came into a house And when challenged about it, he said I have set before you an example Not that we are to wash feet But we are to look at our position as a servant Not in a position of I start ordering people around To do my work, or to do God's work I am not there at Calvary Chapel as a lord over the flock But I am there as a servant to the flock I am there to pick up after them I am there to be available for them And for their needs and for their problems I am there to help them whenever possible I am not there to lord over them or to rule over them And if you want really to be a true Christian minister You've got to see yourself as a servant That's what the minister is Now Jesus said the Gentiles or the heathen Love to exercise authority and lordship But it shall not be so among you For whosoever among you would be the chief Let him be the servant of all So I preach not myself But I preach Jesus Christ as the Lord I'm not the Lord I preach Jesus Christ as the Lord And ourselves servants for his sake You need to have that concept of the ministry But we have this treasure in earthen vessels That the excellency of the power may be of God And not of us This glorious treasure that we possess The gospel of Jesus Christ and the commission To share that gospel with the dying world It surely is the greatest treasure in the world today The most valuable treasure in the world Is salvation through Jesus Christ What should a prophet of manna be Would gain the whole world but lose his own soul This treasure in Jesus Christ The salvation, the glorious gospel, the good news This treasure What did God put the treasure in? Earthen vessels or clay pots Now the Lord delighted in ludicrous situations He often created ludicrous situations When the Midianites invaded the land of Israel 135,000 like grasshoppers covering the earth The angel of the Lord came to Gideon As he was at the threshing floor of his father He said, Gideon, go in this thy might And deliver the children of Israel Out of the hands of the Midianites He said, oh Lord, my father's family is nothing And I'm the least in my father's household You don't mean me How do I really know you're calling me, Lord? Let me fix you something to eat And fix the angel something to eat And of course he put his thing out And the fire consumed it Lord, be patient with me This is a heavy thing you've called me to do Let me put out this fleece tonight Finally convinced, so he called the army Sounded the trumpet And 32,000 Israelites responded And the word of the Lord came to Gideon Saying, the men that are with you are too many Why? Because I know the heart of the people And if I would deliver the Midianites Into the hands of the 32,000 They would glory in what they had done You see, the reason why God was creating This totally, absolutely ludicrous situation Is because God knows the stupidity of man And God knows how the flesh loves to glory And receive glory And God doesn't want the flesh to glory In what God has done God, when he works, wants to receive the glory himself For the work that he has wrought God doesn't want you attracting people to you Or to your ministry God wants you attracting people to him Go out and tell your army, Gideon Everyone who is afraid to fight, go home He called the troops and he said Okay, fellows, all of you that are afraid to fight, go home And 22,000 of them turned and went home Now we're getting better odds It's down to 13 and a half to one Gideon, the men that are with you are too many I know the heart of these people God knows the heart of man God knows how incurably self-righteous we are God knows how incurably we are As far as our desire for glory And God has to make the thing absolutely ridiculous Take them down to the river Let them get a drink And watch how they drink Those that get down and put their face in the water Send them home And those that will pick it up in their hand And lap it as a dog Then by these I will deliver the Midianites into your hand Gideon counted the 300 And set them aside Why? In order that only God could get the glory Now, it is ludicrous To take such a valuable treasure And put it in such a cheap vessel The most glorious treasure in the universe Is placed in a common clay pot In order that the attention might be drawn to the contents And not to the pot God makes it absolutely ludicrous The glorious treasure Gospel of Jesus Christ Is put in this earthen vessel In me In order that the glory of the excellency might be unto God The excellency of the power unto Him And not unto us Now, I heard Norman Grubb one time say At that minister's prayer conference up there at Forest Home That Armin Gesswein had years ago And it was there that I first met Armin And it was there that God used Armin to help me realize How powerful God was that even Lutherans could be saved And really committed to Jesus Christ And Norman Grubb speaking there in the deep things of God Declared That the greatest capacity of man Is that of a container I can actually contain God God dwells in me This treasure in an earthen vessel But wait a minute I don't think that that is the greatest That's a marvelous capacity But the contents aren't in the vessel to stagnate there The contents are in the vessel In order that they might be poured out to those that are in need Thus the greatest capacity Is not that of containing God But that of sharing or pouring forth God To a needy life That as a vessel Containing God I can actually pour forth the contents To a needy world around me That's God's objective for your life There must always be this objective work of God That which God does for you But he always does it with an objective In order that through you He might reach others or be poured out to others So the highest capacity comes Not when I'm containing But when I'm pouring forth the contents Now What we must be extremely careful about Is that when we pour forth the contents That it comes forth as pure as possible Without the taste of the vessel You ever had a vessel that tasted the water? My daughter loves cinnamon tea And we have a pitcher in our house That is devoted to orange juice And we bought it To contain orange juice And a couple of weeks ago Our daughter made Well, she made her tea And then she poured this cinnamon tea In this orange juice container And ever since then I've had cinnamon-tasted orange juice Cinnamon-flavored orange juice Now, I don't mind cinnamon flavor I don't like cinnamon-flavored orange juice But unfortunately this vessel Got the taste of the cinnamon And now I get the taste of cinnamon And I'm about ready to throw it away Or give it to her for a wedding present So that she can keep her tea in it But we've got to get a new orange juice container Because I just don't like cinnamon-flavored orange juice I like orange juice orange juice And orange juice-flavored orange juice When the vessel starts putting The taste of the vessel into the contents It's time to get rid of the vessel You don't want the taste of the vessel in the contents You want only the taste of the content People don't need to have your taste Lingering in their mouth When you're through ministering with them When they come to receive God And the Word of God And the contents of the Spirit of God From your life Let it pour forth as pure as possible Without you getting your little flavor And taste into the thing We have this treasure in earthen vessels This glorious gospel Containing of God In this life That the excellency of the power May be of God And not of us Now as ministers No one said it was going to be easy Jesus said a servant isn't greater than his Lord If they persecuted me They're going to persecute you If they didn't receive me They're not going to receive you And so Paul speaks about the Christian ministry Distressed Perplexed We go through heavy, deep trials Where once a week we want to quit our church Or three times a day Whatever the case may be No one said it's going to be easy And if you were looking for something easy Then you shouldn't have gotten into it And if you're still looking for something easy You ought to get out of it And if it is easy You probably aren't a true minister We're distressed on every side But the secret The secret of it all The secret that you must learn Is the ability to see the invisible If you can develop this capacity You can go through every distressing Perplexing situation And come out on top But you've got to develop the capacity Of seeing the invisible For we look not at the things which are seen That's how, though I'm distressed I'm never cast down, you know Perplexed, not distressed Why? Because I can see What other men don't see I see the invisible For we look not at the things which are seen For these things are only temporal But the things which are not seen For they are eternal The classic case of Elisha, the prophet of Israel When Ben-Hadad, the king of Syria Was planning all of these Ambushes against the king of Samaria And every ambush that he would set up Elisha would go to the king of Samaria And say, now stay away from this place They've got an ambush set for you there And Elisha didn't save him once nor twice But just many times Until the king of Assyria Called his generals together And he said, all right, fellas Which of you is for my enemy? And they said, really, king None of us are for your enemy We're all loyal We're not traitors But there's a prophet of God Over there in Israel And you can't talk to your wife In your bedchamber But what he doesn't know What you're saying And so Ben-Hadad said Find out where he is And bring him captive And so they heard that He was in the city of Dothan And so the Syrian army At night moved in With their chariots With their infantry And they surrounded The city of Dothan And in the morning When the servant of Elisha The prophet Gehazi awoke And went out He looked upon the hills And he saw the Syrian army The chariots of Syria And he came into Elisha With a despairing cry Alas The common vernacular equivalent Is we've had it And Elisha didn't even go out Didn't even get disturbed Didn't get upset He said, oh Lord Open his eyes That he might see And the eyes of Gehazi Were opened And he saw the chariots Of the angels of God All around them And all surrounding The Syrian army And he had a complete change of attitude It was no longer Alas master we've had it It was Alas master they've had it He now sees things From a whole new perspective The ability to see the invisible As you read the 11th chapter Of the book of Hebrews And it tells you Of the tremendous exploits Of the men of faith In the Old Testament And how God blessed them And prospered them with Cadillacs And perfect health How that they wandered around in rags Destitute How they were stoned How they were sought in two Men of whom the world was not worthy For they endured All of the stonings And the beatings And the imprisonments And the destitution They endured it says As seeing the invisible You see therein is always the secret The man of faith Rather than being blind Has a better sight than anybody else He sees more than anybody else The man of faith sees What the others cannot see And thus he does not despair He is not cast down He is not destroyed Because he can see More than anybody else Where the others are only looking At the obvious physical visible things He sees the power of God Above and beyond Now every time I start Getting my eyes on situations I start going under And it is then that the Lord Has to lift me up And let me see beyond And above the situations To the greatness of God And to the power of God We do despair many times Only because we're looking At what can be seen And I've tried every avenue And there's no way out I might as well lie down and die You're looking at only that Which can be seen You've lost sight of the invisible You've lost sight of God And the greatness And the power of God It's easy to lose sight of God When we were in that particular phase Where we had to get out Of the facility that we were in Just because we had so outgrown The little chapel And the Lord opened the door For us to buy that ten acres And we had a huge Building prospect before us We had $67,000 The ten acres cost us $300,000 A man loaned us $90,000 So we were able to borrow From the savings and loan $150,000 The improvements alone Were going to cost us $100,000 In fact, $112,000 The tent cost us $16,000 And here we were In a growing church We really had it made We were in triple services The very fact that we had $67,000 in the bank was great Because everything was paid for Here we are in good shape We've got $67,000 We could just stay right here Where we are Let things be overcrowded And be very comfortable Not comfortable, really I mean, financially comfortable But not physically comfortable Because there are so many people It was uncomfortable As I would drive up Sunflower Avenue And wait for the left turn arrow To go down Fairview and go home I would look over at that huge Plot of ground And in my mind would come The tremendous obligations That were before us What I was taking and leading These people into Buildings that were going to cost More than a million dollars With most donated labor And I would start getting the qualms And wanting to back out And wanting to run And I would say What am I doing to these precious people? Leading them into something As gigantic as that And of course the thoughts Start coming What are you going to do in the year When the $90,000 is due? And in the two years When the $150,000 is due? And then how are you going to In the meantime in those two years Put out over a million dollars To build new buildings? What are you doing to these people, Chuck? And the Lord would say to me Whose church is it? And I would say Well, it's your church, Lord Who created this whole situation? You did, Lord Then why are you worried about it? And I would say Well, I don't know, Lord It's just my nature But you see I'd start to see the invisible I'd start to see what others weren't seeing And by the time I got to the San Diego freeway I was totally free I was, praise the Lord, it's His church If the whole thing goes down the tubes It's His church going down the tubes Not me It's His church Let Him worry about where it's going to come from But the Lord had to take me through that lesson Two or three times a week Where I would start to get under the burden of it And then the Lord would again remind me Whose church is it? And when I get my eyes off of what I could see And onto what I couldn't see I rested, I had peace, I had victory, I had joy In the ministry you've got to have the spiritual insight If you're going to survive Because you are going to get into dilemmas And situations, distressing situations That you're not going to be able to figure the way out yourself And you may try every possible avenue And find every door closed And be left in an absolute dilemma But then God always has ways that we don't know about anyhow And just because I've exhausted the capacities Of my own puny little brain It doesn't mean that God has exhausted All the possibilities in a situation And unbelief usually arises from Our trying to figure things out And when we get to that place Where we can't figure out how God can do it Then is where unbelief usually takes over Because I believe that if I can't figure it out There's no way to do it But that's magnifying my own understanding Far beyond what it should be magnifying For God has resources that you know nothing about God has ways that you haven't even thought of My ways are not your ways My thoughts are not your thoughts My ways are beyond your finding out, saith the Lord And you've got to develop that spiritual insight To where you can begin to see The things that others cannot see You begin to see the power of God And the power of the Holy Spirit And the power of Jesus Christ working in his church And his ability to do exceeding, abundantly Above all that you could ask or think We get our eyes upon the situation And we always become defeated Because we are so limited The king was walking on the wall And the lady said, Have mercy on me, king, and judge me And he says, what do you want me to do? Go to the barn floor and sweep up something? I'm as hungry as you are, lady, what's your problem? She said, well, yesterday this lady and I Made a covenant together We were going to eat our babies And yesterday we ate my baby And now she's hit her baby And she won't produce it so we can eat it And the king tore his clothes and he said, God help me if I don't have the head of that Elisha Interesting thing, the king wanted to blame The prophet of God for his problems Though it was really the king's fault for the problems Elisha was sitting in his house with some of his friends And he says, look what that son of a murderer Is going to do now He's sending a guy down here for my head He said, when the guy gets here He said, pin him fast with the door For behold, the steps of his master Are right behind him And so footsteps came up on the door And this guy knocked And the guys opened the door and pinned him and held him And behind him, here came the king And he said to Elisha, Aren't thou the one that is troubling Israel? Elisha said, no, you got it wrong, king You're the one that's been troubling Israel You brought in the Baal worship and all this kind of stuff You're the one that's brought this problem But don't worry Tomorrow morning They'll be selling a bushel of wheat for 65 cents Fine flour there in the gate of the city A bushel of barley, two bushels of barley for 65 cents And the man upon whom the king leans Says, if God would open up windows in heaven Could such a thing be How could God do that? These people are so hungry How could God do that? You see, he was looking at it from a purely human standpoint Trying to figure out how God could do it And then he becomes ridiculous, mocking If God would open up He saw God going around pulling open windows in heaven And dumping flour down on them Became foolish The prophet said, hey, fellow You'll see it, but you won't eat it For God had ways That they hadn't even thought about For we look not at the things which are seen But the things which are not seen You've got to develop the spiritual insight You've got to see Greater is he that is in you Than he that is in the world Greater is the power of God Than any situation that you could be facing Greater is God's power Than any diagnosis Of any doctor, anything else You've got to keep your eyes on God And not on the situations The Christian ministry is not easy Unless It's impossible Unless you keep your eyes on the Lord You'll go under Unless you keep your eyes on him So You're the messenger Man, what good news you have to carry What a treasure to the world God put that treasure in your old pot You're the earthen vessel Let the contents flow forth Unadulterated Let them flow forth pure And just keep your eyes on Jesus Knowing that you represent him Before those people before whom you stand And they're going to develop their ideas And concepts of God From what they see in you But a messenger Has to have a message And what is the message That you are bringing to the people I am convinced That in 98% of the churches today The problem with the church Is that they are bringing The wrong message to the people And that's why The churches are struggling For finances For enthusiasm For workers For life It's because the message That the church is bringing to the people Is not a true biblical message Or only a part And really a minor part of the message And we have been actually emphasizing The wrong thing in our ministry I did for years I emphasized the wrong things My preaching I was preaching My emphasis was entirely opposite Of what it should be And when I began to preach God's message of the New Testament Rather than the typical church message Is when God began To bless the people And bless the church And add to the church And the Lord didn't really give me this insight And help me to define it Until just this last weekend And so tomorrow night We'll be sharing with you the message And I think that this is very vital For each of you messengers To make sure of the message That you're carrying to the people And I'm excited About serving God And I'm thrilled With the privilege of representing Him And yet I'm appalled At the responsibility That is on me Because I am His representative Paul speaks about running in vain Oh God help that we don't run in vain God keep us from that trap of glory Or receiving glory God keep us from that trap It has destroyed so many Shakespeare has one of his characters saying Cromwell flee ambition For by this sin the angels fell Seeking glory For myself instead of God It destroyed Lucifer And it can destroy you Father we pray that your Holy Spirit Will just take your word And burn it into our hearts And help us Lord that We will not be like the man Who looks in the mirror And immediately forgets what he saw May we become doers of the word And not hearers only And as Paul said Lord help us That we might examine ourselves And judge ourselves Lest we would be judged of thee May we take Lord Well better than that Lord Let your Holy Spirit turn the light on And reveal what is in our heart Search me oh God Know my thoughts Try me know my ways See if there be Some way of wickedness in me Lord Reveal it In order that I might repent And confess of it And be clean before you God In order that I might stand before thee someday And receive your approbation Well done Good faithful servant God I don't want to be knocking And hear the voice saying Depart I never knew you Lord I prophesied in your name I preached to people I prayed for the sick May we preach Jesus Christ as Lord In Jesus name