Welcome to Mill Creek Church in Belleville, Texas, where our worship service is in progress. Today, Pastor Monty Byrd continues with his sermon series on the Book of Ephesians. And now, Pastor Byrd. Join me in prayer, please. Father, as we open up your word this morning, I just pray you'd speak to us through the indwelling of the spirit that you so graciously gave us through the work of Jesus Christ. I pray, Lord, that you would mold us and shape us. I pray, Lord, that we'd be a champion of your word and your truth to a lost and dying world. In Jesus' name, amen. As we've been working through Ephesians, I guess each Sunday I get more excited about what God has said through his word. And I had a lot of time to think on this. Yesterday I was painting a pipe fence out at the ranch and it was absolutely, perfectly quiet. And you could just hear the sound of the breeze and the birds. When you take time to think and to meditate on the word of God, it always produces fruit. So we're in Ephesians chapter three. And if you recall in the third chapter of Ephesians, Paul starts this topic of a mystery. And he mentions a mystery because in the first two chapters, he's gone through this idea that we've been chosen by God, that we have been pulled out of darkness into light for salvation. In chapter 2, he's dealing with this idea that Jews and Gentiles both have a saving faith, which leads him into chapter 3 of this idea of a mystery. And that mystery is that we're called together, both Jew and Gentile. I'm going to start reading in verse 1. I'm going to read through verse 9. Our focal passage is 7 and 8 this morning. But it says, For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for you Gentiles, if indeed you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which was given to me for you. how that by revelation He made known to me the mystery, as I have briefly written already, by which, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ, which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, but as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets, that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs of the same body and partakers of his promise in Christ through the gospel, of which I became a minister according to the gift of the grace God given to me by the effective working of his power. To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God, who created all things through Jesus Christ." So here Paul is mentioning this mystery, and it was given to him by a special revelation. And this mystery just isn't an intellectual fact. He was called to serve God in the administration of this ministry and this mystery. And in fact, if you look at the life of Paul, since his initial call on the road to Damascus, since his salvation experience, he has been consumed with this calling and purpose. So much so that as he opens up chapter three, he describes himself as a prisoner of the Lord Jesus Christ, not a prisoner of the Romans, not a prisoner of the Jews, he says, I am a prisoner of the Lord Jesus Christ. In his calling, And if you recall in Acts chapter nine, and I mentioned this the last two Sundays, this conversation that Ananias has with the Lord, and just briefly in Acts 9, 15, the Lord says to Ananias, go for this man is a chosen instrument. to take my name to Gentiles, Kings and Israelites, I will show him how he must suffer for my namesake." In other words, Christ placed Paul in this ministry. And you can see this in our focal passage in verses seven and eight of the third chapter. Paul says, of which I became a minister according to the gift of the grace of God given to me by the effective working of his power. To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. Now, may I draw your attention to both in seven and eight, you see this word grace. You see this word grace. And most of the time, when we see this word grace written in the New Testament, we think that it is referring to salvation. And in most cases, that assumption would be correct. but that is not the case here in seven and eight, when Paul refers to the gift of the grace of God given to me. Hohner in his commentary on Ephesians says, it describes the power as the grace that Paul received, but he isn't referring to salvation's grace, but the grace of ministry. So when we see grace here, It is the gift of ministry. It makes logical sense when you think about it, because the natural man doesn't gravitate towards the things of God before salvation. And it makes logical sense that we would be given the gift of ministry. And in fact, when you look at other writings of Paul, The word usage is grace gift, grace gift. What Paul's saying here is, is that his ministry, his work in the kingdom of God is a gift. Now, the temptation is, is for us to say, well, that's Paul and that's not really the rest of us. But that's not true. And in fact, if you'll turn to the fourth chapter of Ephesians, when Paul is describing the spiritual gifts that each one of us receive. Before I read it, let me make a comment. Everyone sitting in this room who is a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ has been given a gift, a spiritual gift to be used in the kingdom of God. Every single person. And Pew sitting isn't one of them. We all have been given a gift. And Paul in Ephesians 4 refers to the spiritual gift, just as he referred to his ministry in Ephesians 3, as a grace. Join me in Ephesians 4 as we look at verse 1. And Paul said, Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, urge you to walk worthy of the calling you have received with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. Therefore, as one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope at your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all, And look at verse seven. Now, grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift. For it says, when he ascended on high, he took the captives captive, he gave gifts to the people. We've all been given a spiritual gift, and here in chapter 4, Paul is referring to it as a grace. The grace was given to us. If you look later on in verse 29 of the same chapter, there in Ephesians 4, Paul said, no foul language should come from your mouth, but only what is good for building up someone in need so that it gives grace to those who hear. Grace to those who hear. In 1 Corinthians 15.10, Paul said, but by the grace of God, I am what I am, and His grace towards me was not in vain. On the contrary, I've worked harder than any of them, yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. In other words, our gift that we receive, that spiritual gift that each one of us receive has a working power component to it. In other words, we've been given a gift and that isn't just to sit on the shelf. We are to use this gift that each one of us has received to work within the kingdom of God. It reminded me of a couple of verses as I was preparing for my sermon. The first one is in James chapter 2, verse 26. It reads, for just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead. We've been called to an active faith where the spirit is working through us. The words of Christ in John 15, 5 reads, I am the vine, you are the branches, the one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit because you can do nothing without me. And here you have Paul saying that he has been given this grace. He refers to his calling in his ministry as an unmerited gift. As an unmerited gift. That's an important point. It's an important point for us to keep in our own mind. That it is an absolute privilege to serve God in any capacity in which He calls us. It's an absolute joy. Now I want to put this in context, and I think it's important because remember the Lord told Ananias in Acts 9.16, I will show him how much he must suffer for my name. And in fact, if you turn with me to 2 Corinthians 11, Paul describes his life in serving Christ. And I think it's important to keep a timeline on this. If we put the Pauline epistles in order, he wrote Corinthians before he wrote Ephesians. And I think the reason why it's important to keep that in context is when you look at 2 Corinthians chapter 11, beginning in verse 21, He wrote, but in whatever anyone dares to boast, I am talking foolishly. I also dare. Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the descendants of Abraham? So am I. Are they servants of Christ? I'm talking like a madman. I'm a better one with far more labors, many more imprisonments, far more beatings, many times near death. And then he goes on and he gives an inventory of his suffering in the ministry of Christ. I'm gonna read from the Christian Standard Version. If you're reading for the New King James or King James Version, you'll see where it says perils. But in verse 24, he says, five times I received the 40 lashes minus one from the Hebrews. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I received a stoning. Three times I was shipwrecked. I have spent a night and a day in the open sea. On frequent journeys, I faced dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my own people, dangers from Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers at sea, and dangers among false brothers, toil and hardship, many sleepless nights, hunger and thirst, often without food, cold and without clothing, not to mention other things, there is the daily pressure on me, my concern for all the churches, who is weak and I am not weak, who is made to stumble and I do not burn with indignation." So remember, he wrote what I just read before he wrote to the Ephesians. And I think it's important to keep in mind, as he did an inventory of a life of suffering within the ministry of the gospel, he then refers to his ministry as a grace. As a grace. And when you really put that in context and you think about the life of Paul and as he lays out the suffering and then he says it's a grace, you think, well, how does one do that? How does one do that? How does one encounter all of the trials and tribulations that Paul encountered? but yet he was able to say this thing that God gave me, the ministry that I've been called to do, what I've been doing is my life's work has been a gift, has been a gift. I'm about to give you the answer to that. And you're going to see that in a letter that he wrote after the Ephesians. And it's his letter to the Philippians. Turn with me to Philippians chapter three. And I want to point something out here and we're going to look through these verses and you're going to see how someone can encounter suffering for the cause of Christ and yet still call it a grace. In Philippians chapter three, starting in verse four, It almost sounds familiar to 2 Corinthians chapter 11. He says, if anyone else thinks that he has grounds for confidence in the flesh, I have more. Circumcised the eighth day of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews, regarding the law, a Pharisee. regarding zeal, persecuting the church, regarding the righteousness that is in the law, blameless. But everything that was gained to me, everything that was gained to me, in other words, everything that he just described in verses four through six, I have considered to be a loss because of Christ. More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in the view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. Because of Him, I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them as dung so that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own from the law, but one that is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. My goal is to know Him. and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, assuming that I will somehow reach the resurrection from among the dead. Now, I want to point out a couple of very important things here in these verses. As I already mentioned, if you look at the beginning of verse four, Paul does an inventory of his life before Christ. And in that inventory, he points out the things that he would have considered in his life to be of moral and societal value. And you can see it, that he was, as we could say, he was pushing all the right buttons. He was circumcised the eighth day of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, regarding the law of Pharisee, regarding zeal, persecuting the church, regarding the righteousness that is in the law, blameless. In other words, everybody that was around him, everybody that was in around him, his peer group would have said that Paul had esteem within the society in which he lived. But then look at what he says. He said, I've considered that all a loss for Christ. Later on he says, I have suffered the loss of all things. I've suffered the loss of all things and considered them done so that I may gain Christ. So when we ask ourselves, how does one write that their life in their ministry has been a grace, a gift, and encounter all of the trials and tribulations that Paul did. The answer is that his comparison is not his peer group. His comparison isn't his own personal righteousness. His comparison is looking at Jesus Christ. It's in looking at Christ. It's in keeping your eyes on Christ. And when he does that, when he looks at his old life and he looks at his life with Christ, he said all of that stuff before Christ, I consider it done. I consider it done. There's a huge contrast. And I think that it's important to note that even as an older man now, as he writes the Philippians in verse 10, he says, my goal is to know him. He didn't say my goal was to know him. He said, my goal is to know him. And the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being conformed to his death. In other words, he is still pursuing Jesus Christ. And when our eyes are on Christ, when we keep our eyes on Christ, We understand and can appreciate what Christ has done for us, not just when we look back and say, oh, I accepted Christ on such and such date. It's now. It's in the present. And as God has given each and every one of us a grace to serve in his kingdom, We should also keep in mind that that always doesn't go according to plan. That we will suffer, that we will suffer, that we will have trials and tribulation just as Paul had. But if you keep your eyes on Christ, the trials and tribulations end up being trivial. So many times in my ministry, I've seen people get super excited about something that they think that God has called them to do. So they get all excited. They have this idea, right? They have this idea of how these things are going to go. And the first time they encounter a trial or a tribulation or a failure, they make a remark that, well, maybe I didn't hear God right. Maybe I didn't hear God right. Maybe God doesn't want me to do this because I'm encountering difficulty. Thank God Paul didn't do that. He stayed the course. He stayed the course. And you and I have been given this grace, this gift that we too in our own capacity and what God's given us, we should look at this as a grace. Too many times people look at this as a work, a drudgery, something that you have to do. A long time ago, I used to want to pressure people in doing things at church. I thought that was the thing to do because you want people to participate. And so I would mistakenly put the pressure on. That was the worst thing to do because people weren't happy when they were here doing that thing that I forced them to do. When you're here doing something, working in something that God has called you to do, and you are following Christ, and your eyes are on Christ, and you're doing it because of Christ, you'll receive the joy that was meant for you in the service of his kingdom. It's not a have to, it's a want to. And when you keep your eyes on Christ and things don't go according to plan, you still stay true. I can honestly say in my 27 years of doing this, absolutely nothing went according to my plan. Nothing, absolutely nothing. It didn't work out the way I envisioned it, There's nothing that I can do to take credit for. It was at times extremely difficult, but God grew me in the difficulty in a major way. There were times where I would show up and it would look like that we would have no one in attendance. But I will say that what God has given me over the last 27 years has been an absolute grace. A grace. And I wouldn't know how to live without it. And it's not because of works, merit, intelligence, righteousness. It's because he lovingly has given a grace to each of us. He has invited each of us to serve in his kingdom. And I don't care what your life situation is, what trials or tribulations that you go through. When you commit yourself to the service of His kingdom in whatever capacity He's called you, I'm going to tell you that you will experience a joy that you will not find anywhere else in the world. You will not find it anywhere else in the world. You can't find satisfaction like that anywhere else in the world. It all centers on us keeping our eyes on the Lord Jesus Christ. Join me in prayer, please. Lord, we just thank you that you gave us Paul as a wonderful, wonderful example. And I pray, Lord, that we would commit ourselves to the service of your kingdom and whatever gift that you have bestowed on each and every one of us. I pray Lord that we would be committed to serve you regardless of our trials and circumstances. I pray Lord that we would always stand to give you the glory and the credit and the honor that you so rightfully deserve. And I pray that you give us a desire to see your kingdom accomplished. I pray if there's someone listening today that has never accepted the Lord Jesus Christ, that they would accept the free gift of salvation as they receive the call. I pray, Lord, that they'd ask for forgiveness of sins and that they would turn to you and repent and become new in you. I pray, Lord, that you'd use this church in your ministry, in Jesus' name, amen. Thank you for joining us as Pastor Byrd continues this sermon series. If you wish to hear more, you may find him at millcreekchurch.org or go to sermonaudio.com slash millcreekchurch. Prayer requests may also be left at millcreekchurch.org. Our church services are as follows. Sunday morning Bible study is at 9 a.m. followed by our worship service at 10 a.m. We have Wednesday night prayer meeting and Bible study and they are at 630 p.m. For more information and our mission statement please visit our website millcreekchurch.org