Introduction – Madam Secretary and Scorpion
I. A Look back into Chpt. 15
A. At the very end of the main section of Paul's letter, the last verse of chapter 15, Paul encourages the church to plow forward in the work of the ministry, 58.
B. You would think that he would start the next chapter by telling them to go missionaries in an unreached part of the world, or go be martyr, or go do something completely extraordinary, but then he doesn't.
C. By now we start getting the idea that being "steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord," has more to do with what we do in the every day little moments of life than in the big ones.
II. How Do We Always Abound in the Work of the Lord?
A. Paul was a general of sorts commanding the Lord's troops.
B. The work of the Lord, then, is everything that may be done and must be done to advance the interests of Jesus Christ in the hearts and lives of human beings, to evangelize the lost, to disciple and establish the new believer, to care for and encourage the saints, to build up, reform and revive the church.
C. But precisely how?
III. A Fundamental Condition in Order to Be Involved in the Work of the Ministry.
A. Lest you think that the work of the ministry is just your work really hard on your own and getting things done, let me make sure you know it is not.
B. The prerequisite for the work of the ministry is that you have been ministered and are being constantly ministered to by Jesus Christ.
C. The work of the ministry is the result of having received the grace of God in Jesus Christ.
D. The grace of God sustains us in the work of the ministry and we are no longer doing the work of the ministry if we are not doing whatever we are doing in dependence of his grace – that's why Paul ends this epistle the way he does, 23.
Conclusion
God calls us to do the work of the ministry. For most of us, we are going to answer that call by living ordinary lives as husbands, wives, parents, children, workers, students, retired people, etc. In Jesus Christ, the ordinary is just fine because in the ordinary he meets us with his extraordinary grace.
http://olympiabp.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-work-of-lord-in-ordinary-life-1-cor.html
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