Effectively Accomplishing My Ministry in the Church with Joy

Acts 20:17-38

By Stephen Muindi

He is a missionary to Kenya. He's actually a native Kenyan.

So what he's doing there is what we call a national working in the churches there in Kenya, which I think is a great way to do missions, to do ministry. We'd love to have missionaries come from our country, but we can have people that were from the countries live there, know the country. That's a great way to minister.

Stephen and I spent some time together in seminary way back in the day. Seems like I'm saying that about just about every other speaker that comes here. But I'm glad to see Stephen again.

It's been a while and I'm excited to have you come share with us. So come share the word, Stephen. Well, good morning.

Thank you again. It's good to be with you. Thank you, Sean, again.

It's a great time to see each other after many, many years of being away from each other. But what a joy it is to gather together and be able to enjoy the time together in fellowship of the word and singing together. Well, we, Edna and I, are so grateful to join you again and be part of your church ministry.

You've always been part of our ministry as well. And we are so grateful for the blessings that God has given and continues to give, even as we share our lives today and remind ourselves where we left last time. Isn't that right? Where we left last time? We want to pick it up there and then we can now roll it over and keep moving again.

Now, one of the things that we are so excited to be here is to remind you of the commitment you had made last time that you will be coming to Kenya. But none of you have been able to come. So I'm asking, why didn't you come? Why didn't you come, Sean? Why? You promised to.

What happened, Brother Lynn? What happened? I know everyone is like, we'll talk about that later. Is that right? Well, we are here again to ask if this time you don't come. I think next time I'll not come.

What about that? We make a deal. Well, we are really excited to be with you and to be able to delight in and it's just to encourage you that the purpose of the mission work is really pad and partnership together is a work of working together. And we'll be looking at the text of scripture that not only a man who is a missionary, that is in the text that you just saw on your screen as a missionary, made a difference and a commitment to be able to invest in the lives of others.

And that is the purpose of life. And I hope you'll be there again in the Sunday school hour so you can get to know what we are doing in detail and specifics and what God has been doing over the years. When we were here, we mentioned that God had blessed us with establishing one church, and now we have been able to establish two more churches.

So we have three churches already established for the glory of God with the pastors. And so we look forward sharing the detail of that as you will be part of our time together in the next hour. But this morning I want us to more put our attention to the text that you see on your screen and be able to talk a little more on this issue.

And I have given you a title that I have noted effectively accomplishing my ministry in the church with joy. Many of us, we know what it means to be a member of a church, don't we? We've been members of churches. We've served in various capacities and probably we have not served.

And so it's a challenge for us to be able to think through what a man like Paul, who is a missionary, thought about what it means to serve and to be part of God's work. And church ministry is not easy, but is a commitment. But then you ask yourself, the way he talks about effectiveness, and I put it there, the essence of effectiveness in accomplishing what God expects of you in a body of Christ, but also the essence of doing it and accomplishing it.

But remember, with joy, that's the essence, because you could do it, but you have no joy in it. You could do it, but you don't delight in it. Either we don't see the essence or the importance of it, or we do see the importance, but probably we have wrong attitudes, wrong approach, and many other things could come along, but I want you to have that understanding as we come to this text.

Well, Paul is calling upon the church leaders here, and you might be saying, why? This is a text, probably talking about elders or pastors and all that, but you'll see the essence, the implied essence or application to the local church and ministry and individually to my own life. And I want you to personalize. That's why I say my ministry.

Call it my ministry. You as an individual, it's mine. I mean, we are in Kenya studying churches, establishing churches, training pastors and deacons, and trying to build up the body of Christ, Sunday school teachers, reaching out to people.

It's the ministry that God has given to Edna and I, and how do I take that ministry? It's my ministry. So how do I take it? And I need to accomplish this because I know I have a purpose. I have resources that God has put in me, and I must tail myself to the focus of the work that God has called me to accomplish.

Now, you cannot do someone else's ministry. I'm not a professor at faith or at Maranada or another place. That is not my duty.

Isn't that right? It is upon them. They are accountable before God. So I have no other reasons to really complain about their ministry.

It's my ministry that I want to focus on. And as a church body, I want to be a blessing to you, even this morning. Now, read with me as you go along.

We'll be catching up as we move, and you'll probably have some things to note down as you move on. Paul here calls the elders of the church to be able to encourage them before he leaves this place. He leaves this area and adds up to Rome.

And so he calls the elders from Ephesus. And I want to read the first couple of passages. And he says, in verses 17 from Melitus, he sent to Ephesus and called for the elders of the church.

Now, I want you to know that when he says, the elders of the church, these are leaders in the church, and I believe they are representing the church. The message Paul is going to be given is more or less having a Seminar, an exhortation retreat, and calling them and saying, come on, let's talk. And this is my last pep talk to you.

These are my last words that I want you to understand, whether I am here or with, I will not be here. And by the way, I'll not be here. So I want you to take note because this is your duty.

Don't depend on me anymore. You know, missionaries, we, that is our job. We establish a church.

You're training pastors and you reach a time where you're saying, pastor, this is your church. You're there to shepherd this church. You members of this church, don't send your issues to me.

Send to your pastor. Isn't that right, pastor? This is your flock. Talk to them.

Don't talk to me and call, hey, you know what? So and so is not doing well. What can I do? You are the pastor, you are the deacon, you are the lady leader, you are the Sunday school teacher. It is your duty.

So you can imagine what that pastor look at the missionary Paul, or look at Missionary Stephen Muwindi and Edna as they leave from that area and say, see you. And you'll see what Paul will be doing here is saying, I am done. Let no one say anything on me because I have accomplished my duty and everything is done according to my ability and what God expects of me now as elders of the church.

He says, you are the elders of the church and that is personal. Again, that's why I put in my duty, my responsibility in that ministry that God has given to me. And you see, in verses 18, he says, and when he had come, they had come to him, he said to them, you know, and that's a very heavy expression, you know.

And this part, if you want to write something, I want us to see the testimony of Paul. Paul gives his own testimony. That's the first thing we want to see, his testimony.

It's important to have a testimony that demonstrates what you are doing, what you have been doing. What's your testimony? Paul says about his ministry, and this is his testimony about the ministry having called them. He says, you know, from the first day that I came to Asia in what manner I always lived among you.

You know, I came and I joined you. And you know the way I lived my life, don't you? All of you know, know my way out and my way in. You know it.

And then he puts now the details by saying, serving the Lord with all humility, with my tears and trials which happened to me by the plotting of the Jews, how I kept back nothing that was helpful but proclaiming it to you and taught you publicly and from house to house, testifying to Jews and also to the Greeks repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Look at that testimony. Standing before men and saying, here I am.

I want any of you to raise up their hand and accuse me of my ministry or what I've done among you. Is there any? Everybody looked. That would be something to ask ourselves.

He mentions and gives the details. He says to us here, serving the Lord, whose ministry am I doing as I do? This ministry that God has given to me. The entirety of the call and the work is God's.

It's not someone, it's not an individual ownership. I don't own this ministry. Paul says, it's the Lord's.

But it is the ministry that I am accountable. And I hope this helps you understand what Paul mentions here. He says, the manner I always was with you, the way I lived with you.

And that talks about not only the character of the person but the behavior and the acts, the practice of things in life. And he mentions, he says, always, I serve the Lord with humility. And that word humility is not the way we understand.

In the English essence, humility means in thought and in practice. I have a lot of knowledge, but I don't use that information that I have to show to pride about my knowledge. No, for what I know and who I am as an apostle, Paul would say, I'm not using that.

And you can read that in one Corinthians. And see, the way he explains as well is that I'm not using that authority of an apostle to step on people, to show my authority over others, to demonstrate that I am an apostle of Jesus Christ. I have the powers.

Remember, Ephesus is one of the churches that he established himself, didn't he? And so because he did, he would be the one saying, I am the founder of this church. I have the authority to make decisions. But he says, I served the Lord with humility.

I did not use the understanding, the knowledge I have and act irrelevantly in the ministry. And you know it. That's why the phrase you know is there the knowledge of the person in character and practice.

We understand it. And so he says, father, that he also served the Lord with tears and trials. There are times that Paul cried and wept for the souls, for the leadership, for the training of these men, for the church.

Can you count? How many times have you cried because of the souls of people? How many times have you cried for brothers and sisters in Christ who have failed to stand for the gospel? How many times have you cried for your neighbor that they might come to know Christ and even going through trials, challenges of life because of those who do not know the savior. Could you walk the streets in time of cold and snow like now, and reach out to people? Oh, we don't want that. It's too cold out there.

I need my comfort. Then you don't understand what Paul is saying here when he says, I have done my service to the Lord with humility. Remember, Paul was a pharisee, a scholar in his time.

And so in other sense, he took that phd master's, whatever you might have had, and humbled himself to walk the streets and villages and places with Greeks and Jews, learned and learned people who had no peace with each other, cultures that always acting against each other, but with humility communicated the love of God, the grace of God revealed in Jesus Christ. He did that. He cried many times, went through difficult times in life because of souls that he might come to know Christ.

You know, sometimes even as a missionary pastor, I see churches depend or look, demand more of the missionary than themselves. You demand more. You demand to see a missionary.

Build many churches. Bring many souls to Christ. Baptize hundreds of people.

But you are not doing it yourself. You are not doing it. Bring those souls to the church.

Build churches. Establish another church in the next community. You demand more of us than you are supposed to be doing.

Do it. Why do you expect Stephen and Edna to continue establishing more churches? Why not just establish one and stick there? Do more. Paul says with tears and persecution.

Nothing good will come out of you unless you invest more in it. You will not pass that exam in that paper that you are studying in class unless you read more. Sean, you remember Greek and Hebrew, working hard, memorizing words and keeping on and walking hard at PDI and running up and down.

We had twins at that time. So I go to class 07:00 by noon I'm done on 01:00 I'm on my way with a sandwich. I never ate sandwich in Kenya.

On driving, going to work that is not norm, but going running to PDI, walking up to 04:00, 10:00 at night, getting out of there, studying until three in the morning, taking care of our twins in class and thinking, God, please use me. All that hard work added up to graduation at the end. Isn't that right? Any good thing will come out with hard work.

You and I must always know that God has given us a duty, that we must do it effectively and accomplish it, but also with joy. It's hard work, but with joy. I delight when I do that hard work for my family and many of you do the same.

You do great things, hard work to accomplish something good for your family. And that is what I want to encourage you. Even this morning Paul says, look at my testimony, share with me and examine my life together with me.

And that is why he says that even through all those with time of tears and trials which happened to me by plotting of the Jews, his own people who knew him as a Jew, as a pharisee. But now turn away from that and turn to God to serve Jesus Christ. But then he mentions also not only that, but he says how I kept back nothing that was helpful.

He held back nothing that was needed, nothing. He invested all in the lives of these people. I held nothing, gave it all, poured my life completely.

The way he tells Timothy that you're not being poured out, being poured out like a sacrifice on the altar for the sake of the church. And he says not only not keeping anything back, but he says the reason is that was helpful, but proclaimed it to you and taught you publicly and from house to house. Now evangelism is either you can do it in public, there are opportunities of public opportunities, and we'll be sharing a little more of what God is doing when we have any opportunity, either be in schools, either be in hospitals, either be in barriers, deaths, celebration of babies, graduations, you use those opportunities to share the good news of Jesus Christ.

But also there are private times, house to house, when you visit people one on one in their homes, other hospitals, other coffee shops, different opportunities that you have. And we have to be able to reach from place to place to share the word of God at personal level, we all have. But he says, even in those times, I never held anything that was good and profitable to you.

Each one of you is that wonderful, to think through your life and say, I never held anything back that was profitable to you. Now you have kids. Those of us who were married, you have children.

There are things you teach your son, your daughter, to know, to learn over time. And as they grow in the word, they might not catch it as they are coming up when they are young. But as they grow, they catch up.

They start understanding what it means to be able to be a man, to be a woman of God. And so as you do that, you are investing in that person. But then it comes that time where that young man is getting married and you're saying, you got it all.

You're ready for this life. You're ready to live a life. You want to live that life now, independent from my home.

You go to your spouse now you guys get out. Live now. There you've learned from us.

The parents now put it into practice what you've seen, what you've had, and now it's up to you. Even though they'll have struggles sometimes, they'll call dad and mom and say, hey, you know what? My car broke. What do I do? Yeah.

Oh, I don't know how to make this cake. Mom, can you send me that recipe that you used to make? Because they didn't listen well when they were home, is that right? They didn't listen well, or they were not willing even to go to the kitchen at that time, remember? But now they are willing. They are saying, can I come and we can cook this kind of a meal because I need to get to know at that time he'll be writing notes.

Okay, what next? Do you much? Because they want to go and get it back in their home again. It's the same. I want you to know that Paul is saying, I have done it.

You've had me, you've seen me in public, privately. And now you have the duty. You have the duty.

As he gives illustration of his own life and explains his life, he's taught it. And, you know, when he talks about teaching, it means really in detail, not only proclaiming, but teaching means sitting down with people, discipling men and women and teachers, young people. That is one on one.

You're teaching in detail. They ask questions. You look at the scriptures and put things together, and you're saying, this is how things should be.

But then look at what he says in verse 21, testifying to the Jews and also to the Greeks. It doesn't matter what kind of people they are. All.

We sang that song, that children song. God has created all people. And we sing yellow, white.

We say black and yellow and what kids or children, God has all created them. Yes, we sing that, but how do we act? Do we reach out to them? There are many times we could talk about, oh, send missionaries to that jungle of Africa, to that South America, to that Europe. Europe would be sending missionaries as well.

Now things are almost turning back. Send missionaries back to America. Send missionaries to Europe where the foundation of Christendom was from.

Now we are sending back missionaries to Palestine, Paul's original home, the Middle east, where the gospel came out of. We are sending people there to reach out to the people for Christ. The Jewish people, the Arabs, the Asians, Spain, all that region that Paul had communicated, the know, Rome.

And now we are sending missionaries there. We need to ask ourselves, Lord, help me to effectively accomplish my ministry in the church with joy. And even as a missionary, we are accomplishing the work in the church with joy because we are part of a local church that have sent us out so that we can accomplish that duty on behalf of this church to establish those churches.

And they need to see the vision of themselves also acting the same in that body of Christ to send others and reach out to the people for Christ. He reaches to all, as the gospel says, go to all nations. Here Paul testifies to the Jews and to the Gentiles or the Greeks.

And he says, he talks. This is the content that he has done, this repentance toward God. Turn away from unto God.

Change your ways, your thinking, your philosophy of life, into the thinking of the purpose of God and his existence and his creation and the purpose he has made you for. Change your mind. Think through what God has communicated to us.

Repentance toward God. And he says, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ and placing your faith. In other words, evangelism is coming and facing a character ungodliness a culture, a lifestyle moral, ungodly living with a truth.

We have to come across people and say, this is wrong. And let me explain. The way you are living is not according to the will of God.

You are a sinner. You ought not to live the way you live, the lifestyle you live. Look at the essence and the reasoning behind it and the danger you have in your life for them to understand they are sinners.

And then explaining the love of God, the hope that is found, that their lives can be changed by the gift of God, found in Christ Jesus came send of God a gift of God for you to change your life, to give you hope beyond this life. And they see that the spirit of God walking in their lives brings conviction and draws their attention to the savior, putting their faith. Some people have faith in church, not in Christ.

They have faith in baptism. Some have faith in the dead, those who died before them, the saints. Some have different kinds of faith, and they think their lives is okay.

But God communicates the truth. When you destroy that foundation of ungodly faith and show them the true faith and the true life that is Christ, then the walking of the spirit of God draws them to place their faith in the person and the work of Christ, and they are saved. And that's what Paul is communicating to us, that that is what we should be doing.

Even as you look at the testimony of Paul, he's saying, I have done this. I have continued to do this, and you know my life. So let me pause and ask you, what have you been doing? What is your testimony? What have you been doing? Each one of us should have something to bring before others.

If we have to have a testimony today, what would we say about ourselves? Now look at the next part of the passage he mentioned from verses 22. He says, and see now, meaning he's bringing another thing. And see now I go bound in the spirit Jerusalem, not knowing the things that will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies in every city, saying that chains and tribulations await me.

But none of these things move me, nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy. And the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. And indeed, now I know that you all among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, will see me no more or see my face no more.

Therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare to you, the whole council of God. Now he turns and say, now, listen, I'm leaving you here.

You see, there is necessity. He says, there's necessity of my living. I need to leave.

It's a necessity. I must leave. The second thing you see in this part is the uncertainty of what will happen to me.

You're not sure what is that that is going to be happening in Paul's life. In other words, I have to live, and I don't know what will happen. But the spirit of God has demonstrated or communicated in a sense of the dangers that I might be facing in my life.

I might be alive. I might be killed. That's why you see that essence of communication that he says, the Holy Spirit testifies in every city, saying that chains and tribulations await me.

Oh, can you imagine if you know where you're headed? To know many people. When we talk to people and say, come to Africa. Come and spend time with us.

Reach out to people. Oh, there are snakes there. Oh, it's a dangerous place.

Oh, people know. Their streets are filled with bad boys and men, drugs and stuff. Do you know you die easily here than in Africa? The shooting the other day here in Adele, that wasn't Africa, was it? And many others.

We can list many that happened. The riots in your January 6. You say, coups in Africa.

Coups, coups. That was Africa, wasn't it? I'm challenging you because I want you to expand your understanding that what God called me to do, I should do. He is the one who protects and cares for me.

Paul understood there are dangers in preaching the truth. There are dangers everywhere, my friend. There are dangers in Des Moines.

Here, there are dangers in your neighborhood. There are deaths. There are sicknesses.

But Paul is saying, I hope you people understand I have a purpose. And this is the second thing that I want to know, to tell you that Paul not only had a testimony, but also had a purpose in life. That is why he says there in that verse 24, I count my life not dear to me.

All these things and tribulations that are ahead of me is not an issue. All these things, I count them not worthy so that I can finish my duty, my work, my ministry. He calls my race with joy.

I have a purpose to accomplish, and this is it. I need to run my race and complete it right. Kenyans, we are good runners.

So the goal a Kenyan runs. Looks at the medal. Not only that looking at the medal, but also looking at the clock.

They look at the clock and they say, hey, the champion or the world record is how many minutes. So as they run, they look at that clock and they're thinking, that record must be built, broken or right about there, Paul is saying, I ran my race. Yes, there are hurdles, there are trials, the uncertainties, their tribulations.

But I am not concerned about the problems or the hurdles and the tribulations that are common to men. Common. Even if you stay home, you'll be sick someday.

Is that right? We will. You will. And even worse, even if we keep you in the house the rest of your life, you'll still die someday.

Even if you are not exposed to any danger protected area, you still die someday and you'll be sick. You wonder where did this virus came through the building. This person has never gone to the street.

They have never exposed to somebody else. But they have colds, they are coughing, they have a backache, they have a stomach problem. All these things will happen to you.

What's your purpose in life? That's what Paul is talking about here. My purpose is to finish my race and the ministry that I have, which I received from the Lord Jesus. Thinking back when Paul received the call on his way to Damascus and Jesus says, you're persecuting my church, but I've chosen you to be my servant.

Go to Ananias. That's where he understood what it means. When Timothy.

Sorry. When Barnabas goes and calls Paul's to join them in Antioch, he knew God has called me to teach and he taught. And then Antioch says, now it's time.

The spirit of God says, send them out. I have called Barnabas and Paul to get out of here and go establish churches. And that's why he says, yeah, I have a purpose.

And the purpose is to accomplish my race with joy. That is the ministry that I have received from the Lord to testify the gospel of his grace or the grace of God. What's your duty? What's your purpose in life? What's your purpose in this church? Why are you a member of a church? What is it for? Is it for yourself? Is it just to sit and listen and go or to accomplish a purpose that God has placed you here for work, to accomplish effectively the ministry that God brought you here for and with joy.

That's what I want. I want to have joy in what I do. We enjoy establishing churches because we go to a place that is none.

No church, no baptist church. They don't have a building like this. You know, you have a wonderful building, great building.

It might not be great to you, but it's great to us. We wish we had one like this. Maybe we can exchange.

I'll show you during next hour what we have, and then we can exchange. We can take this there and you guys can have what we have. And then you realize, wow, because really, if we have a good purpose in life, we will accomplish God's will.

And each one of us, as God has placed each one of us where we need to be. But I want you to see that in this text, Paul mentions what he's going to, and he says, indeed, now I know that you all among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God will see me no more. But therefore I testify to you that I am innocent of the blood of all men or all.

For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole council. I have taught you everything. That's the washing of your hand.

It's almost looking at each one of them and saying, is there anything I never did for you? Is there any question I never answered? Pastoral, how to reach out, how to talk to elderly people, how to deal with issues of the young generation, how to deal with the elderly, how to serve, how to prepare the teaching and the preaching of God's word, to be able to build the body of Christ and edify the body of Christ. And then you read the book of Ephesians, to be able to understand what Paul had in fact communicated to them, what needed for them to put into practice and seriously work on those issues. Those are the issues almost saying, I have taught you of these things and so you're able to do the work of God.

But let me quickly tell you the third thing, as I know our time is moving quickly, is in verses 28 to 32 is his exhortation to the church, where he mentions, and he says, therefore, take heed to yourself and to the flock. Now you've seen my life, my testimony, you've seen the purpose I have in life. Now there's a purpose of my life now.

But I want you to be encouraged, exhorted to understand this. He says, take care, take heed of yourself and the flock. In other words, you cannot be effective in taking care of the flock if you as a shepherd is not careful of yourself.

You must be healthy to provide spiritual leadership to those who are not healthy. You must be able to see, to help the blind to see. Take care of yourself.

And I think, in other words, you must invest in knowing him. And he mentions there among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. With that word, overseer is really guardians, okay, guardians, your managers, not in the sense of the managing of affairs of people, but in guardians of their spiritual lives and their life in totality as the body of Christ.

And that's why he puts that word. And he adds, shepherding or being shepherd to the church, which that flock is the church. He uses those words, the church is the flock and it's also the church of God.

It belongs to God, it's not yours. And he mentions Father by saying that which he purchased. Jesus Christ purchased it with his own blood.

It is the church of Christ, is the church of God, is the body of Christ, is the flock, and you are the shepherd. And here he gives that essence of what you need to do. Invest in taking care of yourself and invest in taking care of the flock, the body of Christ.

For I know, and this is the reason he gives reasons. There are two reasons he mentioned. He says, take care, because I know after my departure, they are savage wolves, fierce wolves, those who will come to attack, who will not spare the flock, who come to despise the flock and destroy the Body of Christ.

How does that happen? Paul gives two areas, he says, among whom he mentioned, he says, and also not only those, the wolves will come in among. You will come in. And then he mentioned in verse 30 that from among yourself men also will rise up.

But look at those who are external. The threats from outside, those who come from outside, savage wolves, he calls them, will not spare the flock. These are false teachers who will pursue to end the flock, to destroy the flock.

But then he says to those who are within that those who are within will come from among yourselves. And what is wrong with that? He mentioned? He says that those from they'll come, they'll destroy from within the church itself. With a teaching of personalities.

You can see the issue of personalities. Watch over yourself. Because of those who are coming from outside and from those who are within, they will destroy the church.

Those within would draw the church, the disciples, to themselves. And we've seen many in churches who want people to follow them. They become divisive in the church and says, guard yourself.

Not only about those, but even yourself. You can be tempted to be one of them, the one who wants people to follow. You want people to love.

You want people to do things because you are the guide. And that's why we keep on reminding our churches. We don't establish church on personality issues.

A pastor should not be a pastor for personality issues. Because when you leave, you want the church to remain faithful to the word of God, to the truth, to the ministry of God. And that's what he communicates here.

He exhorts them to be able to do that. And then he says, you are not able to do it yourself. In your own, on your own.

Look at that vast that he commends them to God in verse 32. So now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among those who are sanctified. Only God alone, my dear brethren, God alone will sustain you.

Only God alone is the builder of the church. Using you, only God alone will give you the power and the ability and the will to accomplish his will. Just be faithful.

Watch on yourself. Guard yourself. Protect the body of Christ, the church.

You know, there are members of church who talk about their church with even non members. They talk about their church even with unbelievers. Oh, you know, even my pastor or pastor doesn't even, you know, even our church, they don't do this.

Even our church, they don't do that, even our church, they don't have this fellowship that you guys have. They don't have the youth ministry or they don't have this under school class, or they don't have this. You start it.

Come do it. Is that right? That's your ministry. There is a loophole in the church.

Join in. You're part of it. Build it up.

Those are the problems the churches face because people have refused to see that we are one body and each one of us has a role to accomplish the will of God, to accomplish the purpose of God, to finish the race and accomplish this ministry with joy. That's why you have no joy. That's why many people in churches don't have joy.

They go to church, but they don't have joy. Complain, complain, complain. Paul says, hey, we need to remind ourselves to be encouraged, we must labor.

And so we need to move and love the work of God and serve God dearly. That's why he says there, he says, not only I commend you to him, but rely on the word of God. Don't rely on your mind, on your philosophy, on the ideology of the people of the world.

Look at the scriptures that will build you individually. It will build you as a church. The word of God will always build us as a church and also individually.

I wish the churches today would read this text and really wrestle with it and say, God, we have sinned against you and we are asking for your mercy, forgiveness and care. The Lord help us as we move out there. We want to serve you faithfully, encouraging and building one another, because out of these, he says, you will be able to build up, build yourself up.

And also, he says, you'll be able to give. It will give you inheritance. Among all those who are sanctified, you're not alone.

There are many, many brothers and sisters in Christ, not only among yourself, knowing that you have inheritance that you share, not only then when we are in the presence of the Lord, but there are many, many encouragement of brothers and sisters around the world. There are people in Kenya who are your brothers and sisters, and you'll see them one day and you're able to say, praise be the name of God. You share in the same.

And I hope God will bless your life and our life together as we think through these passages and wrestle with it. And if you may, the last few verses talks about Paul's dependence, his dependence, his dependence on God. And he mentioned in verse 33 where he says, I have coveted nothing.

In verse attaches. 32, I have coveted nothing. I have depended on God.

We think of resources mostly and say, how do I live my life? How do I serve God? How do I do this and that depend on God. Paul says, look at verse 35 where he says, not only in 33 where he says, I have coveted no one silver or coal or gold or apparel. Look at verse 35.

I have shown you in every way, by laboring like this, that you must support the weak. He talks about giving financial support that Paul even himself received from churches he worked so hard and times he labored, even tent making, to support himself. But you look at all this, and it ended up in verse 37 and eight where he said goodbye.

And what happened? They wept. They wept. Beloved, let me mention to you that if you do your work effectively in this ministry, that God has called you the church, and joyfully, there will be pain when you leave.

There will be pain when you are leaving, when you are leaving the region, the church, when you are dying, people will weep. They will cry. And it's not because of anything, because of the words you say.

It says there because it is true. That is very true of you. Your life, your testimony is true.

You never, never held anything against us. You never held anything good that was profitable to us. Back.

You are out there for us in public and in private. You are always there. You invested in us.

Your testimony speaks. Your purpose speaks. Yes, we saw you do your work diligently.

You never caved. You never shied. You did your job.

And you know why that would be true also, people seated in there saying, yes, I got saved because of you. I am serving today because of you. And you're living and you died.

You mean a lot to me. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, for your goodness.

Thank you for your work in our hearts and lives. Thank you for the minister. God, you've given to us.

How I pray that God help us just like Paul. That God, we will run the race and finish the race and the ministry that, God, you've given to us with joy that we'll effectively accomplish that duty that you've given to us. That our testimony will reflect the purpose that God, you've given to us and the reason why we exist on earth, to be the proclaimers and the teachers of good things and the word of truth, the gospel and the grace of God.

Lord, please help us. Many people around us are dying and they are in sin, Lord, enjoying the life of wretchedness. The Lord, I pray that you put the passion and the will and the commitment to reach out to men and women of all kinds, all colors of people that God, they might come to know.

Christ. We have the opportunities, as Paul did. We have the resources that God, you've given to us as Paul did.

Lord, there's nothing holding us back apart from our pride, our love for ourselves, the desires that God we look great and good and respected by people. We don't do things with humility. Lord, I pray that you help us.

I want you to pray for yourself. Please pray for yourself. Examine your own heart.

Please examine your own heart. What is God called you to do? Are you doing God's work? Are you accomplishing the reason why you exist in this church? What about those who do not know Christ? I pray that God will help you as you respond to that truth, to repent, to trust him, to commit yourself to the work, and God will bless your ministry. Thank you, Lord, again for who you are.

In Jesus name. Amen. Doing our ministry, the ministry God has given us with joy, reaching out to people, sharing the gospel with them, ministering in the church.