A Door Opened to Serve the Lord

Well, we are here in a very exciting time of year, as we are at the spring and holy days. We've completed the Passover and, of course, the Days of Unleavened Bread. We now turn our focus on to the Festival of Pentecost. We're going to get a little bit more into that, but today we're going to talk about one aspect of Pentecost. And as we join and are brought into the family of God, into His Church, we are also brought into a great opportunity.

So the title of our sermon today, A Door Opened to Serve the Lord. A Door Opened to Serve the Lord. And I invite you to open your Bibles. And let's turn to 1 Corinthians 16, verses 5 through 12. 1 Corinthians 16, verse 5 through 12. This will be our place of departure here. And this is where we'll find that reference to a door which has been opened.

It was a door that was opened to the Apostle Paul. And I want you to know that it's a door that's opened to every individual at the moment that he or she is brought into God's Church. Once becoming part of God's Church, an individual is to walk through this door. What door is it? Well, it's a door which leads us in service to God. It's a door that takes us to do His work. Doing the Lord's work. Service to God. This is the door that we're all to pass through.

We're going to read this passage here and we're going to see that as Paul moves around the different cities, we're going to see he moves through Macedonia, Ephesus, all the surrounding cities, he's doing just that. He's doing God's work in all these different places. And he describes a door. And what he's referring to is it's an opportunity.

An opportunity. It's been open to him to serve in the Lord's work. We'll see that he describes it rather colorfully as a great and effective door, he says. So, 1 Corinthians 16 beginning in verse 5. Now, Paul says, I will come to you when I pass through Macedonia, for I'm passing through Macedonia, and it may be that I will remain or even spend the winter with you, that you may send me on my journey wherever I go.

For I do not wish to see you now on the way, but I hope to stay a while with you. And if the Lord permits, verse 8. But I will tarry in Ephesus until Pentecost. We see the early church observing Pentecost. But I will tarry with you in Ephesus until Pentecost. Verse 9. For a great and effective door has opened to me. And there are many adversaries. Verse 10. And if Timothy comes, see that he may be with you without fear.

For he does the work of the Lord, as I also do. Therefore, do not let no one despise him, but send him on his journey in peace, that he may come to me. For I am waiting for him with the brethren. Verse 12. Now, concerning our brother, Apollos, I strongly urged him to come to you with the brethren. But he was quite unwilling to come at this time.

However, he will come when he has a convenient time. Let's stop there. You can see, I love this letter. Anytime you read these letters, you realize they're writing to specific people. These are real people that they're writing to. And you can almost see the very humanity there in his words. So we are, in a few weeks, going to be celebrating the feast day of Pentecost. Pentecost, which celebrates the beginning of God's church. God's church, you know that word church, simply means the collection of men and women to whom God has called and brought together.

So again, brought together for what? Brought together to accomplish his work, the Lord's work, here on earth. Once again, when we become part of God's church, the individual, he or she understands that they're instantly then called to dedicate themselves to the service of the Lord.

I'm going to make that clear. In his earthly walk, we know that Jesus Christ himself demonstrated this very thing. He demonstrated the loving, humble attitude of work, the work of service to his father, and he expected his followers to follow his footsteps. And service to God's work was Paul's primary focus.

So here at the end of 1 Corinthians 16, now he's drawing to a close his first letter to the Corinthians. And what he does for us here in this passage, and we're going to see throughout this letter, is that he provides to us somewhat inadvertently an incredible perspective on the service and ministry that all of God's people are called to. When we delve into this passage, into the surrounding passages, we're going to realize that he's writing to us. He's writing to a specific people, a group of people at a real point in time, at a real place in time. He was writing to moms and dads. He was writing to grandparents. He was writing to singles, students, artisans, athletes. That's us. All of them going through the rough and tumble of the day, trying to get their way through life in the same way we are this afternoon. And so, although they were in Corinth and we're in Tennessee, and although they were AD 53 or so, and we're 2019, and we're separated by geography and time, these words are as relevant to us as they were then, especially regarding this issue of service to God. So let me start by just stating a few facts, a few facts regarding our service to the Lord's work. This will help establish a foundation for us to stand on for our study. First fact, as we begin to discuss service to God's work, it's important for us to understand that it's not that some are called to Christ and then go on to service, but it is to be called by Christ is to be called to service. Okay? In other words, from the time that God's church began on Pentecost, God doesn't invite some to be servants, others to be served. Rather, He calls us all to be servants. Whether we're in the capacity of an elder, a deacon, a pastor, or whether we're called to the whole variety of service within the body of Jesus Christ, all are called to serve. One of the first things we want to make clear is that any distinction between those who are full-time servants and those who are lay servants, lay, we get that word from the Greek word leos, just simply means people, in particular, people of God. Any distinction that we compare between full-time servants, lay servants, it's a distinction not of value. Rather, it's a distinction of function. Always. So the distinction is never of value, it's always of function. We're all called to serve the Lord.

The second fact to mention in service, as far as biblical terms, is service is not a pathway to greatness.

Service is greatness. Service is greatness. It's not a pathway to greatness. We won't turn there, but you can write this down for reference later. Mark 10 verse 45. Mark 10 verse 45 says, the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve. Speaking of Jesus Christ, the Great One, the Almighty One, Jesus Christ, came to serve. By doing so, He exalted service. He showed us that service itself is greatness. It's to be exalted. I was thinking about that. I don't know if you've ever been in a restaurant, and maybe you have a waiter or waitress that is particularly talkative, and you ask them, oh well, what are you doing outside of this? And that question is, there's always an assumption that if you're a waiter or a waitress, you're always working to something quote, bigger or better. You know, oh, I'm sure you're going to college and you're trying to work up somewhere, or I'm sure this is just a job until you can get a better job. And we're always struck, or I'm always struck, when the person says, no, this is where I am at. This is my job. I love this. In fact, this is my livelihood. And they might even say, this is my calling. And in a sense, that's who we are. Service is our calling. Service in ministry, in the Lord's work, we shouldn't look at it as a gateway to something else.

And when I say ministry, we all have a ministry, every one of us. And we're going to kind of pull that out today. Ministry and service, they're words in Scripture that can be used interchangeably.

Service and ministry, it's not to be used as a step up, a few rungs. Service is our destination. So it's not, from a world's cultural point of view, their thinking is, I'm doing this to get a few rungs up on the ladder so that eventually I can have other people serving me. And then you'll know how great I am by the number of people that are serving me. And I kind of just do less work. If I get to the top, it's kind of the world's mindset. But Jesus says, no, that's their view. That's the world culture view. I want you to know that he who wants to be great among you must first become a servant to all. That's, if you want to look that up later, Matthew 20 verse 26. He who wants to be great among you should first become servant to all. So it is in the expression of service is where it's at. That's the greatness. Why? Why is service great? Service great? Well, just as we saw with Jesus Christ and his example, we know that if Christ is living in us, service is great because it's displaying him. It's displaying his attributes, his character as they flow through us.

So that's just a few facts to begin our study for us to stand on a solid foundation as we delve into this topic of service and ministry and doing the Lord's work. Paul clearly understood these truths. If you look here at 1 Corinthians 16 again, have your eyes go back to verse 8. We see that this moment comes just before the day of Pentecost, kind of where we're at right now. Verse 8, it says, he tarried in Ephesus until Pentecost. So he paused in this city. I believe that maybe Paul had the principles of Pentecost and the deep meaning of Pentecost on his mind at the forefront as he wrote this. He no doubt knows that the meaning of Pentecost is so rich. It's the day in which the Holy Spirit was made available in large to those to whom God would call. And that the power then, Jesus Christ's power, would be living in God's people. And it was the power that that powered him. And it's the power that powers us. And with that then, verse 9, that he would begin to have these great and effective doors of service open to him. He'd begin to have these great and effective doors opened to do the Lord's work, opened up regarding ministry and service. These doors were certainly opening for Paul and those who were with Paul in the work. And he recognized it was a great and effective door that was open to him in Ephesus here. So as Paul closes this letter, and I believe if we look at the 1st Corinthians letter today, we're going to see that there's an incredible perspective given to us with regards to us doing the Lord's work. So let's go through and pull out from Scripture in this first letter in this passage three simple understandings regarding our call to service. So as we think about all that the power of the Holy Spirit is to do for us, these are the three essential understandings for us to have as we look to be released into service and in doing the Lord's work. Number one, number one point to consider regarding our call to service. Number one is the understanding that our service, it is the Lord's work and not ours.

Simple, but we'll see profound here in a moment. The understanding that it is the Lord's work and not ours. In other words, this work that we engage in, this service, this ministry, it's ultimately not ours. Ministry and service that we're called to, that we're all involved in, it's the Lord's ministry, it's the Lord's service, it's the Lord's work. And this comes to us here in verse 10. Look at this. 1 Corinthians 16 and look at verse 10 here. He's referring to Timothy and what Timothy is doing. And Paul says in verse 10, and if Timothy comes, see that he may be with you without fear. Notice, for he does the work of the Lord as I also do.

So Timothy's carrying on the work of the Lord just as Paul was. Ergon kure u argazetai. Try that one.

It's the Greek word and the phrase is, works of the Lord, he works. So that's what Paul was referring to Timothy. He says, works of the Lord, he works. So Paul is saying, you want to know what Timothy's doing. He's not establishing his name. He's not establishing the Timothy ministry. He's not doing his own work. No, he's doing the works of the Lord, he works.

Now, see this. Go back a few verses here. Look at verse 58 in the previous chapter. So 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 58 here. You see this phrase all throughout this letter. It's quite profound. It's quite an understanding that Paul had. It was important to him. 1 Corinthians 15 verse 58. It says, therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. So how can you ensure that your labor is not in vain? Well, you got to make sure it's in the Lord here.

These are the works of the Lord. So you may ask, what are the works of the Lord? Well, when you become a first fruit, if God is working with you, he's called you, that is your occupation. So you may be going to school, but you're a first fruit who's a student. You may be an engineer, and someone asks you who you are, what you do. You say, well, I'm a first fruit who's in the engineering business. You're a first fruit, first, first, and foremost. So everything you do, all of your labor, everything you put your hand to, that's the Lord's work.

So our labor, it is in the serving of both those in the body of Christ, those outside the body of the Christ. Eventually, all will have an opportunity to become God's children. So it's in the fact that every day we pray and we try to position ourselves in such a way that we might effectively be involved in activities of the gospel. How many of us each day, each morning, are saying, Father, I want to be a part of your work. I want to do your work. Help me today to do so. Allow me to position myself in such a way to be involved in the activities of the gospel. We have been brought into God's church to be involved in helping God spread his word, spreading the seed of the good news of the coming kingdom of God. I don't know if some of us truly get that. We gotta truly get that. Maybe we're missing the fact that you specifically put your name here. You specifically and uniquely have been appointed to a specific task of allowing the light and the truth and the power of Jesus Christ to go forth. Through the light and the truth and the power of Jesus Christ is supposed to invade us. And then, as it comes through us, it allows other people to see the light, the power, and the truth through us. As others encounter us in our jobs, in the way we fulfill opportunities, in the way we respond to the million different conflicts and situations that we face, in the way that we answer questions when we're asked for the reason of the hope that's within us.

One thing to see about Paul, and this is really important, is to notice that he viewed the Corinthians themselves. He actually saw them, all of it, and all that he was doing in light of the Lord's work. All of it. He had this perspective. Turn back with me some more here in this letter to chapter 9. So 1 Corinthians chapter 9. I want you to look how he describes God's people in relation to his own activity in God's work. I think this is very interesting here. It's a crucial aspect of our activity in doing the Lord's work. So 1 Corinthians chapter 9. Look at verse 1. Let's look at verse 1. 1 Corinthians 9 verse 1. He says to them, Am I not an apostle? Am I not free? Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? Now notice this. Are you not my work in the Lord?

And then verse 2, If I am not an apostle to others, Notice, so stop there. Again, last part of verse 1. Think about our activity in doing the Lord's work. The very existence of the Corinthian church was due to the fact that Paul was doing the Lord's work there. Think of that. The very existence of the church was due to Paul doing the work of the Lord there. So Paul isn't irrelevant, is he? He's not preeminent, but he's not irrelevant either. God purposefully appointed a specific responsibility to Paul. Paul was called to a specific responsibility in terms of ministry and service. I want to tell you in the same way in which God purposefully appoints you to a specific aspect of the Lord's work.

Once God has drawn you close, he's filled you with his Holy Spirit. He's given you the ability, he then releases you to do a work. That's the way God has ordained it. He could have, by fiat, come in and moved all this situation around. But how has he chosen to do it? If we don't do it individually, who will? God has appointed it to his firstfruits to do his work. He gives them the admonition, this is what you have to do, and then he gives them the ability by giving the Holy Spirit.

So this afternoon, you ought to ask yourself, so where am I in relation to the particular and specific task of shining out and declaring the truth of the gospel? You ought to ask yourself, you ought to acknowledge, I understand that I haven't been called to simply sit.

I haven't been called to simply absorb. We do absorb our daily Bible study here at Services. Not simply that. We're not called to simply do that. Rather, you sit here in the fold of God's church, the church that was established on that great feast of Pentecost, and you sit here powered by the Holy Spirit. And I'm here to tell you, just as Paul, a great and effective door has been opened to you. It's a door of service, service in the work of the Lord. So again, you ask, I ask, where am I in terms of utilizing this effective door which has been opened up to me?

Again, the Corinthians were a product of Paul's work in the Lord. You know, it's no doubt that Paul keeps repeating that term throughout this letter. You will see he understood he was doing a work. He's not irrelevant, but he's not preeminent. It's the Lord's work. If you go back a few more chapters, we see this classic truth of this, the classic statement of this truth. Let's turn back to chapter three. So 1 Corinthians chapter three in verse five. Here is the classic statement of this truth here. 1 Corinthians 3 verse 5. Let me give you a little context here before we read this. There was a problem in the Corinthian church. There were lots of problems in the Corinthian church. One of the problems, though, was that they began to form circles around personalities. So they began to, certain ones began to form circles around individuals of the pasturing team, if you want to say at that time. Some would say, you know, Apollos, he's my guy. I love listening to him. Some would say, no, Paul, I'm a Paul guy. Others, I'm a Cephas. Apollos and Paul, they weren't trying to get these groups to circle around them, but it's just human nature. Paul wanted to reset their thinking and have them think correctly on these matters and to bring forth this first point. We're doing the Lord's work. And if you know you're doing the Lord's work, you're not circling around anyone. Look at this. 1 Corinthians 3 verse 5, Paul says, Who then is Paul? Who is Apollos? But ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one. He always capstones these statements with that fact. So that's the question, is it? Who are we? Society is preoccupied with that, with who.

But who does God say we are? Who is Apollos? Who is Paul? Again, verse 5, they're ministers through whom you believed. It's true. They're doing a work as the Lord gave to each one. He says. So they weren't simply fulfilling. They were just simply fulfilling tasks that were given to them.

And in doing so, we have these results.

You know, the Lord gave them these tasks. They're simply fulfilling it according to their gifts, their talents, their abilities. So Paul, Apollos, any of these guys, they didn't have any reason to glorify in themselves at all. They were just being obedient to Jesus Christ. Jesus told Paul, you're to be an instrument, to bear his name to the Gentiles. So Paul said, well, I better go be an instrument to bear his name before the Gentiles. And the only reason I do what I do is the Lord assigned me to the task.

That's what I'm to do. Furthermore, it's true of Apollos. Look at verse 6. Look at verse 6, staying here in chapter 3, verse 6. He says, I planted, Apollos watered. But here we go. He always capstones it. But God gave the increase.

So I did the job of planting. Apollos did watering in the same way we give up responsibilities at the house, between a husband and wife, let's say, in the same way our wives wished we divvied up the task in the house. But then for me to walk down the bed, the flower bed, and to say, look at all those plants I planted, you know, and then for my wife to come behind me and say, yeah, but look at all that I had to water them. You know, if I didn't water them, you wouldn't have much of a plant. Yeah, well, if I didn't plant them, you would have none of the water.

And we come to the understanding then that if God didn't make them grow, we'd both be looking at nothing. That's verse 7. Look at verse 7. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. It's the Lord's work God gave to each one. God gives the growth. He gives the increase, it says here. So in being the Lord's work, if you think about that, Paul then wouldn't have any reason to be particularly excited in himself when the church was growing. And the Corinthian church was growing. He wouldn't have any particular reason to be excited in himself.

Conversely, he wouldn't have to have a particular discouragement in himself either. If he was doing God's work and they were still fighting and quarreling, which they were, he wouldn't have had a particular reason to be discouraged in himself if he was doing the Lord's work. Because I want you to notice verse 8. Look at verse 8.

Now he who plants, verse 8, and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor.

Now some people read this scripture and they want to say, now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own success. It doesn't say success, does it?

It's not that each one is rewarded according to their own success. Rewards aren't according to success. Rather, rewards are based upon labor. Labor.

Why aren't spiritual rewards based on success?

Well, it's because it's ultimately not our work, is it? The Lord decides to increase.

So you and I ultimately need to worry about what? We need to worry about laboring. Laboring. Are you laboring?

So the ministry and service to which we're called, to which we're all involved, it's the Lord's work. It's the Lord's work.

Not ours. So that's number one. Let's go to the second principle here. Number two principle. As we think about our service to the Lord's work, second principle is that the Lord uses a variety of people to accomplish his work. The Lord uses a variety of people to accomplish his work. Paul understood this. We understand this. We look around and we see the variety of people to whom God is called to his work.

I think this is no understatement when I say we're all distinct. We're all different, as it's to be. But we're all vital, vital to the work of God. Paul knew he wasn't some kind of one-man band.

Maybe some of you have seen one. I've seen pictures of the one-man bands. You know what I'm talking about? They have these drums on their back and they've got a keyboard strapped to their head. I don't know. Some cymbals over here. They move this way and it clings this way. They get a little burp burp or something on their side. I don't know. The one-man band. They even have something on their feet. I've seen. Paul knew he wasn't a one-man band. He shows he understood by what we just read just a moment ago, acknowledging Apollos' key role in the work. Pointing out a joint effort, didn't he? He plants, but he says Apollos waters.

It's a pretty fascinating thing that Paul would say these words. Because at that time, in the Corinthians, there was a lot of territorialism. If you know what I mean. There was a lot of the potential of jarring for who's important and who's getting the most followers. This was no short matter for Paul to acknowledge Apollos in this way and to bring Apollos up to him equal. I plant, but Apollos waters. You see what Paul was doing there? He was expressing that he understood this second principle. God calls a variety of different people to do the work. It's not just a one-man, one-woman, job. If he was looking out for his own interest, or if he didn't understand the second principle, selfishly, he could have made sure that Apollos never came back to Corinth. They might like his watering better than his planting. But what would keep him from that response would be the fact that he understood principle one. It's the Lord's work, and he understood principle two. God uses a variety of people. Ultimately, we're all laboring together, and we're just praying for God to put forth the increase. He knew God's work is multi, diverse, all different kinds of men and women, a variety of people.

Again, if he would have been preoccupied that they would like his planting more than Apollos' watering, he would have made sure that Apollos never came back to water. He'd have been fearful of the impact. Someone might get a little bit more attention or focus, but Paul understood that God uses a variety of people. They don't all look the same. They don't act the same. They don't have all the same gifts, but they all contribute to God's ministry in the same sense. I want you to know today, I want you to view yourself in the eyes of Paul here. View yourself in the eyes of Scripture here. That God has called you to a specific purpose. You, uniquely. There's a work that none but you can do. No one has your particular sphere of influence. I can't affect the people in your sphere of influence. I can't do that. Only you can. No one else can. So what are you doing with the work with what God's given you? Are you laboring?

I wonder if you believe that you have a work to do that only you can do. Don't fall into the trap of the work of the Lord is for the ministry to fulfill. Full-time servants, you know.

I wonder if you knew what those who have this role as a pastor, let's say, or as an elder, I wonder if you know what our job is. Do you know what our specific job is? Our specific job. Our specific job is to open you up and empower you to service and empower you to ministry. That's our job. I'll show you that. Ephesians 4 verse 11 and 12. Ephesians 4 verse 11 and 12. If you have the opportunity to be a lay member, never consider yourself as any less value. It's always never less value. It's just different context in your ministry. I hope this is eye-opening to you. Look at this. Ephesians 4, let's look at verse 11 and 12. There's a work for you to do in the Lord. Ephesians 4 verse 11 and 12. Look at what my job is. He says, and he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers. Verse 12, notice, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. Let's stop there. Did you hear that? So we list all these ordained men, right? All these different roles here. Why are they put into those positions? Why am I in this position? For the purpose of equipping you for the work of the ministry. Again, God ordains some people. You see the list here for the purpose of equipping you. You're the work of the ministry. I hope you see that he's saying that. He doesn't give some to accomplish the Lord's work. Rather, those who are ordained put into that position, they are put there to enable the congregation to do the work of the ministry. That's what my job is. To prepare and to empower you. I'm not empowering you. I just want to let you know who you are. I want to remind you who you are in the Lord. Remind you who you are in Christ. Remind you that you're empowered by the Holy Spirit. There's a great and effective door that's been open to you.

So where are you in the work of the Lord?

One of the reasons people don't enter into this focus is that they feel fearful.

There would have been some real intimidating characters in Corinth, for sure. Big mouths, loud mouths, strong arms. As Timothy was stepping up to his role more and more, and as he's making his way to Corinth, you can just imagine what he was thinking. They had turned outside down his mentor, Paul. If they had pulverized him, imagine what they're going to do to me. Timothy would have been saying, as he's stepping up into where God was leading him. Fear of rejection, failure. It's one of the great debilitating factors of being involved in service. I can't step up. I might be rejected. I might not be accepted. I won't be as successful as I think I should be. I won't step up to my own standards. I might not look good. I might, you know, blah, blah, blah. All that. And I want to tell you to say, I want to say, listen, God has put his hand upon you. He's brought you close to him. He's empowered you. And now he's released you.

I have to do this. Accept your limitations. You can't do everything. But assume your responsibilities. You can do something. Very important.

Don't let the evil one tell you that because you're young, frail, timid, that's someone else's job. Or if you're old, frail and timid, you know, don't listen to that, those thoughts. Because again, if you think back to the first point, rewards are not based on success. What are they based on? Laboring. Stepping up. Personal laboring. Most of us will live our lives without knowing very much beyond our immediate circle of influence. That's true. Most of us won't know more, much more, than our immediate circle of influence. And if that's all, that's enough. That's where God has placed you.

And if you're laboring, He may increase the circle of influence a little bit. Increase, increase.

If you're praying, you say, I want to labor. When I've done this, and I've done it more in the past, and this is a great reminder to me, when I've prayed and focused on this, inevitably, God's brought people in my path. And I'm just thinking, wow, He's brought them there. And they've come to me and they've asked for help in some way or not. They're looking for answers, ultimately.

And God brought them to me. Why? Because I was praying, I was looking, I was wanting to labor in the Lord. Have you answered the great and effective door which has been open to you? All right, so number one, we know it's the Lord's work. Number two, He's a variety of people. Number three, in our final point, and we'll be working to a conclusion soon, the third and final point is, there is no ideal place to serve God. There's no ideal place to serve God. I'm guilty of this. You know, you sometimes think, if I can just get to this point in my life, if I can just get past this, then I'm going to be in a position to do more. There's no ideal place to serve the Lord. You're ready to serve Him now. As we read back in 1 Corinthians 16, we read that Paul was talking about traveling to all these cities, Macedonia, Ephesus. I'm going to go over here for a while. I'm just going to pass through you. I hope to come back soon. I'm going to tarry. I'm going to pause here, you know, and so forth. And I love Paul because of this, because he was always thinking. He was moving forward, and doing the Lord's work was foremost on his mind. He wasn't static. He's almost like a Christian general, you know. He's pouring over the map of spiritual, the landscape.

He's sending out his Christian soldiers, if you will.

Let's go over here. Maybe let's go to Ephesus, go to Corinth. Maybe we'll go to Iconium, Lystra. No, let's go back to Darby, you know. Go, go, go.

Look at Acts chapter 14. We'll see a few more of these cities listed. Acts 14, and we're going to... Acts 14 in verse 5 through 7, we see that this was not the ideal place for Paul to do the Lord's work, but he didn't stop him because he knew there is no ideal place. And sometimes the place that you assume is not the place is exactly the place he wants you to do the work. So look at Acts 14, verse 5 through 7. You know, God chooses the places for us to be. It's not suited for convenience. Look at this passage here. This is speaking of Paul. He's with Barnabas now as they move city to city.

Acts 14, verse 5, it says, And when a violent attempt was made by both the Gentiles and the Jews, with their rulers to abuse and stone them, they became aware of it and fled to Lystra and Derby, cities of Lake Ionia and to the surrounding region, and they were preaching the gospel there. So let's stop there. How's it going over there? Well, that place didn't work out. We're going to Lystra and Derby, you know. Let your eyes go down to verse 19. Verse 19. Then the Jews of Antioch and Iconium came there, and having persuaded the multitudes, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing him to be dead. This was not an ideal place, was it? To do the Lord's work. So think about it in your life. You may be pulling back from a situation and thinking this isn't the ideal place, and it might be the very ideal place. Because we go through spiritual stonings, if you will, and we have these relationships, and we pull back from doing the Lord's work in that area, even though we might be prompted to do so, to say something, to engage in a conversation. Because we figure it's not the ideal place. Well, Paul, all he dealt with, it seems, was not ideal places. But he was in the thick of the battle, the thick of the Lord's work. And he was always planning and moving and looking and I'm sure praying. A great door of opportunity opened to him in the midst of this opposition.

So as we conclude, let's turn back to our original passage of Scripture, and back to that one verse. 1 Corinthians 16 and verse 9. 1 Corinthians 16 and verse 9. Let's read these words again as we think about this third principle. Paul accepted the challenges and the oppositions. And his mindset was these aren't hindrances, they're opportunities. And again, we have this amazing paradoxical statement here in the midst of all this that he was going through. Look at this. 1 Corinthians 16 verse 9. 1 Corinthians 16 verse 9. He says, in the midst of all this, for a great and effective door has been opened to me, and there are many adversaries. So he's going to tarry. He's going to hang out. He's going to see what God's going to bring him in this city. It's amazing. Great opportunity, great opposition. Paul did an incredible amount of work through Paul in the most unidealistic places. Ephesus, can you imagine? Full of paganism and idolatry and even the occult and superstition and sexual immorality. And he says, I'm going to stay here for a while. There's a great and effective door being opened to me. Where are we today? Where are we? We're in Ephesus, really, in many ways.

We're here today where God has placed us in our service and ministry to God to do the work of the Lord. So I hope as we think about, and just as Paul was, as we think about the Pentecost upcoming, that our mind goes to these things. We've been brought into God's church for the purpose of releasing us, for God to do a work through us. So let's pray that we all always acknowledge and understand that it's the Lord's work, not us. That'll release us from fear and anxiety. It's the Lord's work. It'll release us from getting a big head if there's any success. It's very effective. It's the Lord's work. Let's pray that we see the value that we have. God has called you uniquely, specifically, young, old. Your unique abilities. God has called you and placed you in the fold of God's church.

And let's pray that we never hesitate because we feel like this isn't an ideal place that we're in. Because it may well be the perfect place. So may we all enter into this great and effective door, which has been open to us.