“Therefore seeing we have this ministry” 2 Corinthians 4:1
Our Lord has chosen the ministry of preaching His Word to be the means of calling His people to Himself. It was the ministry of the gospel that called us to Him. The Lord raises up preachers and congregations of people to minister His Word, and through His ministries, He brings each one of His chosen people to hear and believe His Word; quickening us to life BY that Word. Because of that, may the Lord God enable us to say along with the apostle Paul, “...None of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20:24). May it be said of us, along with Stephanas and his whole house, “They have addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints” (1 Cor. 16:15).May our “hearts desire and prayer to God for (Kingsport, and wherever the message may reach) be, that they might be saved” (Rom. 10:1).
“How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent?...” (Rom. 10:14,15).“...All things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation” (2 Cor. 5:18). Therefore let’s “Give no offence in any thing, that the ministry be not blamed” (2 Cor. 6:3).
By the free gift of His grace, we are His people. By the authority of His Spirit, we preach His gospel directly from His Word. It is all by His power. It is all according to His will, and it is all for His glory! “Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, (may our Lord enable us to) faint not” (2 Cor. 4:1). The message of the finished work of Christ is the one thing needful. Let’s spend the rest of our lives telling men and women that.