Working Together with God

Scripture: 2 Corinthians 6:1-13

2 Corinthians 6:1–13 NLT

As God’s partners,* we beg you not to accept this marvelous gift of God’s kindness and then ignore it. For God says, “At just the right time, I heard you. On the day of salvation, I helped you.”* Indeed, the “right time” is now. Today is the day of salvation. We live in such a way that no one will stumble because of us, and no one will find fault with our ministry. In everything we do, we show that we are true ministers of God. We patiently endure troubles and hardships and calamities of every kind. We have been beaten, been put in prison, faced angry mobs, worked to exhaustion, endured sleepless nights, and gone without food. We prove ourselves by our purity, our understanding, our patience, our kindness, by the Holy Spirit within us,* and by our sincere love. We faithfully preach the truth. God’s power is working in us. We use the weapons of righteousness in the right hand for attack and the left hand for defense. We serve God whether people honor us or despise us, whether they slander us or praise us. We are honest, but they call us impostors. We are ignored, even though we are well known. We live close to death, but we are still alive. We have been beaten, but we have not been killed. Our hearts ache, but we always have joy. We are poor, but we give spiritual riches to others. We own nothing, and yet we have everything. Oh, dear Corinthian friends! We have spoken honestly with you, and our hearts are open to you. There is no lack of love on our part, but you have withheld your love from us. I am asking you to respond as if you were my own children. Open your hearts to us!

Our Partnership with God

Was Paul replaceable? The apostle Paul was a unique person. He helped start many churches in the Gentile nations. He wrote or dictated more of the New Testament than any other individual. Paul was responsible for helping set some of the basic beliefs of our faith and traditions of the Church. Paul was and indispensible apostle of the Christian faith. His letters to Corinth stand out as primers on what it means to be the Church. Full of practical insight on real-life problems, 1 Corinthians taught the people of Corinth what it meant to be the Body of Christ in their local community. 2 Corinthians expanded on that work and helped them expand their influence beyond Corinth and impact the rest of the world. It is also one of the best examples of fund-raising letters from the early church that we have available to us. But this means that Paul was indeed replaceable. By the time he wrote any of these letters, he had already been replaced several times by new pastors and teachers traveling through Greece and Asia Minor. He still knew and cared about the people of that church, but the relationship he had with them changed. It changed so that they could grow. That growth was not automatic though. It was contingent upon them staying the course and fulfilling the comission that Paul passed on to them from Jesus. It wasn't easy for them and it is not easy for us. It is work. But you won't find the kind of work satisfaction in anything else like being the people of God. Paul calls HImself a "partner" with God in ministry, which means that every ministry has a part that God does and a part that we do.

Thesis: Knowing the difference and being faithful to your part is important for the success of any ministry, so today, I'm going to share some of what we have accomplished in the past two short years with you.

Working with God

Point 1: Accomplishment

2019 was a whirlwind, and in many ways it was more challenging for us than 2020. You may have forgotten because so much has changed since then, but we were having all kinds of problems with A/C, Furnaces, and raising funds to pay our bills while keeping everything going. It was a challenge getting to know everyone in those months because most of the time we were together, it was me and the music folks doing the talking and singing. I some of you struggle to hear me from time to time up here, but I always struggle to hear you on Sunday mornings. We started passing the microphone around on Wednesday evenings to help your voices be heard with the prayers and praises you had to share. "Leaders are coming out of the woodwork!" was one of the comments made in those first few months. We put them to work. We rebuilt the Trustees with the help of both Wayne and Carole, brought in some new team members, and began tackling the property issues that were plaguing us. At the same time we brought in Gary and did some intentional work scaling back our spending and finding ways to thank you all for investing in our ministry together. We were all in this together before that was even a popular thing to say. While we were reworking some of the administration of our church and learning the stories and history of the ministries here, we were also bringing in some new folks and connecting them into Sunday school and bible study. At the same time, we were working with the Sunday School and small group leaders, digging deep into some of the relational spiritual disciplines like forgiveness and restitution, peacemaking, humility, and other ways we put our bible reading and prayers to work in relationships with each other. We did a whole sermon series on being relational with each other right as the pandemic hit us. I look back on that work and am so thankful we had the pieces in place when it happened. Without the Finance and Trustees in place and working hard in 2020, we would have been lost. We are able to be open today because of the work they started in 2019. We kept people together through cards, phone calls, zoom meetings, and personal visits, and really got to know one another better than we would have getting lost in the Sunday morning crowds. We never stopped having worship on Sunday mornings or Bible Studies on Wednesday nights in some form or fashion. Was it difficult? Yes. Was it ideal? No. Did God lead us through it one step at a time? Definitely. Then we launched some new small groups in the middle of the pandemic, allowing space for some of our newer folks to join in and be formed into disciples themselves.

It was the right time and God showed up. The day, or year rather, or our devastation, became the day of our salvation because God was preparing us ahead of time and we were faithful to follow him. While other churches were doing funerals for members who passed away from all kinds of things, we were finding new ways to involved the homebound in our church beyond what that had been able to do for years.

Working Together

Point 2: Affirmation

God was faithful to lead us through 2019 in order to prepare us for 2020 in ways that we helped set trends for the ministry we did. I saw reports on TV of churches doing things we had been doing for weeks and months before. One of the best parts of it was that you all got to see more than just me. We had worship and prayer times led by our praise team members, bible lessons for kids led by other teachers, and Sunday school and small groups that met and continued ministry on their own. Folks came together in class that normally would not have sat next to or spoken much to each other. God changed us, and we allowed Him to.

We allowed Him to. Together.

God didn't do the work all by Himself. He never does. He could, but by leaving us out, we would remain unredeemed sinners. We would not experience life change without the opportunity to work with God.

But it goes further than that. Redemption always happens in community. It happened when we teamed up together with God and with one another. When the team falls apart, the ministry follows. The stronger the team, the stronger the ministry. Additionally, we build teams around the things that are most important to us.

At this point in his ministry, Paul had built teams around raising money for the persecuted and starving church in Jerusalem. He had people on the road, as well as people in each of the churches who were a part of that effort, much the way we have people in our congregation who regularly support missions like the Methodist Children's Home or Hope and Soap. Paul also had a team of people who helped promote the teaching and disciple-making ministries of these churches in ways that went beyond Sunday morning. Like many churches, the Corinthians did not count the service of those who served behind the scenes or who built relationships and taught outside of Sunday morning as important as the superstars they got on their stage. They learned that from the Pagan temples, which were all show and no spiritual development of individuals throughout the week.

Paul led that by example, where his pulpit was often a prison cell and his messages were carried by others through letters rather than given out loud to crowds of people. Paul would ask the Billy Graham's, the John Wesley's, the John the Baptists, "where are all these people who found salvation through your preaching? You got them started, but did they finish the race?" Paul fully expected everyone who was saved to be part of the Body of Christ, to be changed and to change others in the Body, and for everyone to be carefully shaped by Jesus Himself. You will find no solo Christianity in Paul's letters anywhere. Every description of his suffering begins with the word “We”. When Paul suffered for his faith, he did not do so alone.

And neither should you.

CTA

Point 3: (Hope ahead) (God is making all things new)

We are all in this together. How many times have you heard that phrase repeated? Too many. Yet, like John 3:16, which you also know by heart, hearing it a million more times does not make it any less true. You will be tempted to abandon hope, and abandon one another in the days ahead. You may think you are doing it because of the leadership transition, but you won't be betraying me or Pastor Randy Jones. This church, this ministry, is not about us pastors. It never has been and never will be. It is about you all working together with God. We come from other fishbowls into yours and share how we have seen God working and where we continue to see Him working in you. But at the end of the day, we are not the church. You are. You get to write the next chapter of the story of Radcliff United Methodist Church. God has and is giving you some strong suggestions on how it should go, but you hold the pen. It is a gift and a responsibility, and it can make a person frightened enough to throw the pen down and let someone else do it. But you have real hope, the thing that conquers every fear. Hope that God has been and will continue to lead and guide you. Hope that you are not alone, but you are, in fact, all in this together. You will weep with those who weep and get to rejoice with those who rejoice, and your blessings will be multiplied because you did it together. And when you get through to the next challenge, you will look back and say, "it wasn't easy, but it was necessary. It wasn't easy, but we grew through it. It wasn't easy, but it was worth it." Turn to the person next to you and tell them they are worth it. You are worth it. God loves you all so much and so do we. Thank you for allowing Bekah and I to be part of your ministry.