Beacon Sunday Service: May 4, 2025

And join me again just on your feet for the reading of God's Word. We're going to read from Titus chapter 3, verses 1 to 3. Remind them to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to slander no one, to be peaceable, considerate, demonstrating all gentleness to all men. For we ourselves also, once we're foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, despicable, hating one another. Let's ask the Lord's help in prayer. Would you join me in prayer? Father, we thank you for just gathering us this morning to worship, to be fed off your word, to fellowship, to be stimulated toward love and good deeds.

We pray that you would really magnify the person of Christ through the preaching, that there would be no human element getting in the way. But as Christ is magnified, that we would understand how to live appropriately to the truths that we hear. Father, we pray for humble hearts, softened hearts, hearts that are sober and reflective. And as you feed your people and as you strengthen your church, we pray that you would do a mighty work in and through the beacon for your glory and for your joy. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Go ahead and be seated. In the Westminster Catechism, the question is posed, what is the chief end of man? And the catechism states, the chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.

And you may have heard this before, and you may have recited this at some point if you grew up in the church, especially in Presbyterian circles. So the chief end, the main mission or the main purpose for every man is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. The man was created by God and for God to love God and to serve God, but with every fiber of his being, the unbelieving man, he rebels against that purpose. And he is hostile to that chief end, and he lives in defiance of that purpose. And even for believers who have been saved by God and for God and who have been restored to love God and to serve and glorify God, the residual effects of sin still kind of muddy the waters and cloud their vision.

And because believers so often get entangled with the day-to-day affairs of their lives, that main mission, that main purpose, that chief end, often gets neglected or forgotten altogether. So the chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever, and that's the chief end and the main mission of every man, and that is to be the chief obsession, especially of every redeemed man. So no professing believer would ever disagree with this, either verbally or theologically, right? You get in trouble. But the chief end, the chief mission of man is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. Now, what is the primary way in which the believer glorifies God in this present age? Take a second to think through.

What is the primary way the redeemed person glorifies God in this present age? And that too is not actually that difficult to theologically answer. Our God is a missionary God. Amen. And because we are believers living amongst non-believers, and because we are representatives and servants of our missionary God, this means that we have like a corollary side mission to our chief end. And that's to evangelize the lost, baptize those who get saved, and then to grow and equip them with the entirety of God's inerrant word. So that's the mission. That has always been the mission. And mission work is not the believer's chief end, but it is a temporary end for life in this present age. So again, the chief mission of man is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.

And the primary side mission, which we call the what? The great commission is to other uh to usher others into the same eternal enjoyment of God. So we evangelize and we engage in local and global missions so that all could come to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. And that passion to glorify God, that zeal to bring the loss of saving faith, cannot but cause believers to live amongst unbelievers in a sensible way and in a God-honoring way. So, so far, if you're a believer, I'm gonna assume that you have no objection to anything that I have stated. This is common stuff, right? So here's an important question. Does that mean then that the Christian mission supersedes all personal rights, liberties, and preferences?

Does the Christian mission, the corollary side mission, does that supersede all of our personal rights, liberties, and preferences? And the answer is yes. When the mission for the Christian, it's spirit-driven and spirit-led, there is gratitude, there is zeal for Christ, there is a humility and a compassion for the lost, even at the cost of whatever it is to self, right? And when the Christian life is lived according to and keeping in step with the Spirit, it's not lived with any self-centeredness or self-preservation or any self-righteous rule following. And the heartbeat for the mission is the glorification of our missionary God. And the zeal for bringing the loss of saving faith is gonna affect how we live our day-to-day lives and how we engage the unbelieving world.

So again, the mission supersedes personal rights, liberties, and personal comforts. And I have just summarized for us what we've covered thus far in the book of Titus, because we're in chapter three now. And before we jump into the beginning verses of Titus chapter three, let's take a look at the end of chapter two again, so that you know that I'm not just speaking this out of a theology textbook. Okay, chapter two, and I'm gonna read the back part of verse 10 to 14 for context. So that they will adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in everything. Why? For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us that denying ungodliness and worldly desires, we should live sensibly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us.

Why? That he might redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession. Can you read the next three words together? One, two, three, go. Sell us for good works. By way of reminder, the word for adorn, there in the Greek is cosmeto, from which we get the word cosmetic. Okay? An attractive, pretty woman, is pretty even without makeup. But when you put cosmetics on an already pretty woman, what happens to that woman? She becomes radiant. Her features are highlighted, and she goes from attractive to stunning with good cosmetics. So she turns heads. Now the doctrine of God in and of itself is a wonderful and a beautiful mystery. The gospel of God is glorious truth.

But when it is beautifully lived out in the lives of those who say they believe it, that glorious truth becomes stunning, paralyzing, life-altering, too good to be true, real good news. Okay, so here's uh in the letter to Titus, this is the mission. Okay, the church's adornment of gospel truths through good works and sensible living to the glory of Christ that is appearing. Okay, I'm gonna read that again. The church's adornment of gospel truths through good works and sensible living to the glory of Christ that is appearing. That was their mission. And it is no different from the mission of every church that bears Christ's name. Amen. So, in context, there was a problem on the island of Crete.

There were many people on the island of Crete who were professing to know God, but proving otherwise by how they live their lives. If you guys remember Titus 1:9. So true believers were to adorn or cosmeto, the sound doctrines of God by living lives consistent with those doctrines, because the world is watching. And the Cretan Christians' witness was to be a jarring witness, a head-turning witness. And what would be the means by which the Christian, the Cretan Christians were to jar the world, good works and sensible living, good works and sensible living. So believers were to be zealous for good works not for salvation, but because of it. Right? We read that in the catechism that Howard walked us through.

Believers were to be diligent at being sensible. Again, not for salvation, but because of it. So good works and sensibility, they've been and will continue to be emphasized again and again and again throughout the letter. We've already seen this a bunch of times, right? So we've seen this, we've been seeing this as we've studied through the Titus for the last seven months. And good works and sensibility are again alluded to or overtly mentioned in our passage today. So I want to read this again for us. Remind them to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to slander no one, to be peaceable, considerate, demonstrating all gentleness to all men.

For we ourselves also once were foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various slusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, despicable, hating one another. And this was uh the outline that we looked at last week. So this is part two of the sermon. So in the epistle to Titus, the mission for the church, okay, the church is the light of the world, was to shine brightly in the midst of the darkness around it, around it. And that's the applicational what of the entire letter. And we looked at the why and the premises for these instructions last week. Believers who were themselves once in darkness were to minister graciously, compassionately, and sensibly toward those still living in darkness.

Right? And as Howard mentioned earlier, believers did not contribute to their own salvation. Believers were saved completely and solely by the grace of God. So we looked at verse 4 as a preview. The kindness and affection of God appeared, Titus 3:4, and believers were saved by faith alone through grace alone and Christ alone. So those who are saved by grace were to engage others with grace. And grace by definition is unmerited. So we looked at the what. Okay. And we looked last week also at the why. And now here in the beginning of chapter 3, we get to the how. So the rubber is finally gonna meet the road, okay? It's a long list. How do we tangibly carry out the corollary side mission as we engage this hostile world?

And here is uh a list of verses one and two. In verses one and two, Paul writes that Titus and the leaders of the churches, they were to remind believers of the things that they had already learned and things that they already knew. By definition, the word remind is to know again, to mind again, right? And verses one and two form a single Greek sentence. The whole thing is just one sentence. Verse 1 addresses the church in regard to its members' duties as citizens of the empire. Make sense? Okay. Uh, just more specific, as citizens of the empire. Verse 2 then broadens that principle to include all people, right? All classes. Every other human being. And just as a caveat and as some hedges to guide our understanding, these prescriptions that you see here are general and broad, and they are not specific to extreme situations.

Make sense? These are for the norm, not for the exception. So, for example, the norm for a child living with his parents. What is the norm? To obey always and always. Hard to hard to track or easy to follow. It's easy to follow, right? The exception might be, say, if the parent told the child to steal something from the grocery store, then of course, not obeying would be the God-honoring response and the right thing to do. Disobedience in that case would not be a sin. Okay? So the how of what we find here in Titus chapter 3, verses 1 and 2, it's not meant to be rigidly applied to any and every situation as like a hard fast rule. So for the exceptional and the extenuating circumstances, we need wisdom, we need integrity of heart, and we need to trust that the Spirit will guide us.

And the reason I say this is there are people who take exception to Titus chapter 3, verses 1 and 2. Christians. Okay. So I want to get that out of the way. What we do know from the scriptures is that we serve a God who delights in giving wisdom to his children. Amen. Ask for it, and he'll give it to you. Okay? That's what it is written all over the Proverbs. It's written in the book of James. Ask and you will receive that. And we can be absolutely confident that God will guide us into all truth, and then love-filled application. It even says in Matthew chapter 10, verse 18 to 20, that he'll even put the right words into our mouth in the event we ever speak before the pagan hostile governors and kings.

You guys have read that before. Okay? So here in verses 1 to 2, the apostle Paul lays out a sevenfold exhortation for Titus and all the church elders to pass on. It's almost like rapid fire succession. Okay? Do this, do this, do this, do this, do this. Okay, so here's that list of the sevenfold exhortation, the sevenfold how, okay, for the Christian. Remind them to be subject to rulers to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to slander no one, to be peaceable, considerate, demonstrating all gentleness to all men. So the first thing on this list, I'm not gonna go through all seven in depth, okay? But the first thing on this list is for Christians to be subject to rulers and to authorities.

And the second part, it says to be obedient. And those are slightly different, and I'm gonna cover them together. So God's will is perfect, he makes no mistakes, God does not change. And in God's good and pleasing and perfect plan, God created hierarchies, order, and rule. And we learned that last week, right? God created these things, and hierarchy, order, and rule existed even before the fall of man. And they will continue to exist into eternity. Okay, you read through Revelation, you'll see that there are hierarchies still in place. After all, our God is a God of order, not confusion. He's a God of peace. 1 Corinthians 14, 33. And in and of themselves, hierarchies, order, and rules are good things.

God has always delighted in order and structure. And what God has delighted from the beginning, he delights in today. Amen. What God has hated from the beginning, he hates today because Hebrews 13. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. God is the same, right? So God removes kings and he establishes kings. He changes the times and the seasons, what we learned last week, Daniel 2, 21. And every king, every ruler, God has put in place in his wisdom. Even the ones we don't like. Even the ones who seem hostile to the rest of the world, even the ones that are in these countries that are a threat to global peace. God has put them in place. God has put them in place and given them authority to curb the evil of sinful man and to reward those who do good.

Okay, 1 Peter 2, 13 to 14. So since God has put them in place, every person is to be in subjection to them. Romans 13, 1. That's spelled out pretty much in plain English, which is translated from the plain Greek, right? That's not hard to understand. God is sovereign over all things, so we are to trust and obey. Okay? We are to trust and obey God. And we are to trust and obey God always and in always. Now here's things, here's where things get a little controversial. Okay. Our God, in many and most general situations, desires for us to obey him by obeying men. He desires for us to be subject to him by being subject to men. Are you guys following?

Now, if there's disagreement well enough in your heart, make sure it's a biblical disagreement. So wives were to be subject and obey their husbands because of their hope in God. 1 Peter 3, 5 to 6. Children were to obey their parents. Why? What's the reasoning? Because that is pleasing to the Lord. Colossians 3.20. Slaves, servants, employees were to be obedient and subject to their masters and bosses, even the bad ones, 1 Peter chapter 2, right? With fear and trembling. As to whom? Christ, Ephesians 6.5. And again, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also as it says in 1 Peter 2, it's not up on the slides, those who are harsh. Now you're like, okay, I have some questions. So I'm going to continue.

So the general principle here is that believers are to be model, even exceptional citizens and good rule followers. Okay. Believers are to be model, even exceptional citizens and good rule followers. Christians were to trust and obey God by submitting themselves in trust and obedience to the hierarchies and the structures that he has ordained and created in his wisdom. Amen. So you're not convinced yet. So Christians are to prioritize the good of the nation and the people over their own personal rights and preferences. Okay, now I'm getting all sensitive, right? Those who love God and know God and trust God may even be called to forego their own rights in order to serve ministry purposes. The word for subject is the word hippataso.

Repeat after me, hippataso. It's a military term. And it means to be at the disposal of the one in authority. Think of military. The higher up says do it, and you just do it. You are an extension of his mind and his heart. Okay, that's hupataso. It's a placing of oneself under that God-given authority. I'm gonna give you a few examples from scripture. You guys know of a man in Genesis 37 to 50 by the name of Joseph. Right? So Joseph's life was very full of this foregoing as he served God's purposes in Egypt. And I'm assuming you're familiar with the story. His life was full of injustices and evil, which God used for good. Okay? Genesis 50, 20, asked for you, and he's talking to his brothers.

You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to do what has happened on this day to keep many people alive for the saving of many lives. So, in summary, God meant all the things that had happened to Joseph for good. God meant Joseph's suffering of injustice, Joseph's foregoing of his liberties, and all the evils that had befallen on him, ultimately for good. That's Joseph's witness and summary testimony statement. You guys see this, right? That's Joseph. Much later, in the time of the Babylonian captivity, okay, one of the darkest times in Israel's history, there are four young men. Daniel, Hananiah, Azariah, Mishel, and you know them better as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

Okay, and then Belteshazzar. Alright. So these four young men were subject to the officials in Babylon, to the Babylonian overseers, and especially to the commander of the officials. And you see it, alright? Now, these young men, just young teens, were taken as exiled captives into slavery into Babylon. When the commander of the officials, Daniel chapter 1, verse 6, 7, and 8, he changes their names of these young Jews, and he gives them pagan names. They quietly were subject to it. Think about their names. Daniel. What's the ending? Lazarah. Okay? Hananiya. What's the ending there? They all refer to God. Their God given names, which reflected the glory of God, got changed into pagan names.

And we don't know how they felt about it. But in scriptures don't say, but they subjected it themselves to it. Later, they're told to eat the king's choice foods, which no doubt encroached upon their dietary restrictions. They were still subject to it. But they did not want to compromise. So Daniel reverently, prayerfully, and politely, Daniel chapter 1.8, he sought permission is the wording. He didn't defy.

But he was subject. Now being subject, again, means to place oneself at the disposal and the wishes of those in authority to seek the pleasure and their approval of the one in authority. To obey, which is related to being subject, means to comply with the direct commands. So Daniel and his friends were subject to the authorities over them. And though they typically and generally were very obedient, when they were told to violate God's commands and to worship Nebuchadnezzar's image, what happened? They refused. And they got thrown into the blazing furnace.

Daniel did not obey. Okay, Daniel 6, 9 to 10. Therefore, King Darius signed the written document, that is the injunction. Now when Daniel knew that the written document was signed. He entered his house, now in his roof chamber, he had windows open toward Jerusalem. And he continued kneeling on his knees three times a day, praying and giving thanks before his God, as he had been previously doing. Do you think he was scared? Do you think he wanted to make a statement? No. He just went along with his day. So in the extraordinary, of course we must obey God rather than men. Acts 5 29. But in the ordinary, obeying God means that you obey men. You follow? Pleasing God in the ordinary, okay, and submitting to and obeying the authorities that God has placed over us means pleasing men.

Okay, so we're gonna have to sit on that a little bit, because right now, that kind of topic is all kinds of polarizing, right? So let me continue. Believers, we are called to be law-abiding citizens who are always ready for every good work. That's the next word, right? Here's one caveat. These instructions were written where tyrants and despots ruled and where the law of the land was whatever the king or the emperor decreed. The Bible doesn't say too much in specific like in specifics when it comes to democracy, right? Democracy is a baby, it's still pretty young. We currently live in a democracy which is a system of government where a bunch of sinful people gathered together and rule, right?

Representing a bunch of sinful people, okay.

So the passages that we're looking at are not passages that are condoning a pacifism or a passivity. Does that make sense?

Amen. This world is doomed, but we are still called salt of the earth to stem the decay, right? What you will notice in the scriptures, though, God honoring defiance of human authorities was never hostile. You guys tracking. Those in the light are never called to be hostile to those in darkness. Because if you look at Titus chapter 3, 3, we're we were just like them, right? Those in the light are never called to be vindictive. Because wrath, leave room for just who's who does wrath belong to? God. Okay. Those in the light are never supposed to fight fire with fire. What I found in today's immature biblically illiterate churchanity, in the name of righteousness, sometimes Christians in anger and in condescension and self-righteousness, they voice their opinions.

They bash non-believers, they belittle and they condescend. The Christian goal is never to win an argument. The goal is to glorify God and to call others to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. Right? So we need to pick our battles wisely, and then we need to battle wisely. So far so good? You guys aren't like all discombobulated. These are things you should already know. Remind them, right? For though we walk in the flesh, 2 Corinthians 10, 3 to 5, we do not war according to the flesh. The weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the tearing down of strongholds, as we tear down speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God.

And we take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, not a party, not a common sentiment. We take every thought, every emotion captive to obedience to Christ. We do not wage war as those living in the flesh. We walk by faith, not by sight. Amen. So here's that list again. The primary motivation in all this has to be love for God. And that love for God, that zeal and that passion for God cannot but evoke a love and a compassion for all people. If a person claims to be a Christian, but is very unloving for decades. I actually would doubt their salvation because one of the the very first fruit of the spirit is what? Love. Jaded Christians need to examine themselves daily to see if they genuinely are of the faith.

Second Corinthians 13, 5. Because it is love. And that compassion will evoke a readiness for every good work. Okay. And what is this every good work? Soup kitchen volunteering. Like sponsoring the compassion child, which you guys should do. What is this? Okay. Generally speaking, it is any work that has as its highest and greatest and tangible priority, the salvation of souls. You guys follow. Man's greatest need has always first been spiritual. Man's greatest need has always first and foremost been the need to be restored to God. So we have to prioritize the proclamation of Jesus Christ. There is no other way to be reconciled to Christ. Okay?

So it says in John 14, 6. No one comes to the Father but through me. But the readiness for every good work doesn't stop only at the sharing of the gospel proper. It also finds ways to meet pressing and urgent needs, which we'll see later in chapter 3. Titus 3, 14. And our people must also learn to lead in good works to meet pressing needs, so that they will not be unfruitful. Good works again. So Christians, our people must learn to lead in this, to meet pressing urgent needs. We don't go to the soup kitchens to take pictures of ourselves going to soup kitchens. That should not be the motivation. The command is not go into all the world and take pictures of all the nations, right? The command is for the saving of and discipleship of souls.

And if there are pressing needs, like hunger, literacy, Christians should be in the front, leading it, not as the goal, but as the means. Okay. Faith without works is dead. We are saved by faith alone, but what's that common phrase? But not by a faith that is alone. Okay. True gospel ministry always looks to meet also the physical needs of the people as well. First John 3, James chapter 2. Fourth on this list, believers are to slander no one. Repeat after me, slander. No one. One more time, slander, no one. So slander is something falsely spoken of another, especially in a disparaging way, that leads to some kind of a judgment on their motives. Okay. Slander usually misrepresents and intentionally paints an exaggerated bad picture.

Speaking out against evil, that's not slander. If a person is in sin, and his loving friends need to confront that sin, them sharing together and disclosing information about that friend's sins is not slander. What slander is is often a deliberate verbal blasting of a person. And it's never rooted in love. It is never righteous. Okay? And there's all kinds of slander going on in the world right now amongst church people. So slander who? What does the word no one mean? Nobody. Okay? No exceptions. Christians who are to bless and not ever curse, even the persecuting enemy, for sure is to slander no one. Okay. We are not to slander the coworker.

Not the family member who has wronged us. Not the irritating neighbor. Not any political parties official. Not any government worker. Not any president or king. Not the church leader who abused you. Not the church leader who you're assuming did the church wrong. Not even the person you would consider a mortal enemy. Slander who? No one. Okay? Slander is of the devil. And believers are never to slander. So Satan's strategy has always been divide and conquer. And division typically begins with some form of slander. And that's not hard to, I don't need to expound on it, right? The last three things I'm going to cover a little bit more quickly. It says, remind them to be peaceable, to be considerate.

And here's a summary statement of this entire exhortation, demonstrating all humble, gentle, meekness, gentleness to all men. Okay. So first, believers are to live peaceably in the world. Literally, the word is not contentious. The ESV translates it as not quarrelsome, or in other words, not looking to pick a fight. The King James actually translates it, I chuckled at this, to be no brawler. Okay? Don't be no brawler. So believers in the power of the Holy Spirit are to live peaceably in the world. Again, not passivity or pacifism, but we're to live peacefully in the world. No matter how evil the world, and no matter how evil the inhabitants of the world, Paul writes in Romans chapter 12, verse 17 to 18, never paying back evil for evil to anyone.

What's the first word there? Never. You know, in husband and wife relationships, they tell you never say never or always, but this is an absolute never. Never paying back evil for evil, respecting what is good in the sight of all men, and if possible, so as far as it depends on you, being at peace with all men. That's why I believe that genuine Christians could never hold a long-term grudge. It's an impossibility. You have to let that go. This is neither pacifism or passivity. There are battles for Christians to engage in. But again, the primary mission is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. The submission is to lead others in glorifying God and enjoying him forever. So our pushback on whatever the world throws at us is never to be self-righteous, vindictive, or even punitive.

Okay? In the event we ever do push back, it's always to be corrective, God honoring, and then stemming from love. Okay, not retaliation. The next thing the Cretan Christians were reminded to be was considerate. The Greek word here is the word epi achea, and we've gone over this. I talked, I guess we talked about this in August when I was a guest speaker. Repeat after me, epi. A kea. Epiachea. Now, this is a quality that all Christians everywhere were to be known by. Okay, and I'm gonna read Philippians 4, verse 4 to 5, uh just verse 5 for you. Let your epiachea be known to all men, the Lord is near. And that technically should be understood as like the Lord is soon. Alright? Let your wrong slide.

Let your epiachea be made known to all men. If you notice, epiakea looks like it's a difficult word to translate. The translators have translated it in all sorts of ways. It's a loaded and it's a rich word. The King James says moderation. That doesn't look like no considerate spirit, right? Moderation. The ESV translated it as reasonableness. The NASB has a gentle spirit. Okay. The NIV similarly translated it, gentleness. The CEB translates it as graciousness. The living Bible, which is a dynamic equivalent or like a thought-for-thought translation, translates epichea as unselfish and considerate spirit. So now, depending on what translation you read, you get like a different visual, right?

So here's my translation of the word. And no Bible translator could ever translate it like this, but this is my attempt at communicating the meaning of Epiakea. Steadfastness, grace, and calmness that comes with experience, involvement, and age, which has grown in trust in the sovereignty of God. Let that be known to all men. Okay? So simply put, it's a battle tested Christian common sense. Not rattled, but composed, not hostile, but gracious. Not self-centered or self-exalting, but considerate. Other centered. So that's what Epiekea is. So basically, believers are to be peaceable and then also to behave like those who know that God is in full control, that he is all powerful, his will is perfect, he wastes nothing, he's perfectly good, and he is love.

So if there's chaos in my life, he's got this. So I live accordingly. That's considerate spirit. And then demonstrating all gentleness to all men, like I said, is kind of the summary statement for all of verses one to two. And that's a humility and a meekness lived out before those in the world. Christians are supposed to be bold. Right? Christians are to be vocal. But Christians are to be humble and meek. Okay. What is the chief end of man? And chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. And the what is a primary mission of the believer who has been restored to that chief end? It's to live to restore others to that same purpose. So you guys, whether you remember that or not regularly, you're a missionary.

A missionary is just a Christian living in a foreign context. You are the light of the world. It doesn't say try to be or plan to be when you're older, when you have money. You are the light of the world. Okay. Between 2009 and 2012, Becky and I lived as missionaries in China. And I was the leader of a team of six. And we were sent out initially to minister for a year. And the good thing about living as a Christian in a foreign context is that we were daily reminded of our purpose. That was so, it was so good in that sense. The smells were not bagged. But like living as a missionary, we were daily reminded of our purpose. Ministry was always on our minds. And we regularly like strategized and planned for how to custom make a ministry for each and every non-believing acquaintance who came into our lives was prayed for and graciously loved on.

Gospel ministry was personalized to fit each person and also each circumstance. And we looked every day for opportunities to build on friendships and to go deeper in relationships. So we prayed daily for wisdom because much wisdom was needed in navigating a lot of those relationships, especially in a in a communist country. We prayed for spiritual power because we were acutely aware, because our Chinese was horrible, that our articulation of the gospel could get misunderstood. Did you know fish and sin? Sound the same. And then in the beginning, I was just saying, like, you are a criminal, right? So there's there are subtleties that the language was limited. So we need to pray that God would change the heart.

And our inability to speak Chinese was actually a blessing because we felt helpless and we were reminded every day that people were not gonna be saved through our eloquence. And every morning we prayed for each day's schedule. We prayed for the people that we were planning to meet. We did that together. And whether we taught English classes, bought vegetables at the local markets, studied Chinese with other foreigners, or we played pickup basketball with the locals, we were constantly thinking about ministry. Early on, one of our students, her name was Maggie, she invited uh Becky and me, and then two others of our team to visit her home province. And Maggie told us that her parents were eager to meet us and they would drive us all over the province, they would feed and host us, and they would show us around.

They said we wouldn't need to pay for a thing, we didn't need to worry about lodging or anything. Cool. So we went. Maggie's parents both worked for the communist party. And Maggie's father was an environmental engineer, and his job was to visit different coal mines all over that province and to ensure that the level of pollutants that every factory or the mine was releasing was at an acceptable level. So Maggie's parents drove us all throughout the province, and we actually saw some really cool things. It really was like a culturally meaningful experience. And it was interesting is every night we lodged inside of a coal mine, a hotel. We were inside the coal mine in no hotel. Now, throughout our time in China, we prayed regularly that whether we ate or drank, that we would all do it for the glory of God.

Okay? That was our prayer. Good prayer. We just didn't foresee that God would answer those prayers in the coal mine so literally. So, like I said, Maggie's worked, a father worked for a uh as uh environmental engineer, and every coal factory that he visited, the bosses there would wine and dine him. You do you have a visual? Okay, they would whine and dine him so that he would write them a good report. And in these sorts of meals, we discovered that the Chinese drank heavily. So knowing that we were from America and that we were Christians, Maggie's parents actually did their best to not put us in situations where we would have to drink. But on one evening, just before dinner, we noticed Maggie fighting with her parents.

Our team of four would be taken to a dinner party where we would likely have to drink with the bosses. So we were all in a little bit of a pickle, okay. We didn't want to offend our hosts, we didn't want Maggie's parents to lose face. We also didn't want to compromise our witness. So at dinner, as they were pouring alcohol into our cups, I had to make a quick judgment call. And I whispered to all four teammates, drink what they give you. Don't get drunk. And so our team of missionaries took what they offered us, and then after a few rounds, we all started to politely decline saying things like, oh, we have very low tolerance as Americans, uh, that we all had stomach issues being in a foreign environment and things like that.

And they laughed with us good naturedly and then didn't demand any more. Now, for sure, that evening's events didn't make it into our missionary newsletter.

Not one of us enjoyed that moment. Not one of us took any issue with the judgment call that I had to make. And that was the only time alcohol ever touched my lips in China. Not one of us felt compromised because the mission was clear. My reasoning was clear. By whatever means necessary, we need to be a good witness to Maggie and her family in the hope of bringing them to saving faith. That's what we're praying for. And the clarity of that mission helped me to make that call, and my conscience was not bothered by it at all. It was not pleasant. I felt bad for Maggie, who was really upset with her parents for putting us in that situation. Now, just that statement alone, we drank in China.

People will be confused. Didn't bother me at all. When the mission is clear, don't just record that and then pass that along to people, all right? In the sermon. Whole of the sermon, okay? When the mission is clear, the means by which that mission is accomplished supersedes personal rights, liberties, and preferences. For us, it was the very opposite. But it supersedes all of that. When a mission is spirit-led, it's fueled by integrity, even if on the surface rules look like they are being bent. The mission is clear. We are free from the law. Actually, after all, in many places in the world, the very act of evangelism is an illegal thing. You guys know this, right? But I doubt any reasonable Christian would ever consider the act of evangelism a sin, even if it is illegal in that particular part of the world.

Because truly, in all things we must obey God rather than men. When a mission is clear, again, the means by which that mission is accomplished supersedes all personal rights, liberties, and preferences. And when the mission is clear and the motives are pure, we can make good God-honoring ministry decisions, even in the midst of most undesirable circumstances. And things get tense in those undesirable circumstances. Apostle Paul says something similar to that in 1 Corinthians 9. For though I am free from all, I have made myself a slave to all so that I may win more. To the Jews, I became as a Jew, so that I might win Jews. To those who are under the law, as under the law, though not my being myself under the law, so that I might win those who are under the law.

To those who are without the law, as without the law, though not being without the law of God, but under the law of Christ, so that I might win those who are without the law. To the weak, I became weak that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, so that I may by all means save some.

Amen. It's about knowing God and making him known. I just summed up the Christian life. Knowing God and making him known. It's about worshiping here on earth, now in light of how we will worship in heaven, Revelation 5, 8 to 10. And by any means necessary, and by any means sensibly, righteously, godly to lead others to do the same. Don't forget your mission. And don't forget the chief end to which you and I have been called. Amen? I'm gonna close with a famous quote by John Piper. Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exist because worship doesn't. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man. When this age is over and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God, missions will be no more.

It is a temporary necessity, but worship abides forever. May the Lord help us to grow in our affection to know Him and our passion to make Him known. Amen? Let's pray together. Father, help us to not get lost and sidetracked by the religiosity around us, by the noise that is around us, but help us to be single hearted, sober minded. Help us to be zealous for good works, humble before people, and in awe of you. Thank you for saving us. And would you grant us the great privilege of being useful in the salvation of others? We pray this in Jesus' name.