I want this to really hit home tonight because I want to back up what I said a moment ago
when I said if we don't do it, no one will.
That's what I want to back up right now.
See, why don't I have plenty of people doing it?
I'm going to back that up right now that if we don't do it, no one will in a couple different
ways.
But look at 1 Corinthians 3, 4, it says, "For while one say, if I am of Paul and another
I am of Apollos, are ye not carnal?
Who then is Paul?
And who is Apollos?
And this is the key.
But ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man."
So then neither is he that, or I'm sorry, verse 6, "I planted Apollos' water, but God
gave the increase.
So then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth
the increase, neither he that planteth, neither he that watereth, are one, and every man shall
receive his own reward according to his own labor."
Hey, look at me tonight.
I'm not much, you know, who's Stephen Anderson tonight?
Who's Roger Jimenez?
Who are we?
We're nobody.
But you know what?
We're ministers by whom others can believe.
Amen.
He said it doesn't matter whether it's him or me or whoever, you know, we can be used
by God.
What I think he's trying to say there where he says, "Who is Paul?
Who is Paul?"
I think he's just saying, "You know, I'm not any different than you are."
That's right.
You know, "Do you think I'm just some special, you know, he's some special person?"
You know, "Hey, we were doing this when we were teenagers.
I was taking him out soul winning, you know, when he was 16 years old, I showed him the
ropes."
No.
I was taking him out soul winning.
We were out doing this, and you know, nobody looked at us in those days, and I don't think
anybody even looks at us now, you know, and thinks that we're anybody special, or anybody,
you know.
Oh wow, you know.
Wow.
It's, you know, Brother Jimenez has left the building, you know.
The bottom line is, hey, it's just, we're just people who are laborers, we just work,
you know.
We just want to get people saved.
And look at this.
It says, "Ministers by whom he believed even as the Lord gave their reign."
I'm not going to turn there, but in 2 Corinthians 5 it talks about how, you know, God has committed
unto us the ministry of reconciliation.
We beg people to be reconciled to God, to believe on Jesus Christ, to be justified freely
by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
But the Bible says here, "Ministers by whom ye believed even as God gave every man."
Now stop and think about that.
Did God give every man a minister by whom they might believe according to that verse?
Come on.
Is that what it says?
Slow down tonight and let's just stop and look at this verse.
"Who then is Paul, verse 5, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as
the Lord gave to every man."
Am I reading that wrong?
Or did God give every man ministers by whom they might believe?
Somebody preached me the gospel.
I remember, and I'm sure I heard the gospel many times because I grew up in an independent
fundamental Baptist church.
I remember just right at the time that I got saved though, as a six-year-old boy, my mother
was the one who opened the Bible unto me and showed me John 5.24, "Verily I say to you,
he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall
not come into condemnation but is passed from death into life."
And she showed me a lot of other scriptures, and I, right there, called upon the name of
the Lord, believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, received Christ as my Savior, you know, that,
you know, I could look to my mom and say, you know what, that was a minister by whom
I believed.
A minister just means a servant, you know, somebody serving God, somebody preaching God,
you know, you could stand up tonight and say, you know, "Hey, this is who gave me the Gospel,"
you know, and somebody knocked on my door, you know, or somebody, you know, took me aside
at church or whatever, you know, and gave me the Gospel and wanted me to cry, and basically,
everybody who got saved, you know, somebody had to give them the Gospel, you know, how
should they hear without a preacher, you know, and the Ethiopian unit, man, he was reading
the Bible over and over again, he didn't get it, and he said, you know, "How can I except
some man should guide me?" and he needed Philip to be that minister by whom he might believe.
But let me ask you something, I know God gave every man a minister by whom they might believe,
but does every person in this world hear a clear presentation of the gospel?
No.
Has every person in Sacramento, California heard a clear presentation of the gospel?
No.
That tells me that God's got a plan for you to go talk to somebody and you're not doing
it.
You're that minister by whom so-and-so might believe, but you're not there, you're not
doing it.
You have failed to reach those who...
See, the Bible says, "For by grace are you saved through faith, and not of yourselves
it is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast, for we are his workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God has before ordained that we should walk
in them."
He has works ordained that we might walk in those works and do those works, but you know
what?
We should walk in them, but do we always walk in them?
No.
And they lose when the Gospels hit, and if we don't do it, nobody will.