Encouragment from Paul 2

The speaker talks about how national pastors' meetings are not encouraging because pastors tend to compete with each other instead of focusing on the gospel. They share their church size and missionary numbers, causing jealousy and envy. The speaker mentions a young preacher who was discouraged by his own brothers at a safe place for pastors. The speaker agrees with the preacher, saying that pastors often act negatively towards each other. However, Paul's words remind us that some preach Christ out of selfish motives, while others preach out of love. Paul emphasizes the importance of love and defends the gospel even while in prison. He rejoices that Christ is being preached, regardless of the motives or circumstances. The speaker encourages listeners to focus on preaching Jesus Christ and not be concerned about what other churches or pastors are doing. They should rejoice in the fact that the gospel is being spread and souls are being saved. pastors' group, and this is part of the reason that I don't go to the national meetings very often anymore, because the national meeting is not a place of encouragement. Because all these pastors get together and all they do is rub each other the wrong way. They're in conflict. It's not about the gospel. It's not about doctrine. It's about, my church is bigger than your church. We're reaching more people. It's about, we're going to have more missionaries than what you have. And it's all of this jealousy and envy and everybody's pecking for a pecking order for pride and prestige. And I noticed a young preacher the other day on the ABA deal and he finally called out some of them because what had happened was he truly had a burden upon his heart and had truly asked a question. And he asked the question on a place that is supposed to be safe, a place that is supposed to be an encouragement for ABA pastors only, and all of a sudden, his own brothers that were supposed to be supporting and helping him ended up lamb-blasting them. And he finally came back and he said, you know what, I was looking for encouragement. And all y'all did was discourage and you add more heartache to what I already had. I'm trying to pastor a church. I'm trying to do the right things for God. And I ask y'all for a question and encouragement. And instead of helping me, instead of out of goodwill, you're jealous and mad and so you're attacking me. And I agreed with him and I said, he is absolutely right, because that tends to be how we act and how we react. But notice what Paul says here. He said there were those that were doing this for encouragement and he explains, the one preached Christ of contention, not sincerely supposing to add affliction to my bonds. And so there's this motivation of selfishness. But then, he addresses this attitude in chapter 2. We're going to get to this, but he says, and I want you to know because this is where Paul is going in this mind. They preach Christ, but here's their attitude. He says in verse 3 of chapter 2, Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than themselves. Paul places this here to remind us that they are Christians. They're doctrinally sound. They're preaching Jesus Christ and their goal is not the gospel. It's not about doctrine and purity. It is about irritating and causing strife because of envy and selfish ambitions and impure motives. Those good people, good people preaching Jesus Christ, but their motives are wicked and impure. But notice there that word, but. But, a contrast to them people. But the other of what? Of love. Of love. Knowing that I am set for the defense in the gospel. The others were motivated by love. You remember what Paul started his prayer? When he said that I believe, I'm confident that what God has started in you, God is able to finish. What was the first thing he did? He said, I pray that your what? Your love may abound. That your love may abound. And so this motivation of love. He says in verse 9, I pray that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in judgment. He also says in verse 17, the other of love, knowing that I am what? Set for the defense of the gospel. Do you realize that word set is a military term? And it has this idea of appointment. You are set in that position. When you go in the military, you don't get to choose what you want to be. You're set in that position. You're set in that place where you're supposed to work and fight and defend and all of that. And where was Paul? Paul wasn't chained to that Roman guard because that was his choice in life. But guess what? God set him there. That was his appointment. That's where God wanted him at that particular time. And so what did he do? He preached the gospel while he was there. And so that's what we've got to do, folks. That word defense is the word apologia. In other words, that I mention all the time, it's the word that we get apologetics from. It means that Paul was a defender of the gospel. The whole time that he was chained and he was in prison, guess what? He never quit preaching or talking about the gospel of Jesus Christ. Yes, he would be in court one day, but guess what? He was defending it and proclaiming it all the way through, even before he got there. But notice what Paul says. Notice his joy. His joy was not that there were these that were jealous and envious of him. No, his joy wasn't that there were some that was loving him and that was helping him. No, where is his joy? His joy is not on the circumstance or the outcome. His joy is that Christ is being preached. That's what he's saying here. It doesn't matter how it's getting done. I praise God, I rejoice and will continue to rejoice that at least Christ is being preached. He says, what then? What then? Notwithstanding every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached. And therein do rejoice, and yea, we'll rejoice. Those preaching Christ with a pretense. What do we mean by pretense? That's the word hypocrisy. Hypocrisy. Those that are preaching with hypocrisy. In other words, they're preaching Jesus Christ. They're preaching the Gospel, but guess what? They're not living the Gospel, right? They're not loving. They're not forgiving. They're not extending grace and mercy to other people. They're hypocrites. They say, accept the gift that Jesus Christ has given you for the forgiveness of your sins. But guess what? They're not living that. They're not allowing forgiveness. They're not allowing grace and mercy. They're though preaching Christ with truth. They're lovers of the men of goodwill. But the result, whether for jealousy or whether for goodwill, Christ is being preached. Christ is being preached. And Paul rejoiced and continues to rejoice. Paul's not rejoicing in the preaching of errors. If it's false, if someone is preaching false or another Gospel, we are commanded in the Scriptures to call them out. Amen? We're to stand up for the doctrine. But listen to me. Ninety-nine percent of our complaining and griping about other preachers and other churches has absolutely nothing to do with doctrine. It's personality. It's that they don't do things the traditional way that we do them, right? There's a couple of churches in our work that are getting blasted right now. But God is blessing. God is working in them. And I know the pastors and they're getting blasted. But they are having baptisms. They are having people that are being saved. God is blessing. But guess what? They don't do things the way that I do them. They don't do things in the pulpit the way that I do them. But guess what? They're preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And so guess what? At least the Gospel is being preached. And so, man, we've got enough problems and enough bondage and enough peril in the world by itself without us as Christians adding to it. People all the time say, did you hear about so-and-so's church? I say, I don't have time for all that. I've got enough problems of my own, right? I'm just trying to preach Jesus Christ. I'm not keeping up with what the church down the road is doing. I pray for the churches down the road. I pray for other pastors. But guess what? They've got to do what God called them to do because God set them in that area. God set them over that ministry. Let me ask you a question. When are we going to quit caring who gets the credit for salvations? When are we going to quit caring for who gets credit for baptisms and church growth? We are a local New Testament church. We believe in the local New Testament church. But guess what? Kentucky is not the only church. There's other churches out there that are preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. There's other churches out there that people are being saved and people are being baptized. Praise God, they're reaching people that we're not reaching. And guess what? We're reaching some people that they're not reaching too. And so to each we have our ministry, but praise God and I rejoice that at least we're preaching Jesus Christ. How do we quit living for a pastor? How do we quit living for a church or a program? And how do we begin to live for Jesus? See, joy is found in the mind of Christ. Joy is found in Jesus Christ and the presentation of Jesus Christ. And so as we close today, what are you rejoicing in? What are you rejoicing in? And as Christians, we ought to rejoice in the fact that Jesus Christ is being preached! That God is still moving. That is an encouragement. Amen? We may not be reaching 100 people, but somebody is. And praise God, when we get to heaven, guess what? We're going to see them and we're going to greet them as brothers and sisters in Christ. And so man, we ought to be excited. But guess what? There's still churches. There's still people out there that are preaching. There's some that are doing it in a negative, jealous way. There's some that are envious. There's some that don't have a very good moral background. They're not acting like Christ. But they're still preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. So we need to rejoice in that as we stand and have a verse of invitation. What are you rejoicing in? Where's your rejoicing? Praise God.