Called

1-Do not be ashamed of the Gospel and share in its suffering.

Rely on God's power through it all.

2-No one will serve in something they are ashamed of. 

God does the saving not us, we are just sometimes the conduit. 

3-Submit to sound teaching and guard the freedom to do that for others. 

Favorite Question:

How will you respond when you struggle with submission to the pattern of sound teaching found in God's word?

(my answer-call for an emergency quiet time)

In reality the gospel is foolish to those, who are perishing. It is an offensive thing to submit to. When it is proclaimed in simple terms people either make fun of it and run from it or they are exposed by it and run to it for healing. God never called us to persuasively convince others to come to Him. He commissioned us to spread His message. What they do with it is between them and God, but our job is to be faithful to making the message available in clear and simple terms for as many as possible. 

As believers, we can come to places in our life where, we are ashamed of the Gospel. We can begin to wonder if it has the power to save others like it did us. We can become lazy in renewing our mind in the gospel and His word, opening the door for us to personally devalue the power of the Gospel. We can fail to fully realize that the power of the Gospel far exceeds the power to save us from hell, but also the power to save us from anything. It is not just an admission to be a part of the family of God, but the power to bring Glory to the family of God through our lives. 

Guarding what God has entrusted us with is preserving a glorious foundation for generations to come after you and I. We owe a debt of gratitude to those who were found faithful before us to pass down the purity of the gospel to us. When the history books of God in Heaven or written about you and I, what will it have to say about how we guarded that which was given to us to steward? Will it say that we were men who like Caleb and Joshua rose up to defend the the great ability of God to save among our peers? When everyone else has turned away from the Gospel, what will we do?