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Welcome back to Daily Drive Time Devotions. We are in the second day of our look
at Galatians chapter 2. We're going to look at verses 6 to 10 today.

There are two powerful principles for ministry, for serving others in love in
these verses. So let me get right to it. Let me read for you Galatians 2 verses
6 to 10.

As for those who seemed to be important, whatever they were makes no difference
to me. God does not judge by external appearance. Those men added nothing to my
message.

On the contrary, they saw that I had been entrusted with the task of preaching
the gospel to the Gentiles, just as Peter had been to the Jews. For God, who was
at work in the ministry of Peter as an apostle to the Jews, was also at work in
my ministry as an apostle to the Gentiles. James, Peter, and John, those reputed
to be pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship.

When they recognized the grace given to me, they agreed that we should go to the
Gentiles as they to the Jews. All they asked was that we should continue to
remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do. You look at these verses
and this experience that Paul had when he went up to Jerusalem, and he talked to
the leaders of the church at that time.

He talks about the reputed pillars of the church, James and Peter and John.
Peter and John, disciples of Jesus. James, the brother of Jesus.

This isn't the James who was a disciple. That James was the first martyr of the
church. This is the James who was a brother of Jesus, a half brother actually.

And in talking about what happened in Jerusalem, you get some principles for
ministry very strongly, two powerful principles. Number one, God does not judge
by external appearance. Now we do.

We tend to judge how good we can be at ministry, how expert we are in ministry,
how much God can use us in ministry by external appearances all of the time. We
learned this all the way back into the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, when
the people of Israel wanted to choose a king, they chose Saul because he was the
tallest.

He was the strongest looking of them all. But when God chose a king, he chose
David, the youngest son, somebody who looked nothing like a king. But God knew
what he was doing.

He knew who he was to choose. So he chose not by external appearance, but he
chose by the heart. He chose a man after his own heart.

And Paul here writes, he says, "We went up and we saw these had been entrusted
with the gospel. " And that's a good thing. But I want you to remember that God
does not judge by external appearance.

And he's talking about a couple of things here. He's talking obviously about the
way we look and the kind of gifts that we have. But in this case, he's also
talking about position.

It's those who have been positioned as apostles, those who have been positioned
as leaders of the church. The truth of the matter is that makes no difference at
all to God. We have our titles.

We have our positions. But in God's kingdom, he uses people as he wishes, when
he wishes, how he wishes. So if you've ever looked at yourself and thought, I'm
not positioned to serve others.

I don't have the kind of position I need or the kind of authority that I need to
serve others in love, to do as much as I would like to do. It is not where
you're positioned. It's who you serve.

And it's how you serve. It's how you serve others in Jesus' name. And the fact
that you have decided to serve him, no matter what anybody else thinks of you,
no matter how anybody else judges you by external appearance.

The key issue is, are you willing to serve him today? God does not judge by
external appearance, and neither should I. Neither should we.

And then there's another powerful principle for ministry in these verses. It's a
refreshing principle that reminds us that God can use every one of us. And that
is, the second principle is, God is the one who's at work.

He's the one at work. I'm not the one that's at work. I get to be involved in
his work.

He's the one who's at work. And because of that, he works in different ways, and
he works through different people. If I was the one that was at work, I'd want
it all to come through me, so I'd get all the glory.

But God doesn't do it that way. God works through different ways, and he works
through different people. And in these verses, you see that Paul is saying that
he's chosen as the apostle to the Gentiles, to those who are not Jews.

And Peter is chosen as the apostle to the Jews. God's working through different
ways, and he has just the right person to do just the right task. He didn't ask
Peter to do it all.

He didn't ask Paul to do it all. He had a different task for each of these men,
based on how God had fashioned and formed them, the experience that they had
been through. God's the one who was at work.

He has different tasks and different areas of responsibility for different
people. And what happens usually when we begin to serve him is we look around
and we see people that are serving, and we think, "Oh, I'd like to do that. Oh,
I'd like to do that," based on the response they're getting or based on the
results that they're getting.

But the truth is, God has a different ministry for you than anybody else that
you see. And he's going to use you in people's lives that no one else could be
reached by that person. No one else could be encouraged by that person.

No one else could be served by that person. And remember this, God is the one
who's at work, and we get to be in on what God is doing. If you want to serve
him for a lifetime, not for a few minutes or a few months, a few years.

I see a lot of people burn out in ministry. They don't last in ministry. If you
want to serve him for a lifetime, remember this, we get to be in on what God is
doing.

It's what Paul talks about to the Corinthians when he says, "Some plant, some
water, but God causes the growth. " I have a garden. I like to garden.

I like to grow vegetables and flowers. And I love to plant, and I love to water,
and I love to see things grow. But if I tried to make things grow, if I thought
I was the source of the growth in that plant and somehow through my human
effort, my soul effort, tried to make it grow, I'd be worn out in a moment
because there's nothing I can do to make it grow.

I can plant it, I can water it, but then I'm dependent entirely on God to cause
things to grow. And the same thing is true in your ministry. If you've been
trying to make it work on your own power and energy, make it grow, that's not
your job.

Your job is to plant, your job is to water, your job is to fertilize, your job
is to weed. God's given you jobs, different ones, different jobs. So do what
God's given you to do with all your heart.

You get to be in on what God is doing and then trust in God, trust in God to
cause the growth. It may come when you can see it. It may come immediately.

It may come at times you don't see it. It may come after a long time, but God is
causing the growth. All I have to do is be faithful to do what he's asking me to
do.

Now there's two principles we've talked about here today. One, God does not
judge by external appearance. Two, God is the one who is at work.

There's actually a third powerful principle here that involves us to effectively
serve together. Here's the third principle. We have to agree together on the
first two principles.

If I want to serve effectively with you and you serve effectively with me and
the body of Christ, I have to agree with you. God's not judging by external
appearances. Otherwise, pride gets in.

I have to agree with you that God is the one who does the work. Otherwise,
self-human powered effort gets in. That's exactly what happened when Paul and
Barnabas went up to Jerusalem and met with Peter and James and John.

You see what happened in these verses. They met together and through that they
saw the common ground that they had in the gospel. They recognized that they'd
been entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel.

They also recognized what Paul calls the grace that was given to one another.
They saw the grace that was given to me. The word grace can refer to our
salvation.

God's given us grace for salvation. But in this case, it refers to gift. The
word grace, charis, in the Greek language means gift.

So Paul is saying they saw the gift of ministry that had been given to me. When
you see another person serving Christ, that is a gift that's been given to them.
And when you recognize that, that's a way of effectively serving together.

God's the one who's doing the work. And then the Bible says they gave to us
something called the right hand of fellowship. Paul is simply here saying we
agreed together, that we fellowshiped together.

We are heading the same direction even though we're doing different tasks in
heading the same direction. Maybe as you're listening to this, you're having a
tough time or have had a tough time with a fellow believer. And maybe it's
because they've gotten off.

They're not teaching the truth about Christ. But maybe it's something different.
Maybe it's because God's just given them a different ministry than you.

A different place to serve in the body of Christ. And in essence, what you need
to do in your heart, in your mind right now, is give them the right hand of
fellowship. Recognize in your heart that you're just doing different parts of
the task that God has given.

And then Paul says one final thing. He says we agreed together to remember the
poor. That was the very thing I was eager to do.

So they agreed together on the sphere of ministry where they needed to be doing
in ministry together. Paul says I was eager to do that. They recognized and
challenged one another, but they also recognized that they had different parts
of ministry to do.

Paul in these verses talks about how you and I can minister together in powerful
ways. Serve others in powerful ways. Remember God's not judging by external
appearance.

And remember God's the one who's at work. Let's talk to him for just a minute
together. Our Father, we thank you for the work that you are doing in the world.

We get to see some of it. We get to be in on even a smaller part of it. But it's
your work.

And so in some way, we're a part of all of it. Because it's your body of Christ
serving around the world. So when we see people serving in your name, help us to
rejoice.

And when we get to serve alongside of each other, help us to remember not to
judge by external appearance and help us to remember that you're the one who's
doing the work. We ask for this wisdom in Jesus name. Amen.

Well, join us tomorrow. Paul and Peter have a sort of a knock down drag out
argument. So we're going to see how that went and how God worked even through
that as we continue our study together in Galatians chapter two.