As It Hath Pleased Him

Introduction

 Ten Converts in Twenty-seven Years - On September 4, 1807, Robert Morrison arrived in Canton as the first Chinese missionary of modern times. He quickly applied himself to learning Mandarin Chinese, hiring Chinese instructors who risked their own lives in teaching him (it being illegal to teach a foreigner to read or write Chinese). He completed his Chinese translation of the New Testament in 1813; the Old Testament in 1819. In September, 1814, seven years after he arrived, he secretly baptized his first convert. When he died in 1834 after 27 years in China, he had only baptized ten Chinese believers. Yet, his work became the foundation for much of what is happening in China today.     

1.  OUR PREDESTINATION
   
1.       The Calling Wherein We Are Called (1 Corinthians 7:20-24)
2.             According to the Good Pleasure of His Will (Ephesians 1:3-5, 8-11)
3. To the Praise of the Glory of His Grace (Ephesians 1:6-7, 12-14)
   
2.  OUR PRAISE
   
1. Gifted According to His Pleasure (1 Corinthians 4:5-7)
   
2.  Placed According to His Plan (1 Corinthians 12:21-24)
   
3.  OUR PURPOSE
1. Set to Ministry According to the Grace of God (Romans 12:3-8; Ephesians 4:7-8; 1 Peter 4:10-11)
2.   According to the Needs Determined by God (1 Corinthians 12:15-17) 
   
1.  GODS PROVIDENCE
2.   Working All Things Together for Good (Romans 8:28; Ecclesiastes 3:11)
3. Conforming Us to the Image of God (Romans 8:29-30; 2 Corinthians 3:18)
1.  GODS PLEASURE
2. The Purpose for Which We Were Created
3. All things made for Himself (Proverbs 16:4)
4. All created for the glory of God (Isaiah 43:7)
5.  All created for the pleasure of God (Revelation 4:11)
1. The Plan by Which We are to Serve God
2. To walk unto all pleasing (Colossians 1:10)
3. To abound more and more in this grace (1 Thessalonians 4:1)

Conclusion:

Sacrificing Self for Another – “One day the people of a southern town were startled by the sight of a runaway team attached to a carriage. Clinging desperately to the reins was a man being trampled beneath the hoofs of the horses. He stopped the horses but at the cost of his life. A needless sacrifice, thought the people, till they discovered in the carriage his little child unharmed. He gave up his life for his little one because he loved it. Who can say the sacrifice was too great? How feeble the comparison of this love with that of God who gave His Son to die for a world at enmity with Him!” –from Deliverance from the Penalty and Power of Sin by Orson R. Palmer (p. 16).