“All things are possible with God.” ( Mark 10:27 27 Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible, but not with God: for all things are possible with God. )

Sovereign grace is the spring of life for the Christian Hedonist. For what the Christian Hedonist loves best is the experience of the sovereign grace of God filling him and overflowing for the good of others.

Christian Hedonist missionaries love the experience of “not I, but the grace of God that is with me” ( 1 Corinthians 15:10 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not found vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. ). They bask in the truth that the fruit of their missionary labor is entirely of God ( 1 Corinthians 3:7 7 So then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase. ; Romans 11:36 36 For of him, and through him, and unto him, are all things. To him `be' the glory for ever. Amen. ).

They feel only gladness when the Master says, “Apart from me you can do nothing” ( John 15:5 5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit: for apart from me ye can do nothing. ). They leap like lambs over the truth that God has taken the impossible weight of new creation off their shoulders and put it on his own. Without begrudging, they say, “Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God” ( 2 Corinthians 3:5 5 not that we are sufficient of ourselves, to account anything as from ourselves; but our sufficiency is from God; ).

When they come home on furlough, nothing gives them more joy than to say to churches, “I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience” ( Romans 15:18 18 For I will not dare to speak of any things save those which Christ wrought through me, for the obedience of the Gentiles, by word and deed, ).

“All things are possible with God!” — in front the words give hope, and behind they give humility. They are the antidote to despair and pride — the perfect missionary medicine.