A number of you have mentioned having been blessed by a recent sermon given on Ministry Sunday (August 26, 2007). For you web surfers, this was a day when we were encouraged to sign up for various ministries around our church. Regardless, you should be able to translate into your own culture. Enjoy!
“You did not choose me
But I chose you and appointed you
To go and bear fruit
Fruit that will last.”
John 15:16
Jesus’ words to us this morning are words of purpose, words of destiny, words that invite us into an entirely new level of spiritual activity. The Scriptures this morning invite us into a lifestyle of selflessness, a life wherein our personal agendas are forsaken for God’s personal agenda, for his sake, for his eternal purposes. His purposes aren’t knee-jerk ideas that he sort of makes up as history rolls along – but they are divine purposes that have been thought and through, laid out, and initiated since the beginning of time. God is working – increasing and yeasting – towards a glorious goal: a Day when every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
And he has chosen you, and he has chosen me, to make his work happen.
He could do it himself, of course, this work of redemption that is. He could lift a finger, wink his eye, or command a legion of Angels to make it happen. But he has engineered his work to include you and me, with all of our human frailties, to bridge the gap between and heaven and earth. Jesus left his work first with 12, then 70, then 120, than 3,000 and then… us.
But here’s my question: Why us? Why has he chosen us for such a monumental task and, at the same time, made us entirely dependant upon him to fulfill that same task – when he could pull off the entire project without us – in a far shorter amount of time and with perfect results? Why has God chosen us to do something that he could have done with a simple snap of his fingers?
Shortly after I gave into the call of Christ in my life I was attending a Tuesday night Bible Study in Miami Florida. We ate pot-luck (always a treat for a single man!), sang songs for about 30 minutes, dove into the Word of God for 45 minutes, prayed, and went home. One evening, the worship leader approached me and asked me if I would bring my guitar on the following week. While I was flabbergasted at the request because he was such a great leader and was doing a perfectly fine job all by himself, I agreed and found myself there at his side, co-leading worship with him the next Tuesday, and the next Tuesday, and numerous Tuesdays after that. He rarely let me lead anything and seemed very specific in what he wanted me to play, or not play. Then one day, quite out of the blue, he asked me to lead one song. Then another, and then another. By the end of the year there were days he didn’t even show up. He had built in me a worship leader.
Reflecting on this I see a couple of thing going on. First, Jay was all about the equipping of the saints (that would be me). He also knew God’s desire is to make leaders in ways that encourage and build the Body of Christ. (This is our model of ministry at Holy Apostles as well.)
But secondly, and as I reflect on this many years later, I think Jay may have had an ulterior motive. Jay liked me. There was something very neat that happened when we talked and ate together. And, when we played music together we had a lot of fun. We laughed and got to know one another. In the process of doing ministry, our joy was made complete. And much of that joy came as a direct result of our forming, growing relationship as we ministered together.
So, back to my question, “Why has God chosen you to do something that he could have done with a snap of his finger?
Three words: He like us. He likes you. And he’ll do about anything to get us into relationship with him. He knows that, as we co-task with him in his work, we will have the joy having of intimate relationship with him.
Pretty cool, huh?
In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul tells us that, as the Body of Christ, each one of us has been given unique giftings, or chrisms, which when activated, play into the full function of God’s purposes for the community of faith. Some people are out front. Others you’ll never see, nor will ever know about. Doesn’t matter. We have all been given spiritual gifts – teens and adults alike - and have been given great individual latitude in our own expression of our gifts; all by the same Spirit, and, says Paul, just as God has determined.
And he has chosen and appointed us to go and bear fruit. The word “chosen” in the Greek is leggio – the word from which the word “leggo” comes from. It means to hand pick for a particular purpose in accordance with a particular design or greater work. Pretty cool, eh? When I was a kid I was involved in many sports, but I didn’t get picked to play on any of them. Sure, I sat on the team, but when the coach was looking for someone to send into the fireld, his eyes slowly glazed over when he scanned the bench to me, sitting there at the end of the bench. The good news for us is that each of us have been “Lego-ed,” if you will for God’s work. We have been hand chosen by God to and called into ministry which will bear fruit that will last! Isn’t that wonderful? Look at the person next to you and say to them, “I’ve been chosen by God to bear fruit that will last!”
Between the services and after the second service you will have an opportunity to visit the numerous booths and tables reflecting the many, many ministries at our Church. As you peruse the booths and speak with people behind the tables be asking yourself in the back of your mind a question. The question for you is not, “Has God called me to serve in a ministry,” but “Into which ministry is God calling me?”
Some of us will avoid the call like the plague. We will come up with all sorts of justifications why we shouldn’t do ministry. I know. I’ve been there. The best one I’ve heard is, “I’m not spiritual enough to serve the Lord.” LOL – Like the rest of us are? (I still maintain that the only reason God called me into the Ordained Priesthood was to make sure that I would attend church once a week!) Others will become so caught up and enthralled with all the ministries that they sign up for all of them – and even apply for part-time work at Bahama Mama’s! – and truth be known, will follow through on few of their commitments.
With that in mind I’d like to share with you five pieces of wisdom with the intent of helping you discern which work that is right for you at this season of your walk in Christ.
1. For most people here this morning, there is at least one ministry that God has definitely called you to be active in over the next year. Each of us has a ministry to work in. “I wish they all were prophets,” Moses declared. “Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good,” Paul writes. There is a perfect “you-shaped” ministry awaiting you in that room. Your job is to find it.
2. The ministry that awaits you can be something that you are inclined to do naturally, yet it may be more-so something you’ve always wanted to do – something you’ve had a deep passion or desire for for quite some time – but have never have had the opportunity to do it.
3. God has not called you to do all the ministries. Limit your involvement to 2.5 ministries. (Ministries that you are “working,” not receiving benefit from.) God wants well-trimmed lamps brightly burning to reflect the face of his Son, not half-lit saints, staggering around like zombies because they are spending all their energies trying to save the world. Relax. We already have a Savoir. Our God is peaceful; he is never stressed out. This morning’s Gospel says it best: "Remain in me and I will remain in you… You can bear no fruit, unless you remain in me.” Good fruit is limited to 2.5 ministries per person. Better fruit is limited to less.
4. Don’t let what the “ministry of consideration” look like, talk you out of your call to sign up for it. It will look different when you get there. God will use you in its continued development.
5. Allow yourself to consider ministries that won’t be “fun.” Truth of the matter is that, while ministry brings joy and a deeper relationship with our Lord, “ministry,” by its very definition, is sacrificial. And, as many here know, God is notorious for calling us into increasingly more difficult acts of obedience as we mature in the Faith.
We often pray, “God, make me more like Jesus.”
(That is a dangerous prayer I might add.)
He says, “Do you really want to be more like Jesus?”
We say, “I do, I do!”
“Are you sure?“
“I am sure!” we assert.
“Alright,” he says. “Do this: Love one another as I have loved you.”
“Gulp!”
As Christians, our penultimate model of what it means to serve others is found in somebody who went completely selfless. Someone who, as Paul writes to the Philippians, “humbled himself, even to the point of death on the Cross.” And his words echo back from the Empty Tomb: “Lay down your lifes' for each other, pick up your cross and to follow me.”
Make no doubts about it: Ministry is sacrificial.
I am reminded of Jesus’ admonition to Peter in John 21 where Jesus said to Peter three times, “Feed My Sheep.” And, when Peter finally gets it, Jesus then adds, “I tell you the truth, when you were young you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch your hands and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.”
Ministry isn’t always fun. And let it be known that, while we are called “Leggo-ed” to bear fruit that will last, we sometimes see more fertilizer than fruit. But the knowledge that God has called us says, by implication, that he has confidence in us to do the thing he’s called us into (or why would he have called us into it in the first place?). Jesus always leads us into places where He himself has gone. Then he comes back and walks us through the places He’s called us into in the first place. Doing ministry isn’t always fun, but we have the assurance that the Great Shepherd will never leave us or forsake us.
In closing, I want to encourage you – in what ever ministry you choose – to perform that ministry with all diligence and the highest possible standard of integrity. In whatever ministry you have – be it serving coffee or serving wine; teaching a child or teaching an adult; printing office materials or designing liturgies – remember you are an ambassador of Christ, you reflect the ministry of Christ, and (to some, anyway) you will be the only Christ people will ever see. Take your call seriously. Serve humbly and faithfully in your most holy calling. Make everything you do be fueled by a grateful heart and sustained by a moment-by-moment openness to the Holy Spirit.
You did not choose me But I chose you and appointed you
To go and bear fruit Fruit that will last.” John 15:16
“You did not choose me
But I chose you and appointed you
To go and bear fruit
Fruit that will last.”
John 15:16
Jesus’ words to us this morning are words of purpose, words of destiny, words that invite us into an entirely new level of spiritual activity. The Scriptures this morning invite us into a lifestyle of selflessness, a life wherein our personal agendas are forsaken for God’s personal agenda, for his sake, for his eternal purposes. His purposes aren’t knee-jerk ideas that he sort of makes up as history rolls along – but they are divine purposes that have been thought and through, laid out, and initiated since the beginning of time. God is working – increasing and yeasting – towards a glorious goal: a Day when every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
And he has chosen you, and he has chosen me, to make his work happen.
He could do it himself, of course, this work of redemption that is. He could lift a finger, wink his eye, or command a legion of Angels to make it happen. But he has engineered his work to include you and me, with all of our human frailties, to bridge the gap between and heaven and earth. Jesus left his work first with 12, then 70, then 120, than 3,000 and then… us.
But here’s my question: Why us? Why has he chosen us for such a monumental task and, at the same time, made us entirely dependant upon him to fulfill that same task – when he could pull off the entire project without us – in a far shorter amount of time and with perfect results? Why has God chosen us to do something that he could have done with a simple snap of his fingers?
Shortly after I gave into the call of Christ in my life I was attending a Tuesday night Bible Study in Miami Florida. We ate pot-luck (always a treat for a single man!), sang songs for about 30 minutes, dove into the Word of God for 45 minutes, prayed, and went home. One evening, the worship leader approached me and asked me if I would bring my guitar on the following week. While I was flabbergasted at the request because he was such a great leader and was doing a perfectly fine job all by himself, I agreed and found myself there at his side, co-leading worship with him the next Tuesday, and the next Tuesday, and numerous Tuesdays after that. He rarely let me lead anything and seemed very specific in what he wanted me to play, or not play. Then one day, quite out of the blue, he asked me to lead one song. Then another, and then another. By the end of the year there were days he didn’t even show up. He had built in me a worship leader.
Reflecting on this I see a couple of thing going on. First, Jay was all about the equipping of the saints (that would be me). He also knew God’s desire is to make leaders in ways that encourage and build the Body of Christ. (This is our model of ministry at Holy Apostles as well.)
But secondly, and as I reflect on this many years later, I think Jay may have had an ulterior motive. Jay liked me. There was something very neat that happened when we talked and ate together. And, when we played music together we had a lot of fun. We laughed and got to know one another. In the process of doing ministry, our joy was made complete. And much of that joy came as a direct result of our forming, growing relationship as we ministered together.
So, back to my question, “Why has God chosen you to do something that he could have done with a snap of his finger?
Three words: He like us. He likes you. And he’ll do about anything to get us into relationship with him. He knows that, as we co-task with him in his work, we will have the joy having of intimate relationship with him.
Pretty cool, huh?
In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul tells us that, as the Body of Christ, each one of us has been given unique giftings, or chrisms, which when activated, play into the full function of God’s purposes for the community of faith. Some people are out front. Others you’ll never see, nor will ever know about. Doesn’t matter. We have all been given spiritual gifts – teens and adults alike - and have been given great individual latitude in our own expression of our gifts; all by the same Spirit, and, says Paul, just as God has determined.
And he has chosen and appointed us to go and bear fruit. The word “chosen” in the Greek is leggio – the word from which the word “leggo” comes from. It means to hand pick for a particular purpose in accordance with a particular design or greater work. Pretty cool, eh? When I was a kid I was involved in many sports, but I didn’t get picked to play on any of them. Sure, I sat on the team, but when the coach was looking for someone to send into the fireld, his eyes slowly glazed over when he scanned the bench to me, sitting there at the end of the bench. The good news for us is that each of us have been “Lego-ed,” if you will for God’s work. We have been hand chosen by God to and called into ministry which will bear fruit that will last! Isn’t that wonderful? Look at the person next to you and say to them, “I’ve been chosen by God to bear fruit that will last!”
Between the services and after the second service you will have an opportunity to visit the numerous booths and tables reflecting the many, many ministries at our Church. As you peruse the booths and speak with people behind the tables be asking yourself in the back of your mind a question. The question for you is not, “Has God called me to serve in a ministry,” but “Into which ministry is God calling me?”
Some of us will avoid the call like the plague. We will come up with all sorts of justifications why we shouldn’t do ministry. I know. I’ve been there. The best one I’ve heard is, “I’m not spiritual enough to serve the Lord.” LOL – Like the rest of us are? (I still maintain that the only reason God called me into the Ordained Priesthood was to make sure that I would attend church once a week!) Others will become so caught up and enthralled with all the ministries that they sign up for all of them – and even apply for part-time work at Bahama Mama’s! – and truth be known, will follow through on few of their commitments.
With that in mind I’d like to share with you five pieces of wisdom with the intent of helping you discern which work that is right for you at this season of your walk in Christ.
1. For most people here this morning, there is at least one ministry that God has definitely called you to be active in over the next year. Each of us has a ministry to work in. “I wish they all were prophets,” Moses declared. “Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good,” Paul writes. There is a perfect “you-shaped” ministry awaiting you in that room. Your job is to find it.
2. The ministry that awaits you can be something that you are inclined to do naturally, yet it may be more-so something you’ve always wanted to do – something you’ve had a deep passion or desire for for quite some time – but have never have had the opportunity to do it.
3. God has not called you to do all the ministries. Limit your involvement to 2.5 ministries. (Ministries that you are “working,” not receiving benefit from.) God wants well-trimmed lamps brightly burning to reflect the face of his Son, not half-lit saints, staggering around like zombies because they are spending all their energies trying to save the world. Relax. We already have a Savoir. Our God is peaceful; he is never stressed out. This morning’s Gospel says it best: "Remain in me and I will remain in you… You can bear no fruit, unless you remain in me.” Good fruit is limited to 2.5 ministries per person. Better fruit is limited to less.
4. Don’t let what the “ministry of consideration” look like, talk you out of your call to sign up for it. It will look different when you get there. God will use you in its continued development.
5. Allow yourself to consider ministries that won’t be “fun.” Truth of the matter is that, while ministry brings joy and a deeper relationship with our Lord, “ministry,” by its very definition, is sacrificial. And, as many here know, God is notorious for calling us into increasingly more difficult acts of obedience as we mature in the Faith.
We often pray, “God, make me more like Jesus.”
(That is a dangerous prayer I might add.)
He says, “Do you really want to be more like Jesus?”
We say, “I do, I do!”
“Are you sure?“
“I am sure!” we assert.
“Alright,” he says. “Do this: Love one another as I have loved you.”
“Gulp!”
As Christians, our penultimate model of what it means to serve others is found in somebody who went completely selfless. Someone who, as Paul writes to the Philippians, “humbled himself, even to the point of death on the Cross.” And his words echo back from the Empty Tomb: “Lay down your lifes' for each other, pick up your cross and to follow me.”
Make no doubts about it: Ministry is sacrificial.
I am reminded of Jesus’ admonition to Peter in John 21 where Jesus said to Peter three times, “Feed My Sheep.” And, when Peter finally gets it, Jesus then adds, “I tell you the truth, when you were young you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch your hands and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.”
Ministry isn’t always fun. And let it be known that, while we are called “Leggo-ed” to bear fruit that will last, we sometimes see more fertilizer than fruit. But the knowledge that God has called us says, by implication, that he has confidence in us to do the thing he’s called us into (or why would he have called us into it in the first place?). Jesus always leads us into places where He himself has gone. Then he comes back and walks us through the places He’s called us into in the first place. Doing ministry isn’t always fun, but we have the assurance that the Great Shepherd will never leave us or forsake us.
In closing, I want to encourage you – in what ever ministry you choose – to perform that ministry with all diligence and the highest possible standard of integrity. In whatever ministry you have – be it serving coffee or serving wine; teaching a child or teaching an adult; printing office materials or designing liturgies – remember you are an ambassador of Christ, you reflect the ministry of Christ, and (to some, anyway) you will be the only Christ people will ever see. Take your call seriously. Serve humbly and faithfully in your most holy calling. Make everything you do be fueled by a grateful heart and sustained by a moment-by-moment openness to the Holy Spirit.
You did not choose me But I chose you and appointed you
To go and bear fruit Fruit that will last.” John 15:16
Let us pray...
