Church Ministries Lecture 13 – The Purpose of Ministry is the Glory of God.

I. The Purpose of Ministry is the Glory of God

Isaiah 43:7 Even every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him.

What is your motivation for ministry?

(Motive = that which incites to action; that which determines the choice, or moves the will.)

What is it that you are striving for in ministry?

(go around the class)

God knows our hearts. It is an undeniable fact that mixed motives often compete in our hearts.

TRUTH: The ultimate goal of any ministry (small or great) should be done for the glory and honor of God.

Our purpose as Christians is to bring glory to God by our lifestyles (the way that we conduct ourselves in deed and conversation).

As ministers, we are especially called on to reverence or “hallow” God’s name.

We bring glory to Him and to His name by continually putting Him in the right place: at the top!

If anything is accomplished for His kingdom through your ministry, it ultimately is because He accomplished it!

B/c this is a fact, He always deserves glory and credit for our ministries.

So, our purpose should be to bring more glory to Him through our faithful service.

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. . .we can rob God’s name of glory in other ways besides swearing. If we take credit for what God does for us and don’t praise Him, that’s robbing Him of glory, and we’re more concerned about what we want than what He wants. If we don’t thank God for His blessings but just take them for granted, we’re not hallowing His name-72.

If we forget where God brought us from and in turn lose our compassion for other souls, then we are robbing Him of His glory!

We may rob God of glory by willful offense (taking His name in vain, acts of sin, etc.), but more often we(ministers) rob Him of glory by silent negligence.

In other words, we fail to give glory to Whom glory is due.

Are we hollowing God’s name or hallowing it? 72.

Do we have ministries that are empty and artificial b/c we are not properly placing God in His rightful place in our ministries?

1 Corinthians 10:31 Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.

We must keep this verse ever before us. We must focus our attention upon it.

Ephesians 6:6 Not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart;

We must be careful not to do things for men. Even in regards to our outward standard.

Doing the will of God from our hearts (Eph. 6:6) involves doing the right thing, in the right way, at the right time, and for the right reason-73.

Four Times in Psalm 107;

Psalms 107:8 Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!

When you live for the glory of God, you long for others to give Him glory as well!

(Emphasis added – OH THAT MEN…)

This is the best way to bring glory to God.

It’s a dangerous thing to take for ourselves the glory that belongs only to God. -73.

Isaiah 42:8 I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images.

How easy it is to give glory to other things rather than to God!

How easy it is to make idols out of our buildings, statistics, clever sermon outlines, and even our God-given abilities-73.

No man can bear witness to Christ and to himself at the same time. -James Denney-73.

Some people obviously do not know this!

Do we pray, give, and practice spiritual disciplines in order to be praised by others, or to please the Lord and glorify Him? 74.

*Preachers-examine the content of your messages. What do they draw attention to? Does your message draw attention to itself OR to the crucified and risen Christ?

We can glorify God by the way we use our bodies (I Cor. 6:19-20), which includes our willingness to serve and, if need be, to suffer and die for Him (John 21:18-19; Phil. 1:19-22)-74.

Note:

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? 20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.

Philippians 1:19-22 19 For I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer, and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, 20 According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death. 21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 22 But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labour: yet what I shall choose I wot not.

Every mile traveled, every sacrifice made (preaching while sick, reaching out to the hurting when we are hurting ourselves-physically and spiritually), etc. brings glory to God.

Servants who are yielded to the Holy Spirit and filled with the Word of God will be guided to say and do those things that must honor the Lord. -72.

Note:

Ministers whose purpose is solely to glorify the Lord will say and do things that will bring honor/enhance the kingdom.

When our only desire is to glorify the Lord, we’re more than willing to step aside and let others use their gifts. We don’t care who gets the credit as long as God gets the glory. 74

Note:

Glorifying God implies making Him (Psalm 8):

1. Big. Psalms 8:1 To the chief Musician upon Gittith, A Psalm of David. O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens.

2. Real. Psalms 8:3 When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;

3. Personal. Psalms 8:4 What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?

The world needs to hear this message through our words and actions.

When God permits special trials to come to us, our families, or our churches, one of His purposes is to give us an opportunity to glorify His name-76.

Note: He will show Himself strong!

Job 42:12 So the LORD blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning: for he had fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she asses.

There was no way that Job could have “pulled himself” out of his difficulty. Only God could restore and renew. Ultimately, it is God that gets the credit for Job’s restoration.

Job’s faithfulness in difficulty is prominent, but God’s faithfulness to Job is even more prominent.

He can get the glory even in the most difficult of situations.

Whether we realize it or not, we communicate to our people the attitudes we have toward them and the work of the ministry, and it doesn’t take God’s people long to size up their shepherd. Do they see in us the joy and challenge of Christian service, or the drudgery and dullness of doing a job we don’t want to do for people we really don’t like. 77-78.

Note: This causes me to do a “heart” check!

As he focuses on the glory of God, the devoted minister will avoid becoming an idol to himself or to his people. If the pastor doesn’t sincerely seek to glorify God, the church may end up glorifying the pastor; then both the minister and the church will be in trouble. 78

Note:

People may begin to look solely at the pastor as the authority without holding his preaching/teaching up to God’s Word (the Standard!).

Fame and popularity aren’t the same as success-78.

Note:

We can glorify God’s name without being famous or popular, but we cannot be successful (in the kingdom) unless we are glorifying God’s name.

Never allow yourself to feel equal to your work-Phillips Brooks-79.

. . .consider that your calling is to glorify God. If that doesn’t humble us, nothing will-79.

Note:

You should constantly ask yourself how you can glorify God better.

When ministry becomes performance, then the sanctuary becomes a theater, the congregation becomes an audience, worship becomes entertainment, and man’s applause and approval become the measure of success. But when ministry is for the glory of God, His presence moves into the sanctuary-79.

Note:

I want the presence of God to be one of the distinguishing characteristics of my ministry. I know that I will only be able to secure His presence as long as my purpose is that He gets total glory and credit for anything that is accomplished.

Conclusion:

As we have discussed motive and purpose of ministry, you would do well to re-evaluate yours.

Can you see some negative tendencies that you possess concerning purpose of ministry?

If Satan cannot de-rail, discourage, and destroy you, then he will settle for distracting you.

A distracted minister will nearly be as ineffective as a backslidden one!

So, we must constantly maintain our focus on the main purpose of ministry (which is the glory of God)

Conclusion:

I hope that you have learned some things in this class that will help and be beneficial to you as you go forward into the ministry.

I believe in each and every one of you and what you are capable of doing for the kingdom of God, if you will allow God to grow you.

Before I let you go, I want to give you three keys to a successful ministry:

1. Stay close to Jesus!

Don’t let your relationship with Jesus get lax!

Don’t let the basis of your ministry become stagnant!

2. Don’t ever change!

There have been young people that have sat in this class, in this classroom, in this school, and left and went out and changed.

We don’t need anybody else to go out of here and change, but we need some folks that will leave out of here and hold tightly to the Word of God and will not compromise their standard, will not compromise what they believe, will not compromise what they know to be right, and will stand for Jesus and let the world go by.

I don’t want to talk to somebody about any of you in a few years and they just have to shake their head and say, “Well, so-and-so has compromised.”

I don’t want to hear that!

But I want to hear that you’re still going on and doing a work for God!

3. Love people like Jesus loves.

People don’t need to be beat over the head about their sin.

People don’t need to be told how bad they’ve been.

They need to know that there’s a God that loves them, and a Saviour that died for them, and a Holy Ghost that wants to draw them.

They need to know about a Deliverer that can reach down to where their at and pull them out of the muck and the mire of sin.

They don’t need us to judge them, but they need us to love them.

And if you want to be able to minister people, then you must first show them that you love them.

If you will do these three things, you will be successful in ministry!

Pray over class.