Ministry: Not just for chaplains and pastors
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Ministry : Not just for Chaplains and Pastors
When we think of ministry, for most people, they imagine something that occurs at a church and has a religious connotation to it
For others, they see it as the job of the pastor or the chaplain
But really it is the job of every believer
The word “ministry” means to render assistance or help by performing certain duties, service
Truett Cathy- Chik-a-fila
Truett fully understands that the workplace is also to be a “ministry place,” a spiritually sound environment where God should always be honored first and foremost. And that spiritual commitment can’t be better exemplified than the decision of the brothers to close their 24-hour grill on Sundays. All their lives they have attended church on Sunday, so there is no way now they will allow work to interrupt worship.
Truett elaborates, “Our decision to close on Sunday was our way of honoring God and directing our attention to things more important than our business. If it took seven days a week to make a living with a restaurant, then we needed to be in some other line of work. Through the years I have never wavered from that position.”16
16 Cathy, Eat Mor Chikin, 40.
June Hunt, Biblical Counseling Keys on Employment: Be Extraordinary among the Ordinary (Dallas, TX: Hope For The Heart, 2008), 8–9.
One of the greatest instruments to spreading the gospel comes through Christian service
One of the greatest instruments to spreading the gospel comes through Christian service
So today we are going to discover that ministry involves everyone in the body of Christ, not just a select few.
4 disciplines we have been discussing come together to build up the body of Christ, and to make us an effective instrument in the proclamation of the good news of Jesus Christ.
on the other hand, one of the greatest hinderances to the spread of the gospel, is when the body of Christ is disjointed or not unified
Today we are going to look at a foundational passage concerning ministry and how we must remain unified for the purpose of making Christ known to the nations.
One of the greatest vehicles to
Turn in your bibles to
PAGE 828 in the pew Bible
1 As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.
1 As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.
True ministry is accomplished when we become servants of the King, and His kingdom.
Paul begins this chapter speaking about the unity of body of Christ which was accomplished through the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord
Paul urges them (literally strongly encouraging them to conduct their lives in way that represents God, or shows the transformation that has taken place in their lives because of what Christ has done for us )
True ministry is found in are desire to be servants of the king, and his kingdom
23 Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.
Jesus said, “If
43 Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. 45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
diakonia vs doulos
Ministry is founded in servanthood
The conduct that Paul so urges us to become, comes from the life and ministry of Christ
He focuses on the conduct of each believer and they way in which they are to conduct themselves within the body of Christ (Verses 1-2)
2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.
We are to be imitators of Christ
Ephesians 5:1-3
As we walk in love, we are bound by our confession of faith and the indwelling of the Spirit of God in our lives, because of what Christ did on the cross and his resurrection.
It is accomplished because of that work of Christ on the cross, which were brought into the family of God.
We are to work really hard at keeping the peace of God within the body of Christ
2. The effectiveness of the body of Christ to perform ministry is experienced fully when we our unified as the body of Christ.
QUESTION: HOW DO WE DO THIS?
3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit— just as you were called to one hope when you were called— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
Paul describes it through a confessions of sorts
Verses 4-6
4 There is one body and one Spirit— just as you were called to one hope when you were called— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
It is accomplished because of that work of Christ on the cross, in which we were brought into the family of God.
This confession describes how we remain in step with the Father and the body of Christ
We are united by our one confession of faith
14 Do all things without grumbling or disputing, 15 that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, 16 holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.
Grumbling and disputing disrupts the peace of God within the community and will impact directly our witness to a wicked generation who are in need of hope of Christ
Ministry would be great if we didnt have to work with people, but without people ministry will not happen
Learning to die to self is hard to accomplish on our own, it has to be a work of the Spirit in our lives,
We need to learn how to decrease so that God can increase in our lives
It comes from being brought
7 But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. 8 This is why it says: “When he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men.” 9 (What does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? 10 He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.) 11 It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12 to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
3. The purpose of ministry is to build up the body of Christ so we can fully realize our purpose within the world.
What is our purpose in the World? To proclaim Christ and him crucified.
Through Christ and his resurrection, he provided gifts to men for purpose of preparing the church to do the work of ministry or service
We all don’t have the same gifts, but we have the same mission
each of us has been given at least one gift, to be used for the body of Christ, so that the body of Christ (or the church) can accomplish the work of spreading the gospel to the world
Consider what Paul states in
Consider what Paul states in
5 As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
5 As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
“As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill YOUR ministry”
“As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill YOUR ministry”
We have been called by God for a purpose, a purpose that I will argue, has to do with the proclamation of the Gospel.
However that may look for you, we are all called to serve or be ministers of the Gospel of Christ
Notice that Paul says to do the work of an evangelist.
Now some have the gift of evangelism, but we are all called to evangelize.
We are all called to share and know what the good news is?
So what is the good news
Ministry can happen in the church and outside of the church, the questions really is, are we fulfilling the ministry that God has entrusted to us.
You might be asking, thats great, but what is my gift?
We come to get encouragement for our souls so we can return back to the fight
Are we fulfilling our ministry
In the back I have ran off a spiritual gifts test.
Are we doing our part as we spread the gospel
Now here is the challenge, take the test, discover what your spiritual gift or gifts might be, then begin praying and asking God, how can I use that gift to further the gospel of Christ?
Pray how can this gift be used within the chapel here?
We are body, and as the body each of us has a crucial part in making sure the body functions properly.
As we become people of the word
As we delve into fellowhip
And begin to pray for one another,
As we grow closer to God and his church through worship
We will begin to do the work of the ministry as we see needs arise and we step out in faith, and watch God do something amazing .
But we need each other to do their part so we can be an effective body at NAS Lemoore, seeing the need to spread the good news of Jesus Christ to a hopeless and helpless world in need of a Savior
We need prayer warriors
We need our encouragers
We need servants
We need are givers
We have new women's ministry that is about to kick off, called Beloved Women
We need those who have discernment
We are looking to reach our single sailors and young married couples for Christ
We need our evangelist
We are looking to see Christ do something so incredible here, that when people look and see, they will know that God is real.
We need our pastor and teachers
Are you ready to join in?
We need those who have hospitatlity
We need those who have helps
We need our leaders
We need each other
How are you contributing to the building up of the body of Christ
We need you to be an active participate in the building up of the body of Christ
“As Iron sharpens Iron, so one man sharpens another”
We need each other so we can stand against the wiles of the devil.