The Church At Brierfield

Ministry is not just for preachers.  Every believer has a ministry from God.  What is a successful ministry?  How do we determine whether we are succeeding in our ministry?

In the Bible, our ministries are compared to a runner running a race.  In order for a runner to run well, she must run on the predefined course.  If she runs on a difference course she will be disqualified.

Our ministry is the course to be run.  God has laid it out ahead of time and expects us to run on His course.  (Eph. 2:10)  A successful ministry is one that finishes the course God laid out.  To do so we must continually look for the course markers, the things God wants us to do, and follow them.  Success in ministry has nothing to do with the usual measuring sticks, i.e. numbers of people, money given, buildings built, et cetera.  It is all about following Jesus and the results are completely up to Him.

Running God’s course well requires complete focus on Jesus.  “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily hinders our progress. And let us run with endurance the race that God has set before us.  We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from start to finish.”  (Heb. 12:1, 2a, NLT)

We can never give up and we have not arrived at the finish until we are face to face with Jesus.  “No, dear brothers and sisters, I am still not all I should be, but I am focusing all my energies on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us up to heaven.”  (Phil. 3:13, 14, NLT)

Not only will a runner run poorly by getting off course, but a lack of discipline can ruin him as well.  “Remember that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize. You also must run in such a way that you will win.  All athletes practice strict self-control. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize.  So I run straight to the goal with purpose in every step. I am not like a boxer who misses his punches.  I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified.”  (1 Cor. 9:24-27, NLT)

If we run with discipline the race God laid out for us, one day we too can say with Paul, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”  (2 Tim. 4:7)  This is the mark of a successful ministry.

that is, that I may be encouraged together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me.

Spiritual believers spending time together sharing their faith in the Lord is a wonderfully encouraging experience.  I love those times and need them daily.  Paul was eager to spend this kind of time with the Romans.

Fleshly believers spending time together is no different than unbelievers spending time together.  They can all enjoy themselves but there is no spiritual value.

Spiritual believers spending time with fleshly believers can have various results.  The fleshly believer may become spiritual, may begin to feel guilty, may not realize there is a difference, or may become defensive.  The spiritual believer may become fleshly, may begin to pray, may begin to teach and encourage, or may begin to rebuke.

Would that we always be spiritual and encouraging to one another every day.  “Encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.”  (Heb. 3:13, NIV)

Romans 1:11 – Romans 1:13

For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end ye may be established;

Paul had a great desire to see the Romans and minister to them spiritually.  He wanted to give them a spiritual gift or blessing.  This is not to be confused with the spiritual gifts or enablements given by the Holy Spirit. (1 Cor. 12:7-11)

Paul wanted to teach them spiritual truth, which is the gift he wanted them to have.  His goal in teaching was that they become strong, firm and stable in their spirituality.  This is the very reason God gave Paul, as well as all preachers and teachers, to the Church.

[Jesus] is the one who gave these gifts to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers.  Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ, until we come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature and full grown in the Lord, measuring up to the full stature of Christ.  Then we will no longer be like children, forever changing our minds about what we believe because someone has told us something different or because someone has cleverly lied to us and made the lie sound like the truth.  Instead, we will hold to the truth in love, becoming more and more in every way like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church.  (Eph. 4:11-15, NLT)

Romans 1:10 – Romans 1:12

Have you ever wanted to know God more intimately?  Have you ever wondered why He seems hidden and wished He would reveal Himself more clearly?  His desire is that we know Him clearly but He will not reveal Himself unless we love Him obediently.

The basic characteristic of those who love God is obedience.  “If you love Me, keep My commandments.”  (John 14:15)  “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves me.”  (John 14:21a)  “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments.”  (1 John 5:3a)  If we say we love God and do not obey His commandments then we are deceiving ourselves.  “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.”  (James 1:22)

When we obediently love God then He will manifest, reveal, and show Himself to us.  “He who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.”  (John 14:21b)  If we want to truly know God then we must make a sincere commitment to obey Him and follow through with it in our daily lives.

Recently, while thinking back on when the Lord began to reveal Himself to me in a life altering way, I thought of a particular time in my life.  On December 28, 2008 I wrote the following in my journal, “What would one’s life be like if one resolved to believe and act upon everything the bible teaches?”  Then I wrote out the words to the hymn “I am resolved”.  Finally, I wrote “I am resolved thus to do!”, signed my name and the date.  From that point forward the Lord has revealed Himself to me as never before.  When I began to learn AND keep His commandments is when I first began to love Him.  In response, He began to show Himself to me.

making request if, by some means, now at last I may find a way in the will of God to come to you.

One of Pauls prayer requests concerning the Romans was that he would get a chance to visit them.  The Romans needed Paul to minister to them and he desparatly wanted to minister, yet he submitted himself to the will of God instead of running off to Rome on his own.  Just because there was an opportunity to minister and a great need for ministry, Paul was not free to up and go to Rome.  He would not go unless there was a way to do so that was in the will of God.

Do we have this same commitment to finding God’s will concerning our ministry?  Do we seek and follow God’s will for us or do we simply look for opportunities that we want to participate in and do that instead?  The difference is subtle but important.

Why are we not determined to wait on God’s will?  Why do we chase after whatever opportunity presents itself?  I think one reason is that we don’t believe God’s specific will for us is knowable.  We don’t really believe that He will reveal it to us.  Therefore, we do what seems right in our own eyes.

Romans 1:9 – Romans 1:11

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.”  (John 13:34)  As Jesus is preparing to leave the disciples, He gives them a new commandment.  The new part of the command was not that they love but that they love as Jesus loved them, giving His life for them.

Today’s romanticized view of love makes it seem strange that Jesus commanded them to love.  Yet, we are commanded to “love one another.”  Love is a choice, not an emotion.  Love is self sacrifice, not a feeling.

We are to love one another as Jesus loves us.  This is something that we cannot do on our own.  Jesus must produce this love as we allow Him to live His life in us through the Holy Spirit.

“By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”  (John 13:35)  Loving one another with the love of Jesus is an essential part of our witness to the world.  They will know we are His disciples by our love for each other.  Through this strange kind of love, that only Jesus can produce, they will see Christ in us.

Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. … For each one shall bear his own load. (Gal. 6:2, 5)

We all have our burdens to carry in life.  Some are heavy and overwhelming while others are light and manageable.

These two verses in Galatians seem to contradict one another, especially in the King James Version where “load” is translated “burden” in verse 5.  The difference is that verse 2 refers to burdens that are too heavy for one person to carry and verse 5 refers to burdens that one person can handle.

When the burdens of family, ministry, friends, or especially sin become too heavy for someone to bear, we have a responsibility to help them carry their burdens.   Helping people in this way fulfills the law of Christ.  “This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”  (John 15:12)

While we are to help people with heavy burdens, we are each responsible to handle our own light burdens.  We cannot neglect them or pass them off on other people.  God expects us to work, do our chores, minister, and deal with all the other responsibilities of our life.  Of course, He is always there with us giving us the strength we need to accomplish what He has given us to do.

Sermon by Joe Clark on Sunday, August 9, 2009.

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For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of His Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers,

As Paul is about to tell the Romans how much he prays for them, he appeals to God as a witness to the truth of his statement.  He wanted them to know that he wasn’t just saying that he prays for them.  How often have we flipantly told people that we would pray for them and then didn’t?  Are we faithful enough in our prayers that we are willing to call upon God as our witness?

Paul serves God with his spirit as well as his body.  It is easy to get caught up in external service and neglect the spiritual.  As important as service we perform with our body is, the service we perform with our spirit is much more important.  “For we are not fighting against people made of flesh and blood, but against the evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against those mighty powers of darkness who rule this world, and against wicked spirits in the heavenly realms.”  (Eph. 6:12, NLT)  Prayer is an entirely spiritual service, no body is required.

Paul prays for the Romans all the time.  He lived in a continuous state of prayer and commanded the Thessalonians to do the same, “pray without ceasing.” (1 Thess. 5:17)  To do this, prayer has to be more simple and basic than we generally think.  Prayer is simply talking to God.  He lives inside us and we should always be talking to Him.  One topic we should talk to Him about every day is the needs of our brothers and sisters in Christ.  Just as Paul did with the Romans, we should “without ceasing … make mention of [them] always in [our] prayers.”

Romans 1:8 – Romans 1:10

“The just shall live by faith,” (Rom. 1:17; Gal. 3:11) “for whatever is not from faith is sin.”  (Rom. 14:23)

Today, there is great emphasis on faith in salvation, and rightly so, but there is not enough emphasis on faith in our day to day lives after salvation.  The faith we placed in God to supernaturally save us from our sin is the same kind of faith we should place in Him to supernaturally work in our daily lives.

Faith and trust in God should be the basic, underlying attitude in everything we do.  In fact, even the good things we do are sin if they are not done from faith in God.  Often times our faith is in ourselves, our money, our job, our retirement plan, our church, our pastor, our guns, other people, etc. and not in God.

“Without faith it is impossible to please [God], for he who comes to [Him] must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”  (Heb. 11:6)  No matter how hard we try, we cannot please God with our own efforts.  He is only pleased when we completely trust in Him.  It is amazing how often we act as if God does not exist.  We must live our days mindful that God is and that He is always there with us.  A life of faith is one that diligently and constantly seeks God.

Unbelief is the great limiter within the Church as a whole and in the lives of individual believers.  There were many times that Jesus could not do mighty works because of unbelief in people.  The same is true today.  Jesus wants to do mighty works in and through the Church.  He is only limited by our unbelief.

Don’t be an unbelieving believer.  Live by faith!!!