All to Him I Owe

For a number of years, Beneth and I had the privilege of working with Dr. Walt Brock, the founder and director of Ironwood Christian camp  He is a man who has lived in the Word of God for many years and shows evidence of that time in the Word in the practical ways that he lives. One summer night at Ironwood, he and I were sitting in a jeep contemplating the day we had just experienced. We had a full campsite packed with teenagers, the electricity had gone out, our camp speaker was ill, a serious injury had occurred at the lake, and a number of staff members were struggling spiritually. Mr. Walt made a comment that night that has stuck with me: “I think the lion is roaring today!”

His comment was based upon I Peter 5:8 where it states, “…your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:” For me, the last few weeks of ministry have felt as though the “lion has been roaring.” Through a number of circumstances, my senses have been alerted to the fact that the ministry includes a spiritual battle against an enemy that is not made of flesh and blood. Your week may have been similar to mine. If not, I’m sure there is a day coming soon when you will hear the roar of the lion. Regardless of your current situation, I want to plead with you to respond to the lion’s roar in 3 ways.

#1. Trust God Confidently: Sometimes I find myself trusting God reluctantly. Because I’ve tried all of my own solutions to the situation, I reluctantly begin to trust God as a last resort. The Bible clearly teaches that we are on the winning side (Psalm 60:12; I Corinthians 15:57). Christ has promised to never leave us or forsake us (Matthew 28:20; Hebrews 13:5). Standing strong in the power of His might is possible, or He wouldn’t have commanded us to do it (Ephesians 6:10). There is no good reason for us to reluctantly trust God today. Our trust should be confident in the fact that the One we are trusting is trustworthy.

#2. Pray Fervently: Most of us pray throughout the day-to-day events of ministry life. We pray for the Lord’s help with sermon prep, ministry decisions, and the needs of people we serve. Though we pray regularly, it is interesting to me what the “roar of the lion” does for our prayer life. The roar intensifies our prayer life. We find ourselves not just praying but pleading with God. The heightened sense of danger causes us to take our prayers far more seriously. Don’t miss the value of the lion’s roar. It can add an element to our prayer life that might have been missing.

#3. Work Tirelessly: Galatians 6:9 reminds believers in the midst of difficulty to not “grow weary in well doing.” Don’t quit because the lion roared. His roar is a roar of hunger, not a roar of victory. A hungry lion indicates that he has not found a satisfying meal yet. Even though people are struggling, the finances are declining, and you are at the end of your own wits, don’t quit! Keep working tirelessly, because we will reap if we faint not. A sure reward is promised to those who will stay faithful.

The lion will roar! He may be roaring in your life and ministry today. Stay sober and be vigilant (I Peter 5:8). Use these three simple reminders as your punch list of priority when you are reminded of the spiritual battle present in the ministry to which God has called you.

Are you striving for ministry competency or maturity in Christ? More and more I realize that a large portion of my efforts in ministry are spent trying to gain a certain level of competency in ministry, rather than a maturity in Christ.

Striving for a spirit of excellence in ministry and being adequately prepared for the ministry God has given us is not inherently wrong. But if we are not careful, it can distract us from what should be our main concern—growing in our maturity in Christ.

I’ve noticed that most individuals in ministry find themselves devoting a lot of attention to five areas of competency.

1. Administrative skills
2. Schedule management
3. Sermon preparation and delivery
4. Counseling skills
5. Event and program planning

A quick look at my weekly schedule would show all five of these areas permeating my calendar and to-do list. Many would call this the work of the ministry! When the bulk of our efforts are spent trying to develop these five areas, we can subtly find ourselves “grading” our success or failure based upon these areas. For instance, I spoke with a pastor recently who told me how discouraged he was in ministry, because of the messiness of his desk and because he seems to keep planning events at the last minute. He was discouraged, because he was basing his success solely upon his ability to improve in his administrative skills and event planning. Though I’m an advocate of both, I challenged him with his standard of success. Is success in God’s eyes based upon his administrative skills and event planning, or is there something more important at stake?

Ephesians 4:15 reminds us that God’s goal for us is to “grow up into Him in all things…” So, what does maturity in Christ look like? This list is not exhaustive, but it is a starting point.

1. Maturity in Christ is having a right definition of success in the ministry. True ministry success is faithfully doing God’s will. Regardless of the efficiency of my office, the creativity and depth of a sermon, or the wow of a recent event, God wants us to be faithful! Faithfulness is doing the right thing consistently, though I’m not seeing fruit immediately.
2. Maturity in Christ is living consistently in a state of dependence on the Spirit. It is so easy to do the work of the ministry in the flesh. The longer we are in ministry and the more skilled we become at certain aspects within the ministry, the easier it is to depend on ourselves, apart from the Spirit’s enablement. Self-dependent people do not pray; dependent people do! I read recently that John Fletcher was described as “staining the walls of his study with the breath of his prayers.” Could that be said of our cars, offices, and homes? Do we demonstrate a prayerful dependence on the Spirit?
3. Maturity in Christ is maintaining a desire for Christ’s glory over my own popularity. One of the reasons we are so driven to maintain ministry competency is that we hate the embarrassment of doing the ministry in a feeble way. That passion to not look poorly in the eyes of men can often become a driving motivation in all that we do. Instead of being concerned with the opinions of man, let’s be concerned about the glory of Christ. Is He being lifted up? Is He preeminent, or are we competing with Him for attention? I so appreciate the little phrase that was given to me a number of years ago: “Nothing to prove, One to please!” That is what it should be all about.
4. Maturity in Christ is guarding a daily routine of fellowship with Christ. Notice it is a daily routine of fellowship, not simply a daily routine. Daily routines of Bible reading, prayer, and meditation can often become just that—routines that we do with little thought or effort. They are more a habit than true fellowship with Christ. Our Bible reading and prayer life should be growing our level of fellowship with Christ, not merely our knowledge about Christ. Be careful about merely “double-dipping” in your Bible reading. That means, be careful about just studying for your next sermon and hoping to let that count for gaining a little fellowship with Christ. Sometimes the best thing we can do for our souls is to pick up the Bible and let it speak to us about us. This is far better than picking it up to hear what it says so we can just tell others what it says.

Don’t become bogged down with focusing on ministry competency. Make your goal this week to be maturing in Christ. When we have become what God wants us to be personally, we will have become what our ministries need us to be!

There is a room in our church that is creatively called “the Brain.” It is the room our leadership meets in once a month for the purpose of planning, praying and leading our congregation. There are a number of items posted on the walls to remind us of important principles that apply to our role as leaders. In 2012 the following principles were posted for us to remember and though 2012 is over I hope we will still use them in 2013 and the years to come.

1. The call to lead Faith Baptist Church in God’s will includes a call for us to diligently seek God’s will.

2. God’s will must always supersede our own personal opinions or desires.

3. We must be careful to avoid solely determining God’s will through:

• Another ministries practice
• The previous administration of this congregation
• What will help us avoid the most communication or conflict?

4. God will provide for that which is His will.

5. Our job is to know and lead the congregation in God’s will not to convince the congregation of God’s will.

6. God’s will is revealed through principles and the “ways” of God revealed in scripture.

It shouldn’t surprise us when sinners respond like sinners when we try to help them. Bitter individuals will often respond to rebuke with bitter rants and accusations. Angry people often respond to rebuke with cutting words and accusations that attempt to malign the character of the one who is rebuking. Liars continue to hide behind false statements and deceit when they are confronted with truth. It is especially difficult when the people who are responding this way are people who have served alongside us or are people we consider dear friends. The hurt we feel when that happens must be a small taste of what Christ experienced when his own disciples forsook him in his darkest hour.

There are three dangerous conclusions that we can come to when the person we are trying to help responds to rebuke the wrong way. The first is to conclude that since he didn’t respond spiritually, we must have done something wrong in the way we rebuked him. The second is to conclude that successful ministry is defined by everyone we are working with always responding right. These two conclusions can often become the soil that despair grows in and leads us to the third conclusion–that our ministry is in vain.

What are the truths that properly combat these wrong conclusions? Let me begin with a reminder of the exhortation of Hebrews 12:3: “For consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.” It is easy to let the situation we are dealing with so consume our thoughts that it brings our minds to a point of mental weariness. Instead of giving weight to the situation, give weight to your Savior. Properly considering Christ is the key to this whole situation. Apart from a proper view of Christ, our minds will become so weighted down that we find ourselves “easily beset” in our race of ministry (Hebrews 12:1).

When we come to the wrong conclusion that since he didn’t respond spiritually, we must have done something wrong in the way we rebuked him, please remember II Corinthians 12:15, where Paul says, “And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved.”Paul was aware that loving someone else does not insure that that that person will love in return. If we quit loving, because we didn’t receive love in return, we must question the integrity of our love in the first place. Love by its definition is to be willing to give for the good of another with no requirement of love in return. Ephesians 4:15 is a great guide for us concerning a godly rebuke: it must contain truth, with tenderness, over time. If you have given truth with tenderness but didn’t see a good outcome, don’t quit too soon. Don’t forget to give it time. Over time, truth given with tenderness can bring a favorable outcome.

Finally, in answer to the wrong conclusion that successful ministry is defined by everyone we are working with always responding right, we must remember that God defines success by our faithfulness to His calling. I Corinthians 4:2 says that faithfulness is what is required of a steward. We have each been given the responsibility be a good steward of people under our care. Our job is not to produce the fruit, but rather to remain faithful. Faithfulness is at the heart of God’s definition of success. Let’s plant and water, and leave the increase to God. There is nothing harder in the ministry than trying to do in our humanity what God says He will do in his Deity. Don’t try to be an overachiever, doing more than what God has asked us to do. Let’s stay faithful in our stewardship of the ministry God has given us, and leave the increase to God.