Every Follower Of Jesus Is Minister Series

A little boy wanted $500 very badly. He prayed for weeks, but nothing happened. So, he decided to write a letter to God requesting $500.

When the postal authorities received the letter addressed to… "God, USA", they decided to send it to the President.

The President was so amused that he instructed his secretary to send the little boy a $20 bill. The President thought this would appear to be a lot of money to a little boy.

The little boy was delighted with the $20 bill, and sat down to write a thank-you note to God. The postal authorities forwarded this letter on to the President, too.

It read:

"Dear God, Thank you very much for sending the money. However, I noticed that for some reason you sent it through Washington, D.C., and those no good crooks deducted $480 in taxes!"

I want to take a moment to thank everyone who gave cards, and gifts for minister appreciation month. We jokingly say that we eat like kings and queens in November and December because of how generous all of you are.

And then in December, you are generous for Christmas as well, so thank you! I know Kendall, Lauren, and Spencer feel that same way.

It is a blessing to serve here at ECCC as staff members of this church. However, I want to share some news with you that you may or may not like.

I’m not sure I even like saying it because it might affect next year’s gifts that we receive. All right… here goes… you ready?

We are not the only ministers here at ECC! All of you are ministers as well. The only difference between all of you and me… and the difference between you and the rest of the staff is that we are paid staff… it’s our profession.

But if we really believe what the Bible is telling us here… then we have to understand that… first of all…

1. Every follower of Jesus has a calling.

Every follower of Jesus is a minister.

In Paul’s letter to the church at Ephesus in Chapter 4 he says this, beginning in verse 11.

Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. 12 Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. Ephesians 4:11-12

That means the role of a pastor isn’t to do all the ministry… it’s to train and equip you to do ministry.

So what this means to you is this…

If you are a follower of Jesus… then you are a minister. God has placed a divine calling on your life.

I love when Jesus called His disciples, and He said this famous line… “Hey guys… Come, watch Me work.”

Obviously… He didn’t say that… He said, “Come, follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

He wasn’t inviting them to be spectators. He was inviting them to be participants in His mission.

Think about it this way. Let’s think about watching a football game on TV. A lot of you will do that later today. What will you see? You might see anywhere from 50,000-70,000 fans in the stands.

If you’re watching the Bengals, it’s probably about a fourth of that.

There are 22 men on the field, as the game goes on, nearly all of them are in desperate need of rest. Meanwhile, there are thousands of people in the stands… most in desperate need of exercise….

But what happens usually is… the fans eat the hot dogs, and brats, and popcorn, and nachos, and whatever else may be there.

They take in all kinds of beverages and they cheer and holler and complain throughout the game about what their team ought to be doing… or what the officials have called or didn’t call.

I don’t even have time to go into the amount of money that is spent on said food and beverages, or the tickets, the jerseys, the parking, possible hotel depending on how far one might have to drive… that is a whole ‘nother sermon.

The scene at a football game is not unlike a picture of most churches (except for the money spent to participate) People sitting, watching, cheering some… complaining some…

What happens in a lot of churches is that there are too many people on the sidelines and not enough people on the field.

But the New Testament model is a total team effort. Everyone has a role. The church is not built by a few gifted individuals… it is built by the faithful obedience of every believer.

The English Standard Version of the Bible translates this verse like this. The gifts are given to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.