It's His Church

It’s His Church

October 13, 2013

For the past number of weeks, we’ve been looking at the church, and today and in two weeks, we’ll take a final look for now at the church. Remember, next week is more of a special week, as we will have a special worship and pot luck honoring our local firefighters and police officers.

Okay — sometimes when we read the stories in the Bible, we may have to admit in a very strange way we can be a little envious of something they had, which we seem to be missing. If you read the story of David, it’s pretty obvious God called him to be king. It would be really hard to miss that. Or when we read about any prophet, they always tell us, God called me.

Isaiah 6 - In the year King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne...

Jeremiah 1 - The words of Jeremiah, son of Hilkiah . . . to whom the word of the LORD came...

Ezekiel 2 - God said to me, O mortal, stand up on your feet, and I will speak with you . . .

Hosea 1 - The word of the LORD that came to Hosea . . .

Joel 1 - The word of the LORD that came to Joel . . .

Amos 7 - I am no prophet ... but I am a herdsman ... and the LORD took me ... and said “Go prophesy to my people Israel.”

I can give more examples, but suffice it to say, we have very real and pretty obvious calls for these prophets. Then we begin to think about ourselves, and while I know these were prophets, and there was a king and we can look back and see priests and even Moses and Noah and more . . . so we begin to wonder, what’s my calling supposed to be.

How and where do I fit in within God’s scheme of church and ministry. We looked at that a little last week, when we spoke about spiritual gifts and today we’re going to continue to look at God’s call in our lives as it pertains to the church.

You see, we often find God’s call in our lives in some astonishing ways. It comes as a complete surprise. We’re floored when we realize what God wants us to do, but I don’t think that’s the way God planned it for us. God doesn’t want us to search and search and search and be so exhausted from this searching that we lose sight of what He really wants us to do. God has a plan for us, I believe that and I trust that. Sometimes we don’t fully understand the nuts and bolts, but there’s a plan we are supposed to follow.

When it comes to the church, there are so many potential ministries we can be involved in, so many opportunities, yet, so many people come to church, leave church, and really don’t get involved, yet God considers each one of us a minister.

Now, that may sound a little strange to you, because many people believe it’s only the pastor of the church who is the minister. The pastor of the church is a minister vocationally. But when we read the Word of God, we must realize each of you are also ministers.

Paul wrote in Ephesians 4:12 ~ that our gifts are to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ. When Paul uses the word ‘saints,’ he’s not referring to people will call Saint Michael, Saint Doug and Saint Jeremy; or those Christians who have gone to heaven. He’s really referring to those Christ followers who are alive right now and who are supposed to carry out the will of God. Folks, you and I are the saints being referred to here. We are the saints and ministers. In 1 Peter 2:9, Peter even goes to the extent of calling us a "royal priesthood." All believers, male, female, old, young, mature or immature are members of the Royal Priesthood.

In his book, Doing Church as a Team, Pastor Wayne Cordeiro, wrote the following:

"Every member is a minister. God calls us to be full-time ministers! Full-time? Yes! Not just on Sundays, not just at Bible studies, but full-time.

Do we love God just part-time? Do we serve Him just part-time?

We are all full-time citizens of heaven with a commission and an assignment to accomplish during our stay here on this planet.

Before you are a businessman, you are a minister. Before you are a homemaker, you are a minister.

Some may protest, 'I work for the state, a construction company, a school, a hospital, a store, or say I’m retired, or I farm.