Philippians 2:5-8
Ministry Matters
Woodlawn Baptist Church
October 7, 2007
Brother Kevin never looked so good in his skivvies! That’s what Justin told the group of guys we were with a few years ago. I’ve mentioned canoeing the Pecos River before. You may remember Michael and Tyler and I going a little over a year ago. This morning I want to tell you about one of my favorite canoe trips with a group of guys who made the trip memorable.
For several weeks I had been memorizing and meditating on Philippians 2:5-8, the Bible passage that says,
“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”
Although I had been spending a lot of time in it, the passage just wasn’t saying much to me, that is until we got on the river. Each year I would try to take a group of high school boys on this rugged, adventurous canoe trip down the Pecos River in southwest Texas. It’s a 63 mile trek of beauty, wild and solitude. This particular year I was meeting a group of friends from Colorado with 10 from our group. It was March…Spring Break, and rather cold in the water. We paired off and started our journey.
The first day is always a great day of laughs as the newbies take to the water and get their paddles wet. There’s nothing like seeing the boys tumble and fall and argue and pass blame when their toilet paper for the week falls out and gets wet, or when their sleeping bags didn’t get packed tight enough and they take on water through the first few rapids.
Justin and John were no exception. They fussed and fought, argued and grumbled for the first day and a half. It was a struggle for them to keep up, even though they paddled twice as far as the rest of us, going from one side of the river to the other, never quite figuring out how to keep the canoe straight.
My friend Glen, who was with the group from Colorado, was leading us. He was most familiar with the river and knew we were headed for a hard third day, so we pressed on Tuesday trying to make tracks, but the harder he pressed us on; the farther Justin and John fell behind until they were completely out of sight. Everyone just knew they were lagging behind us, just around the last bend in the river, but I had this creeping feeling that all was not well with the boys.
We made camp late that evening, with just an hour until dusk. Everyone unpacked, ate dinner and headed for high ground to bed down for the night, but Justin and John never showed up. I was sitting at the camp fire, glad to be warm and dry, worried that something bad might have happened.
I was looking back down the river at the moonlight playing off the canyon walls which rose a hundred feet or so above the water when suddenly a great light shone. Not just any light, it looked as though the whole canyon was ablaze! I was stricken with fear and worry. I feared because when the water is low in the river the reeds and driftwood are nothing but kindling that fire sweeps through like you wouldn’t believe. But I was worried too. Where were Justin and John? They were just kids, alone, probably scared half to death, hundreds of miles from home, possibly hurt, and now the canyon is on fire.
I did the only thing I knew to do. I wanted dry clothes for the morning, so I stripped down to my underwear and shoes, grabbed a flashlight and started back up the bank to hunt for them. You can’t canoe back upriver on the Pecos, and I found out quickly that you can’t walk back up the bank either, so I had to get out in the middle of the river and start wading. The water wasn’t deep, but it was treacherous because we were in a stretch of the river called the flutes. The flutes are formed as the limestone base of the river is washed out in low water, forming sometimes deep ridges in the river bottom that you can easily break a leg in. So I carefully walked back upriver, cold, wet, in the dark, wondering why in the world I continued to bring boys down the river in the first place.
I finally made it to where they were. I saw them before they saw me. They were jumping around on the shore, trying to put out the fire, yelling at one another, gear scattered everywhere. When Justin finally saw me he screamed, “Look! It’s Brother Kevin!” When I walked up to them, they both hugged me and Justin said, “Brother Kevin, you never looked so good in your skivvies!” They were beat up, cut up, battered and worn, so I loaded them up in the canoe and walked them back down the river where they got the best night’s sleep in their lives.
God changed my life that night as I was walking back up that river to find Justin and John. The passage I’ve read to you from Philippians 2, the passage I had been memorizing and meditating on spoke to my heart louder and clearer than ever before, and I’ve never forgotten the lesson: ministry matters.
You may never have one of those Pecos River experiences, but I want you to be just as convinced as I am that ministry matters. Whether you realize it or not, if you are a child of God every one of you has been called to ministry, to minister, to serve other people, and just so we’re all clear on it, that ministry to other people matters. It matters to the God who called you to ministry. It matters to the people who benefit from your service, and though it’s not always apparent, you are often times the one who benefits the most from ministry to other people. I want you to look with me at three passages of Scripture today as I talk to you about this subject, Ministry Matters.
What was it that so impressed me in Philippians 2? It was simply this: that here I was in a cold, dark, wet uncomfortable night, complaining about having to deal with these immature kids who not only had no idea what I was doing for them, but probably wouldn’t care. But the Bible says that Jesus Christ, God Himself, left the comforts and glories of heaven to become our servant. He humbled Himself to a position so lowly that He enslaved Himself to my sin to die my death. What He did for me is beyond my ability to comprehend. If He could do that to serve me, then why should it seem such a great thing to be going back upriver to help these boys? That’s why Philippians 2:5 says that I’m to let that same mind, that same attitude be in me.
The second passage is 2 Corinthians 5:11-21. There’s a lot in this passage I want you to see, beginning in verse 17.
“Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”
Do you see that? Anyone who belongs to Christ is a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!
“And all things are of God…all of this: the passing of your old life and the giving of your new life…is a gift from God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation.”
Every believer, every child of God has been called to ministry – the ministry of bringing people back to God through a relationship with Jesus Christ. That’s why verse 20 says that “we are ambassadors for Christ.” We are His representatives – we speak for Christ by pleading with those around us to come to Christ!
Verse 11 is an important verse then.
“Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God, and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences.”
If we really understood our responsibility and accountability before God we’d take more seriously our ministry of leading people to Christ. If we’re not leading people to Him, its because we’re not too worried about standing before Him in judgment. But not only are we not worried about the judgment, verse 14 says that “the love of God compels us, constrains us.” In other words, our love for God ought to compel us to be involved in ministry – the ministry of introducing people to Jesus Christ and helping them not only to learn to walk with Him, but to also see those people begin to lead others to Christ.
So let me sum this up. You and I are children of God today because Jesus Christ humbled Himself and took upon Him the form of a servant. That’s why He said one day that He “did not come to be ministered to, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many.” If Jesus could humble Himself to serve us, then we have no excuse for not humbling ourselves to serve others too. We’re commanded to take on the humble, servant-like attitude of Christ.
Our fear of standing before God in the judgment and our love for God compel us to get involved in ministry. We’ve been called to ministry, it’s up to us whether we’re going to be obedient to that call or not. If we are not obedient, it is because we don’t really believe we’ve been called to minister, we don’t really fear God, or we don’t really love God. Does ministry really matter? Would it really make any difference for you to get involved in someone’s life so they might know God or live for Him? Let me give you some examples:
• A man visited our church half a dozen times in the last couple of years. I visited him last week and ministered to him. He died yesterday. His family said I am the only preacher he knew. I’ll be speaking as part of his memorial service this week. Did my ministry to him, even though it was brief, matter?
• When Kathy and I decided to get married I was an unchurched, unsaved, unconcerned young man. We met with the pastor to talk about our wedding. I didn’t know it at the time, but he ministered to me, opening the door for me to be saved. Two years later I became a youth director, served for six years at a Christian school and now am a pastor. Do you think his brief ministry to me mattered?
• In John 13, the Bible says that Jesus, the Maker of heaven and earth, the Lord and King over all, knelt down with a bowl of water and a towel and washed the dry and dirty feet of the apostles. As He did it He told them He was giving them an example to follow: serve others. Did Christ’s ministry to them matter? They turned the world upside down.
I could go on all day with examples of how ministry, you and me humbling ourselves, lowering ourselves to the place of a common slave to serve someone in need, really matters. The kind of ministry I’m talking about isn’t preaching or teaching or singing in the choir, but about really serving other people, making an investment in their lives, taking the time to minister to a real need they have whether that need is physical, emotional, or spiritual.
Darlene and Glenda spent months ministering to Elba. James spent months ministering to his wife. Our ladies meet each week to minister to our shut-ins and other folk in need. This summer while I was out of town Harold and Melvin and Robert ministered to my wife by moving a big limb out of the yard. Jimmy and John and my dad ministered to me by helping me get my plumbing in. A whole bunch of you ministered to Linda by roofing her house, and all that kind of ministry matters. Every week Ginny Sanders is blessed with nothing more than a ride to church where she can sit and watch the choir practice.
So why don’t we get involved in ministry more often? We’ve already said it may be because we forget that one day we’re going to stand in judgment before Christ Himself and answer for how we handled the faith we’ve been given to share. It may be because our love for God is misplaced. It may be because we don’t yet recognize our call to ministry, and there’s another reason I want to share with you found in Proverbs 14:4. You’re going to love this. The Bible says,
“Where no oxen are, the crib is clean; but much increase is by the strength of the ox.”
The New Living Translation says it this way,
“Without oxen a stable stays clean, but you need a strong ox for a large harvest.”
Let me remind you that we are in ministry to build the kingdom of God, to reconcile lost humanity to a loving and just God. Jesus said “the harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He would send forth laborers into His harvest.”
Jesus wants a big harvest. He wants us to be working the fields. He wants us ministering to people. That is the harvest. We know what Jesus wants. But what do we want? Do we want a clean stall, or do we want a big harvest? The clean stall means comfort. It means no late nights with kids. It means no sticky conversations. It means no dealing with sickness or death. It means that you get to stay comfortable and clean. But it means no harvest too. If we want a big harvest, we’re going to have to deal with all the crap that comes with an ox. In other words, ministry matters, but its messy. It stinks. Sometimes it makes you sick. But that’s the price of the harvest.
What do you prefer? Reaping the harvest or a clean stall? Are you involved in ministry? God has called you to ministry, and He has gifted you for the task. Maybe your gift is hospitality, or mercy, or encouragement, or giving. Maybe it’s something else altogether. How are you using the gifts God has given you to touch the lives of others?
I came across a short video I want to show you about one family’s ministry. As you watch it, I want you to be thinking about how God wants to use you, or how He wants to continue using you.
Imagine the impact we could make for the kingdom of God by humbling ourselves and taking upon us the form of servants. Our ministries to the people in our lives might never grow our church. Listen to me: that’s perfectly okay. Are our ministries growing the kingdom of God? That’s the main thing. Are we making disciples of the people in our lives? Are we reconciling them to God? Are we leading them closer to Christ or not?
We may never know. Sometimes we will, sometimes we will not. What they do is up to them. The love of God compels us though to minister anyway.
That night I went walking back up the Pecos River, I was upset about having to go get those boys until God knocked me in the head with Philippians 2 and showed me that if Jesus could get uncomfortable and suffer for me, then I could do the same for Justin and John. That night before those boys went to bed, sitting around the camp fire and talking about the events of the day, I had the privilege of leading Justin to Christ. His life was never the same. And I learned an important lesson you can’t afford to miss: ministry matters.
