How Will I Find My Ministry Calling?
00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:00:02.580 | How will I find my ministry calling?
00:00:07.680 | Will I find it internally, like some impulse
00:00:10.040 | that will lead me to start a new thing,
00:00:12.280 | or will my ministry calling come from the outside?
00:00:15.240 | Will it come from others telling me where I'm needed?
00:00:18.720 | This is a great question, and it comes in today
00:00:20.720 | from a listener named Caleb.
00:00:21.840 | Caleb references a conference that you preached at
00:00:23.880 | years back, Pastor John.
00:00:24.960 | Here's his email.
00:00:26.680 | Hello, Pastor John, at a conference now many years ago,
00:00:29.620 | you went to Colossians 4.17 to argue that God
00:00:32.160 | gives ministries to his children.
00:00:34.440 | We don't stumble upon our ministry.
00:00:36.960 | Instead, he decisively throws us into them, so to speak.
00:00:41.100 | Any chance you'd be willing to explain on how this works
00:00:44.680 | and how it has worked for you in church
00:00:46.520 | and para-church context?
00:00:48.680 | Thank you, Pastor John, what would you say to Caleb?
00:00:51.440 | First, let me share several passages of scripture
00:00:56.400 | that caused me to say that we are not the decisive cause
00:01:01.400 | of being in any particular ministry.
00:01:04.340 | God is.
00:01:05.580 | And then I'll step back and ask how that divine work
00:01:10.580 | is experienced in our minds and in our hearts
00:01:15.060 | so that we can make it more practical for people
00:01:18.860 | as they find their way into ministry in church
00:01:22.300 | or para-church.
00:01:24.540 | Number one, Paul says to the elders who were gathered
00:01:29.160 | in Acts 20.28, "Pay careful attention to yourselves
00:01:34.160 | "and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit
00:01:39.400 | "has made you overseers."
00:01:44.360 | Literally set you or put you, ethetah in Greek.
00:01:49.320 | Put you as overseers to care for the church of God
00:01:53.280 | which he obtained with his own blood.
00:01:54.840 | God put those elders there as elders.
00:01:59.040 | They did not put themselves there.
00:02:01.240 | God did decisively.
00:02:03.380 | Number two, Ephesians 4, 11 and 12.
00:02:06.520 | Paul says, "Christ gave, gave to the church,
00:02:11.520 | "the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists,
00:02:13.460 | "the pastors and teachers to equip the saints
00:02:16.060 | "for the work of the ministry,
00:02:17.600 | "for building up the body of Christ."
00:02:19.480 | These ministers of the church are the gift
00:02:23.120 | of the risen Christ to his body.
00:02:26.760 | They're there.
00:02:27.600 | They are where they are as a gift of Christ.
00:02:31.760 | Three, Matthew 9.37 and 38.
00:02:35.060 | Jesus says, "The harvest is plentiful.
00:02:38.680 | "The laborers are few.
00:02:40.180 | "Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest
00:02:44.120 | "to send out."
00:02:46.560 | The word is ekballo, throw out.
00:02:48.880 | That's where he got the word throw.
00:02:51.000 | Toss them into ministry.
00:02:53.280 | He threw them into ministry.
00:02:55.160 | Send out, throw the laborers into the harvest.
00:02:57.960 | So when the Lord answers this prayer,
00:03:00.480 | he does the decisive work and makes sure
00:03:03.400 | that the workers are where he wants them to be.
00:03:06.360 | Number four, Romans 10, 13.
00:03:09.280 | "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved,
00:03:12.140 | "but how are they to call on him whom they've not believed?
00:03:14.780 | "And how are they to believe in him
00:03:16.300 | "whom they have never heard?
00:03:17.560 | "And how are they to hear without someone preaching?
00:03:19.920 | "And how are they to preach unless they are sent?"
00:03:24.920 | As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet
00:03:28.080 | "of those who preach good news."
00:03:29.620 | Now, it's possible for a rogue preacher
00:03:32.760 | to preach without being sent by a church or a mission agency.
00:03:36.420 | I don't think that's what Paul's talking about here.
00:03:39.560 | I think Paul is saying nobody can preach authentically.
00:03:45.400 | Nobody can preach with integrity for God,
00:03:50.400 | with God's authority, unless he is sent by God.
00:03:55.820 | If anyone is preaching the gospel the way he ought,
00:03:59.500 | as a faithful spokesman of God,
00:04:02.680 | he has been sent by God, not by himself.
00:04:06.760 | God is the decisive actor in putting them
00:04:10.140 | in that gospel preaching ministry.
00:04:14.100 | Number five, Luke 12, 41.
00:04:16.880 | Jesus had just told a parable about being ready
00:04:20.160 | for the second coming, and Peter says,
00:04:21.920 | "Lord, are you telling this parable for us or for all?"
00:04:25.920 | And Jesus answers like this,
00:04:28.440 | "Who then is the faithful and wise manager
00:04:32.320 | "whom his master will set," or appoint,
00:04:37.320 | "over his household to give them their portion of food
00:04:40.140 | "at the proper time?"
00:04:41.340 | So when Jesus thinks of pastors and teachers,
00:04:45.120 | of his people, he thinks of them as stewards
00:04:49.880 | put over a household.
00:04:52.400 | He has appointed them.
00:04:54.780 | They are not there randomly.
00:04:57.080 | He has set them there, and they are to feed
00:05:01.080 | and take care of his house.
00:05:03.880 | Number six, and this is the last of the six
00:05:07.620 | that I'm gonna mention.
00:05:09.280 | There's the text that Caleb referred to,
00:05:11.800 | namely Colossians 4, 17.
00:05:13.960 | "Say to Archippus, 'See that you fulfill the ministry
00:05:18.500 | "'that you received in the Lord.'"
00:05:22.400 | So Archippus did not put himself in his ministry.
00:05:26.160 | He received the ministry from the Lord.
00:05:29.900 | Now, those six passages are the reason
00:05:33.980 | that Caleb is right when he quotes me as saying,
00:05:38.080 | "We don't stumble upon our ministry.
00:05:40.760 | "Instead, God decisively throws us into them."
00:05:45.760 | But now in practice, in the church,
00:05:48.520 | in parachurch ministries, wherever,
00:05:51.720 | we have to ask the question,
00:05:53.760 | how does God work inside of us, inside of people,
00:05:58.760 | their mind and their heart,
00:06:01.400 | so that they find themselves in the ministry
00:06:05.400 | where he's putting them?
00:06:06.600 | What's the conscious experience of God's work,
00:06:10.760 | of guidance, of leading,
00:06:12.640 | in getting us to where he wants us to be?
00:06:15.800 | And I'll mention just four things briefly
00:06:17.880 | that are typically the way God does it.
00:06:21.520 | And I say typically because he's God
00:06:23.640 | and he can make exceptions to these.
00:06:26.440 | First, there is ordinarily the rising in our hearts
00:06:32.400 | of a relentless and abiding desire for the work.
00:06:37.000 | Paul says in 1 Timothy 3, 1,
00:06:38.960 | "If anyone aspires to the office of overseer,
00:06:41.520 | "he desires a noble task."
00:06:45.600 | That certainly was true for me.
00:06:47.640 | Wow.
00:06:49.000 | In the two stages of my calling into the ministry,
00:06:53.000 | God exploded in the fall of 1966,
00:06:57.440 | when I was 20 years old,
00:06:58.800 | with a relentless and abiding desire
00:07:02.280 | for the ministry of the word.
00:07:04.760 | And then he did the same thing in 1979,
00:07:08.240 | the fall of '79,
00:07:09.680 | with a relentless and abiding desire
00:07:13.000 | for the proclamation of the word in the pastoral role.
00:07:17.800 | These desires were not flashes in the pan.
00:07:21.960 | They were deep and unshakable
00:07:25.040 | and they overcame significant obstacles.
00:07:28.880 | Second, there is ordinarily a God-given fitness
00:07:33.640 | or giftedness for the ministry,
00:07:36.880 | which is shown both in a cluster of abilities that we have
00:07:41.880 | and in the fruit of people actually being helped spiritually
00:07:49.060 | by the use of those abilities.
00:07:52.040 | And all of that confirmed,
00:07:54.400 | not just by our own individual selves,
00:07:58.360 | but rather by the community of believers
00:08:00.560 | and especially the most mature and discerning believers.
00:08:05.360 | Paul didn't just say to the elder,
00:08:08.840 | "If you desire it, you've got it."
00:08:11.320 | He gave a long list of qualifications.
00:08:14.120 | My goodness.
00:08:15.120 | So the person moves into a ministry role,
00:08:18.840 | one, because of a perceived set of abilities
00:08:23.760 | and some manifest fruit in people
00:08:28.240 | that are really being spiritually helped by those abilities.
00:08:31.160 | And then third, through the mature brothers and sisters
00:08:35.120 | recognizing and confirming that fruit and giftedness.
00:08:40.120 | Third, there's often a specific encouragement
00:08:45.680 | from other people that you should do
00:08:48.000 | this particular ministry.
00:08:49.640 | Paul said to Timothy, "I want you to go with me."
00:08:51.840 | And that was pretty, that's pretty direct.
00:08:54.440 | This happens very often.
00:08:56.480 | Someone says to another person,
00:08:57.960 | "I really think you should do this."
00:09:00.920 | And it proves to be a kind of providence from the Lord,
00:09:03.680 | a kind of encouragement that gets them
00:09:05.660 | over the hump of hesitation.
00:09:08.020 | And then finally, number four,
00:09:10.060 | there's a correlation between our most consecrated,
00:09:15.780 | spiritually intense, holy submitted moments
00:09:20.780 | on the one hand, and the sense of God's favor and guidance
00:09:25.820 | for the ministry in those very moments on the other hand.
00:09:31.300 | In other words, when we feel most confident
00:09:36.020 | in God's favor and guidance,
00:09:39.580 | those are the moments when we are least worldly,
00:09:44.280 | least unspiritual, least indifferent.
00:09:48.660 | There's a correlation between those seasons of life
00:09:52.220 | when God seems to blow the cobwebs of worldliness
00:09:57.220 | and selfishness and greed and pride out of our hearts.
00:10:02.500 | And it's in those moments when we sense the leading
00:10:07.460 | toward this ministry most keenly and surely.
00:10:12.260 | God confirms them, not in the carnal, selfish moments,
00:10:16.960 | but in the humble, brokenhearted,
00:10:19.800 | sacrificial, loving moments.
00:10:23.360 | So in summary then, there are practical, relational,
00:10:28.080 | subjective experiences that move us toward ministry.
00:10:33.080 | But in the end, it is the hidden hand
00:10:37.360 | of God's gracious providence
00:10:40.560 | that puts us, throws us where he wants us to be.
00:10:45.560 | - Throws us where he wants us to be, that's good.
00:10:47.480 | Thank you, Pastor John.
00:10:48.660 | And speaking of calling and discerning that calling,
00:10:51.360 | there are two other really helpful episodes in the archive.
00:10:54.380 | How Do I Know God's Calling for My Life?
00:10:56.860 | That's APJ 744.
00:10:58.700 | And I'm Not Good at My Job, Is the Lord Telling Me to Quit?
00:11:02.400 | That's APJ 1405.
00:11:04.580 | Both go into more detail on calling.
00:11:07.020 | You can find them, APJ 744 and 1405 in the archive.
00:11:11.260 | You can find that archive at DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn.
00:11:16.260 | Well, we live in an age of hate.
00:11:22.540 | One political party hates the other political party.
00:11:25.420 | One nation hates another nation.
00:11:28.340 | And we as Christians are ever tempted
00:11:30.140 | to fall in line with the world,
00:11:32.300 | tempted to hate our human opponents.
00:11:35.180 | But oh, what a very different calling God gives his church.
00:11:38.900 | I'm your host, Tony Ranke,
00:11:39.820 | and we will see you back here on Wednesday
00:11:41.460 | for that calling as we press into it
00:11:43.640 | and what it looks like today.
00:11:45.660 | We'll see you then.
00:11:46.500 | Thanks for listening to the Ask Pastor John podcast
00:11:48.500 | with longtime author and pastor, John Piper.
00:11:51.220 | We'll see you Wednesday.
00:11:52.420 | (upbeat music)
00:11:55.000 | (upbeat music)
00:11:57.580 | [BLANK_AUDIO]