(upbeat music) How will I find my ministry calling? Will I find it internally, like some impulse that will lead me to start a new thing, or will my ministry calling come from the outside? Will it come from others telling me where I'm needed? This is a great question, and it comes in today from a listener named Caleb.

Caleb references a conference that you preached at years back, Pastor John. Here's his email. Hello, Pastor John, at a conference now many years ago, you went to Colossians 4.17 to argue that God gives ministries to his children. We don't stumble upon our ministry. Instead, he decisively throws us into them, so to speak.

Any chance you'd be willing to explain on how this works and how it has worked for you in church and para-church context? Thank you, Pastor John, what would you say to Caleb? First, let me share several passages of scripture that caused me to say that we are not the decisive cause of being in any particular ministry.

God is. And then I'll step back and ask how that divine work is experienced in our minds and in our hearts so that we can make it more practical for people as they find their way into ministry in church or para-church. Number one, Paul says to the elders who were gathered in Acts 20.28, "Pay careful attention to yourselves "and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit "has made you overseers." Literally set you or put you, ethetah in Greek.

Put you as overseers to care for the church of God which he obtained with his own blood. God put those elders there as elders. They did not put themselves there. God did decisively. Number two, Ephesians 4, 11 and 12. Paul says, "Christ gave, gave to the church, "the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, "the pastors and teachers to equip the saints "for the work of the ministry, "for building up the body of Christ." These ministers of the church are the gift of the risen Christ to his body.

They're there. They are where they are as a gift of Christ. Three, Matthew 9.37 and 38. Jesus says, "The harvest is plentiful. "The laborers are few. "Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest "to send out." The word is ekballo, throw out. That's where he got the word throw.

Toss them into ministry. He threw them into ministry. Send out, throw the laborers into the harvest. So when the Lord answers this prayer, he does the decisive work and makes sure that the workers are where he wants them to be. Number four, Romans 10, 13. "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved, "but how are they to call on him whom they've not believed?

"And how are they to believe in him "whom they have never heard? "And how are they to hear without someone preaching? "And how are they to preach unless they are sent?" As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet "of those who preach good news." Now, it's possible for a rogue preacher to preach without being sent by a church or a mission agency.

I don't think that's what Paul's talking about here. I think Paul is saying nobody can preach authentically. Nobody can preach with integrity for God, with God's authority, unless he is sent by God. If anyone is preaching the gospel the way he ought, as a faithful spokesman of God, he has been sent by God, not by himself.

God is the decisive actor in putting them in that gospel preaching ministry. Number five, Luke 12, 41. Jesus had just told a parable about being ready for the second coming, and Peter says, "Lord, are you telling this parable for us or for all?" And Jesus answers like this, "Who then is the faithful and wise manager "whom his master will set," or appoint, "over his household to give them their portion of food "at the proper time?" So when Jesus thinks of pastors and teachers, of his people, he thinks of them as stewards put over a household.

He has appointed them. They are not there randomly. He has set them there, and they are to feed and take care of his house. Number six, and this is the last of the six that I'm gonna mention. There's the text that Caleb referred to, namely Colossians 4, 17. "Say to Archippus, 'See that you fulfill the ministry "'that you received in the Lord.'" So Archippus did not put himself in his ministry.

He received the ministry from the Lord. Now, those six passages are the reason that Caleb is right when he quotes me as saying, "We don't stumble upon our ministry. "Instead, God decisively throws us into them." But now in practice, in the church, in parachurch ministries, wherever, we have to ask the question, how does God work inside of us, inside of people, their mind and their heart, so that they find themselves in the ministry where he's putting them?

What's the conscious experience of God's work, of guidance, of leading, in getting us to where he wants us to be? And I'll mention just four things briefly that are typically the way God does it. And I say typically because he's God and he can make exceptions to these. First, there is ordinarily the rising in our hearts of a relentless and abiding desire for the work.

Paul says in 1 Timothy 3, 1, "If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, "he desires a noble task." That certainly was true for me. Wow. In the two stages of my calling into the ministry, God exploded in the fall of 1966, when I was 20 years old, with a relentless and abiding desire for the ministry of the word.

And then he did the same thing in 1979, the fall of '79, with a relentless and abiding desire for the proclamation of the word in the pastoral role. These desires were not flashes in the pan. They were deep and unshakable and they overcame significant obstacles. Second, there is ordinarily a God-given fitness or giftedness for the ministry, which is shown both in a cluster of abilities that we have and in the fruit of people actually being helped spiritually by the use of those abilities.

And all of that confirmed, not just by our own individual selves, but rather by the community of believers and especially the most mature and discerning believers. Paul didn't just say to the elder, "If you desire it, you've got it." He gave a long list of qualifications. My goodness. So the person moves into a ministry role, one, because of a perceived set of abilities and some manifest fruit in people that are really being spiritually helped by those abilities.

And then third, through the mature brothers and sisters recognizing and confirming that fruit and giftedness. Third, there's often a specific encouragement from other people that you should do this particular ministry. Paul said to Timothy, "I want you to go with me." And that was pretty, that's pretty direct. This happens very often.

Someone says to another person, "I really think you should do this." And it proves to be a kind of providence from the Lord, a kind of encouragement that gets them over the hump of hesitation. And then finally, number four, there's a correlation between our most consecrated, spiritually intense, holy submitted moments on the one hand, and the sense of God's favor and guidance for the ministry in those very moments on the other hand.

In other words, when we feel most confident in God's favor and guidance, those are the moments when we are least worldly, least unspiritual, least indifferent. There's a correlation between those seasons of life when God seems to blow the cobwebs of worldliness and selfishness and greed and pride out of our hearts.

And it's in those moments when we sense the leading toward this ministry most keenly and surely. God confirms them, not in the carnal, selfish moments, but in the humble, brokenhearted, sacrificial, loving moments. So in summary then, there are practical, relational, subjective experiences that move us toward ministry. But in the end, it is the hidden hand of God's gracious providence that puts us, throws us where he wants us to be.

- Throws us where he wants us to be, that's good. Thank you, Pastor John. And speaking of calling and discerning that calling, there are two other really helpful episodes in the archive. How Do I Know God's Calling for My Life? That's APJ 744. And I'm Not Good at My Job, Is the Lord Telling Me to Quit?

That's APJ 1405. Both go into more detail on calling. You can find them, APJ 744 and 1405 in the archive. You can find that archive at DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn. Well, we live in an age of hate. One political party hates the other political party. One nation hates another nation. And we as Christians are ever tempted to fall in line with the world, tempted to hate our human opponents.

But oh, what a very different calling God gives his church. I'm your host, Tony Ranke, and we will see you back here on Wednesday for that calling as we press into it and what it looks like today. We'll see you then. Thanks for listening to the Ask Pastor John podcast with longtime author and pastor, John Piper.

We'll see you Wednesday. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)