Christ was the “strongest” human who ever lived—he didn’t please himself, but did God’s will. Certainly death on a cruel cross was not the path he would have chosen to please himself, but his mission was to please God (John 4:34; 5:30; 8:29).
Strength is not independence from God, but total dependence on God. Strength in the church doesn’t come from each believer being completely independent, but from mutual interdependence. Truly strong believers are those who are willing to limit their freedoms in order to care for and love their weaker brothers and sisters. Paul quotes from Psalm 69:9. This messianic psalm prophesied the Messiah’s coming into the world and what would happen to him. Christ faced reproach and insults because he did not choose to please himself; instead, he chose to do what God had called him to do. How much more should we, who are called by his name, also choose to please God rather than ourselves.
The Scriptures were written and preserved for future generations. Our scriptural knowledge affects our attitude toward the present and the future. The more we know about what God has done in years past, the greater will be our confidence in what he will do in the days ahead. We should read our Bible diligently to increase our trust that God’s will is best for us.
How does the Bible give us hope and encouragement? (1) God’s attributes and character constantly remind us in whom our hope is based (Psalm 46:1-2). (2) The biographies of saints who overcame great obstacles give us examples of what can be done with God’s help (Hebrews 11). (3) The direct exhortation of Scripture calls for endurance and speaks encouragement (James 1:2-4; Hebrews 12:1-2). (4) The prophetic statements support our hope for a wonderful future planned for us in eternity (Romans 5:1-5).
Paul admonishes strong believers not to please themselves but to please God and others. Scripture records stories of those who pleased God, those who didn’t, and those who failed but learned from their mistakes. We are to endure as Christ endured and be encouraged by the examples of other believers. This gives us hope as we wait patiently for God’s promises.
SO WHAT? (what will I do with what I have read today?)
After reading the passage today, I had to ask myself - What motivates you for ministry? Ministry is too unpredictable to be motivated by security. It is too unprofitable to be motivated by money. It is too demanding to be motivated by pleasure. And it is too criticized to be motivated by fame. So what is it that motivates you in ministry? Why did you do what you do?
The only lasting motivation for ministry is because we want to please Jesus Christ. Out of a deep heart of gratitude, I don’t deserve to be saved much less in the ministry. All that God does in us and for us and through us is by grace through faith. So out of a deep abiding heartfelt gratitude for the fact that I’m saved, I want to give my life to Jesus Christ and I want to serve Him in any way possible. I know that your heart is like my heart and my life goal is to one day stand before Jesus Christ and have Him say, “Well done thou good and faithful servant.” At that point, when He says that, it will be worth it all. You won’t be in heaven five seconds and you’ll say, “Why didn’t I serve more? Why didn’t I give more? Why didn’t I love more? Why didn’t I obey more?”
To stand before Jesus and have Him say, “Well done thou good and faithful servant,” it really doesn’t matter what other people think of your ministry. Because you only have one master to please and that’s the Lord Jesus Christ. So my motivation (and I know your motivation) is I want to please Jesus with my life. But the catch is not all ministry is pleasing to God. Just because we are serving the Lord does not automatically mean that what we’re doing is pleasing to God.
Hebrews 11. The classic chapter on faith. V. 6 “Without faith it is impossible to please God.” Does that apply to ministry? Yes. It doesn’t matter if I’m in ministry or not, if I’m not ministering in faith, I’m not pleasing God. The Bible is even more specific than that. It says, “Whatsoever is not of faith is sin.” If I’m not ministering in faith, I’m ministering in sin. That’s strong stuff.
If that’s true, and obviously it is because it’s in God’s word, then the very most important question I can ask myself as a pastor, and that you can ask yourself as a pastor, is what does it mean to minister in faith? If I don’t minister in faith, I’m not pleasing God. And if I don’t minister in faith, I’m sinning.
What does it mean to minister in faith? Fortunately we have Hebrews 11, that classic example of one example after another of men who ministered in faith.
I want us to look at six definitions of how to minister in faith. Because this is the kind of ministry that pleases God.Ministering in faith means…
#1. BELIEVING WHEN I DON’T SEE IT
v. 1 “Faith is being sure of what we hope for, being certain of what we do not see.” Faith is visualizing the future in advance. It is seeing the future in the present. Every great achievement began when somebody saw it in advance. Nothing happens in life till somebody believes it’s possible. We didn’t put a man on the moon until one day JFK stood up and said, “Let’s put a man on the moon.” When he said that, the technology had not even been invented.
Faith is believing when I don’t see it. Some things have to be believed before they can be seen. The world says, “Seeing is believing.” God says, “Believing is seeing.” You have to see it in advance. Faith is believing when I don’t see it.
I challenge you to dream great dreams for God. Make your dreams big enough for God to fit into. The size of your dream determines the size of your God. I would challenge you to set some goals because goals are statements of faith. The ministry that pleases God is first and foremost a ministry that believes when you don’t see it. Ministering in faith means believing your church can grow when it looks hopeless. It means that those leaders and those members can change when it looks like they’re never going to change. In our particular situation, it means believing that someday we’re going to get a building when eleven years later you’re still waiting. It means believing when you don’t see it.
#2. OBEYING WHEN I DON’T UNDERSTAND IT
Has God ever told you to throw out a sermon after hours of preparation? Has God ever told you to witness to somebody when you didn’t have the time? Has God ever told you to leave a comfortable church ministry and go to an unknown quantity? That’s ministering in faith. It’s obeying when you don’t understand it.
Hebrews 11:8 (Good News) “It was faith that made Abraham obey God when God called him to go out to a country that God had promised him. He left his own country not knowing where he was going.” Abraham is a classic example of obeying when I don’t understand it. He was 75 years old and God asked him to give up all his security – when he’s ready for social security, God says You’re going for social insecurity – and He says at 85 years of age I want you to leave, pick up everything and get ready for the greatest adventure of your life.
The scary part of it is God gave him no details. Abraham says, Where are we going? God says, You’ve never heard of it. How long is it going to take? You’ll find out. How will I know when I get there? I’ll let you know.
Would you go? Would you go at age 75? I want to challenge you to make the rest of your ministry the best of your ministry. You cannot minister in faith without taking risks. If there are no risks in your ministry then you’re not living by faith. And if you’re not living by faith you’re not pleasing God.
Constantly I have to ask myself, “Lord, what can I do that will force me to live by faith? That will force me to minister outside of my comfort zone in ways that I don’t feel comfortable doing?” Faith is doing what God says even when it seems absurd. How many stories in the Bible are an example like Gideon: Three hundred men against 135,000 men. The odds are 450 to one. God says, "Here are the weapons you’re going to use, Gideon. Everybody take a torch, a trumpet and a clay pot.” Not exactly your typical warfare weapons. It didn’t make sense.
Right! That’s God’s plan. Because faith is obeying when you don’t understand it. Sometimes God will tell you to do something in your church and in your ministry and you’ll think, “There’s no way this is going to work!” God says, Do it. And guess what? It works! We have done more things at Saddleback that didn’t work than did. Someday I want to write a book on the thousand ways not to grow a church. It’s wise to learn from experience but it’s wiser to learn from the experience of others. I don’t have time to make all the mistakes myself. We need to share not just our successes but we need to share our failures.
Proverbs 3:5 says “Trust in the Lord and lean not on your own understanding.” One of the tests of ministering by faith is how quickly do I obey God? I’m trying to teach my kids that delayed obedience is disobedience. If I tell them to do something and they don’t do it immediately, that’s not obedience. Delayed obedience is disobedience. “Lord, one of these days I’m going to get around to doing this.” God says, That’s not obedience. That’s disobedience. The ministry of faith, the ministry that pleases God believes when you don’t see it and obeys when you don’t understand it.
#3. GIVING WHEN I DON’T HAVE IT.
Hebrews 11:4b “In faith Abel was commended as a righteous man and God spoke well of his offering.” Isn’t that interesting? Giving and faith go together. God uses finances to test us. I think probably one of the verses we pastors overlook most often is Luke 16:11 “If you have not been faithful with unrighteous mammon, who will commit to you true spiritual riches.”
God uses money to test our faithfulness. God watches the giving of a pastor. The Bible says if you have not been faithful with unrighteous mammon, who will entrust to you true spiritual riches. There is a direct relationship between how I use my money and the power of God in my life. We don’t talk about that much. The Bible says real quickly there is a direct relationship between how I use my money, how I manage the unrighteous mammon, and god’s blessing upon my life and ministry. It influences how much God can bless my life. I think God expects pastors to take the lead in giving. By God's grace, Sharon and I have done that here at COV. (you have the freedom at anytime to call Lauren up and ask her to tell you what our giving is)
I don't say that to boast - but to say, sacrificial giving in this church starts with me. I will be obedient to the Lord in this area. Period.
Ponder these things today. I love you guys. Stay faithful. Stay the course. ENDURE!
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