What Is My Ministry?

So often, folks in the church, they think about ministry. They've got to have their ministry. But I was thinking, you know what that word means? It means serving.

Your ministry is your service. And the saints are being equipped for the work of serving. That's really what it is.

Sometimes we get this idea about this official capacity of the ministry. I need a ministry. It's kind of like this thing that is mine that everybody recognizes that I have where I go out and do my thing.

But the idea is, just like David was hitting on, the very last words that he said. Serving God and serving one another. And that's what it's about.

Just what ways can I serve and give my life for the others? And I was thinking about that text as he was talking in Hebrews that we looked at some time ago about not forsaking the assembly. Because you know what happens when you don't come here? You rob others. Because if God has brought you into a vital member with this body, it's like if you get up in the morning and you head out on the street, and you go to jump in your car and take off and do your thing, and your left arm just decided, I don't want to be here today.

He's talking about a body and the members. And if you have all these arms or if you have all this. But you know what? If your left arm just says, well, I'm not going to go today.

The whole body is hurt by it. And so if you don't come, you actually are robbing the church. That's a reality.

That we help one another. We encourage one another. I was talking to one of the brothers just recently and he was saying something about whether or not he should participate in a certain ministry of this church because he wasn't certain if it was so profitable to him.

And I said, but brother, the thing is when you participate in that, you bring profit for others. You bring encouragement to others. It's not just about what we get.

The whole idea of having your ministry is not having a soapbox to stand on. It's having your capacity in the church to wash others' feet. That's really what it's about.

And so what it does is it ought to change the whole mindset behind not just what I get. Undoubtedly, we should be receiving. Because if we're going to grow, if we're going to be equipped, we are receiving.

But we receive to give. That's what the Christian life is all about. We are channels.

Grace comes in so that it might flow out. That's how the body builds itself up in love. And remember the loving part.

We build ourselves up in love. Well, the love comes in because I'm actually thinking about your needs and esteeming you beyond myself so that when I don't feel well or I've got the sniffles or I've got this or I've got that, what I'm really thinking about is not just, oh, what about me? Well, I don't feel exactly good. But if I don't go there, how is that going to detract from others? And some of you might be led to believe.

Nobody misses me. But don't believe it. Don't believe it.

There are ways that you help other people and you build the church in ways that you may not know. Like I can tell you, this is a simple thing. But through the years, just this little simple thing.

Freddy Garza used to be vocal. I could hear his voice. Jonathan Sanguinetti would say little things like during the singing, Mark will often cry out in the middle of the singing.

Little things like that. Or just that extra voice in the singing. I mean, what glory sometimes when the Spirit just fills.

How encouraging it is when a brother who has labored to teach a Sunday school comes into the pulpit and he sees the room full. Do you know what it's like for a man to study and he has the sheep in his mind? Remember, it's shepherding. There are sheep.

There's a shepherd. You get one of these guys and he's been thinking about you and he comes and he stands in the pulpit and you aren't here because you decided to sleep in that day. Where if you were here, not only would you get what he has to give, you would give to him something.

And it would be encouragement. There's just so many ways that we help one another that you may not recognize. You just think on those things.

Serving, serving, serving.