About fifteen years ago, a white-haired man from the new church we were attending stopped in to visit Saundra and me at our business, which was about a mile from the new church. It was the first of several visits that Jim made to us the last years we lived in Georgia. One of those visits was key for me.
I had begun to write my first book about Christianity, and I asked Jim to read the couple of chapters that I’d finished. Jim was very encouraging. But, you see, I had doubts at the time. I wondered if I had received the Holy Spirit at all – the previous church we attended, the church where I accepted that Jesus had saved me, the church where I was baptized – in that church, the official theology was that the actions of the Holy Spirit had stopped about the time that the Apostle John, the last of the original apostles, had died. And so I wondered – I had doubts about whether the Holy Spirit was speaking to me. And I asked Jim what he thought because the Reverend Jim Webb had pastured many churches in fifty-five years of ministry. I asked an experienced pastor if I was truly on track.
“There’s no way you could write what you’ve written unless you were listening to the Holy Spirit,” Jim said. And that was that.
We soon left Georgia and moved to Ohio. Another pastor, Steve Dennis, asked me to read the prayers, and the scripture – the job of what our lay leaders and lay speakers do. After a couple months of this, Steve, who had led pastoral training for his denomination, came to me after the service one day and asked, “I’m not sure how to ask this delicately, so I’ll just ask it bluntly. Have you ever considered the ministry?”
I had, and it was soon after that that I began studies for ministry. My calling had been confirmed by two pastors I respected.
A few years later, I was pastoring two small churches 30 miles from my home. I prepared a sermon every week and preached it twice. I taught two Bible studies on Tuesday evenings. I showed up once a month for a church-sponsored community dinner. And I visited people on Sunday afternoons. But that wasn’t my whole life. I also taught full-time at Parkersburg Catholic High School. I taught two evening courses at WVU-Parkersburg on Mondays and Wednesdays. And I took a full-time seminary course load, four or five courses a semester, and found time to watch a DVD with my family every Thursday evening. I was never bored!
The original disciples, eleven in number after the loss of Judas, were initially convinced that Jesus would return in a matter of months or years. But as those original Apostles aged, they began to look toward developing successors, looking for men primarily, but sometimes women – in particular Phoebe and Priscilla come to mind – you’ll find them in the book of Acts and the last chapter of Romans. The Apostles looked to find people who could and would spread the Gospel far and wide. And so they found men and women of talent, men and women who loved the Lord, men and women whose loyalties lie not with money and prestige and the other gods of this world, but who were willing to focus their lives upon saving their souls and the souls of those people they encountered as God brought them face-to-face with those people.
We see a pattern for this developing early, even before Jesus arrived on earth. Elijah was sent by God to name Elisha to be his replacement prophet, because Elijah was old and worn out. We remember Elijah, but when we analyze the deeds of the two men, Elisha did even greater deeds that Elijah had.
Elijah placed his mantel, his cloak, on Elisha, who was a wealthy, yet hands-on farmer – he was plowing with 12 pair of oxen and he was driving the twelfth pair himself. Elisha had been successful in the world, Elisha drove a Lexus, Elisha had a 4000 square foot home even in a country ruled by Ahab and Jezebel, a king and queen who worshipped false gods.
And Elisha, to his credit, stopped right there when Elijah put his cloak on his shoulders. Elisha slaughtered his oxen, cooking the meat with the plowing equipment and harness, and followed Elijah. To put it in a modern context, he scrapped and destroyed all his tractors that day, he killed his most valuable livestock, he burnt his customer list, he gave away his Lexus and his house, he melted down his computers and office furniture, he walked away from his family business, never, ever to return – and he made sure that there was nothing to return to. That is a commitment to God, my friends!
Years late, when Jesus is walking along, Jesus is asking people to follow him. What most people don’t realize is that the Jesus movement consisted of several groups of followers. There were the famous Twelve disciples, who received special teaching and were expected to teach and lead after Jesus returned to Heaven. Perhaps you are destined to be a successor to the Twelve, leading a congregation. Perhaps you have the ability to speak, the ability to understand what you are reading in the Bible, the ability to inspire other people to look at their gifts and passions and styles and walk closer to God. If you will, perhaps God has given you the abilities to become a full-time, starter on God’s team, working all week long to help people understand what Jesus taught and commanded. These people are committed to helping other people understand what God wants of us.
With Jesus, there was also the large crowd of hundreds and thousands of people who followed Jesus from place to place, watching and hoping to see miracles. Throughout history, there have been those spectators, like fans at a Mountaineer game, enjoying the spectacle of the church, the entertainment value of the show, the feeling of belonging that comes from sitting in the stands and cheering for the Mountaineers – or for God. When Jesus was winning, they came out in their thousands. They cheered His arrival into Jerusalem. But when the authorities turned against Him, they disappeared. Many went home – others even demanded Jesus’ crucifixion. They were spectators, consumers of religion, buyers of entertainment, looking to their needs rather than the needs of others. We still have many spectators in the church today. Most churches have a host of spectators. Are you a spectator?
But Christ did not intend Christianity to be a spectator sport. Jesus worked to get people on the field, playing the game, doing more than just watching. But Jesus only had three years – His time on this earth was short, and most people take longer than that to break free from the world and commit to following Jesus.
But. you see, there was a third group of followers of Jesus. There was also another group of about 120 men and women who followed Jesus closely, who provided financial support for the group, who listened closely to His teachings, who spread the word about His miracles, and who were committed to Him for the long term. They followed Him around the Holy Land, yet they weren’t in the first Twelve that Jesus called. We saw 70 disciples sent out 2 by 2 to announce the Kingdom was near. Most of them followed Him that day to the foot of the cross. Others helped bury Him. Still others went to find the empty tomb on that glorious Sunday morning.
These 120 people – men, women, teenagers - were present on the day Jesus returned to Heaven, and they were still together a week or so later when Pentecost arrived and the Holy Spirit came down and the crowd was once again drawn together. Many of them later appear in the Book of Acts and many of them are also listed in the final chapter of the Book of Romans, as Paul leads the Jesus movement to descend upon the capital of the Roman Empire to jumpstart the Church in that huge city. Perhaps you are destined to similarly become one of these committed people, men and women who spread the Gospel and do good works in their neighborhoods, their workplaces, their clubs.
Like the 120, perhaps you may not be ready to lead a church, but you are ready to lead a dozen or so people out of darkness and into an understanding of the love of Jesus Christ. Perhaps that is where you are. Perhaps you are the vital support staff, the trainers and coaches and scouts and the head of the concessions and the groundskeepers and all those other people who make sure the team on the field is functioning at peak efficiency. Is this who you are? For not everyone was ready to give up everything to become one of the Twelve. Yet many of these 120 eventually did give up their secular lives and went full-time for Jesus later in their lives.
And we also see in our Gospel reading that from time to time men would ask to follow Jesus. “Even foxes have places to sleep, but I don’t have a home”, He pointed out, reminding the men that the life of a prophet is a life on the road. We don’t just give up the chance to eat out at nice restaurants a couple times a week or some other minor comfort, we give up our homes. Is Jesus enough for you? Are you willing to move around wherever the Holy Spirit leads you so that your talents may be used to spread the Gospel?
Jesus asked another man to follow him, and the man said, “let me go bury my father.” In essence, he said, “I’ll follow you after my parents die.” He didn’t say “Let me go and have a party before I leave,” or some other trivial excuse. He was saying “I have to take care of my parents.” He had a serious life issue he was dealing with. But Jesus responded, “Let the dead bury their dead,” which meant – “the people who are not following me today are already dead. Follow me and have life. Which do you want – to stick with the dead or to have life with me?” Following Jesus is critically important.
In the 1930’s, many men and some women hopped freight cars to cross the country to find a new life, a life with hope instead of a life without options. As the train went passing by, each man or woman had to make a decision – the train was passing by – will you chose a new life or stay with your old life? The train is passing by. What is important in your life? The train is passing by.
Another man just wanted to go back and say goodbye to his family. Jesus was having none of it – “If you put your hand to the plow and look back, you aren’t fit for the kingdom.” In other words, are you ready to get to work or not? Do you look at your old life with regrets about leaving it, or is the new life attractive and interesting enough and eternally rewarding enough that you are ready to go forward now? Do you love Jesus and God that much?
Jesus understood that He had little time on this planet to teach and to minister. He understood that His time here was limited – and He knew just how much time He had. Jesus only had three years with us.
We, on the other hand, believe that we have plenty of time. We think we have much more time that Jesus – yet how many of us can guarantee that we will last through tomorrow? How many of you know whether or not Jesus will return this week or not?
Despite this lack of knowledge of our future, we have a tendency to put other life events in front of our ministry. “I’ll start in ministry when my children are grown. “or “I’ll start in ministry when I get my finances and retirement in order.” Or “I’ll start in ministry when I get married.” These are the excuses of younger people. I know. I made excuses and missed years of ministry because of them.
Older people are more sophisticated in their excuses. “I’m too old to start in ministry.” “I’ve been out of school too long for ministry.” “I’ve only got 20, 15, 10, 5 good years of ministry before I’d have to retire.” “I don’t want to leave my home to do ministry.” I also know these excuses. I made them too, and missed five years of ministry because of it. But my friend Jim was working for the Lord into his nineties. When Jim was 70 years old, he still had over 20 years of ministry ahead of him – years when he led people to Christ, years when souls were saved eternally because of Jim’s care, years when people like me chose to go into ministry because of Jim’s encouragement.
Does it really matter what our excuses are? The real issues that block us from ministry are quite simple:
Our comfort and our fear.
Let’s face it. Most of us are pretty comfortable in our lives and our lifestyles. We are basically paying our bills, we live in homes that only the wealthiest people in many countries could afford, and we are pretty much enjoying our lives. Our overwhelming fear is that our lives would change. We fear that we would be forced to drive a smaller, older car. We are afraid we’d have to move to a different town. We are concerned that we might have to meet 150 new people, like I did when I moved here, and we are afraid those people might not like us. We are afraid that we will meet messy people and their messy situations will make us uncomfortable. We love our comfort more than we love other people.
We know our current life and we like it. And so we let our comforts and our fears combine to override our concerns for lost souls. Here’s a simple check to see if you let your comforts and fears override your love for the lost – how many of you have invited someone who isn’t family, who you haven’t known for months or even years over to your house for dinner in the last five years? How many of you have invited Saundra and I over to dinner at your home? Are we that scary?
But Pastor, that’s just who we are. You pastors are a special type of person, you signed up for that sort of life, and we haven’t. We like our comforts and there’s nothing wrong with that. And we have fears, but this is a dangerous world and we see no need to bring non-Christians into our homes, especially when we have so many good Christian friends.
And you’re right on both counts. There is nothing wrong with liking comforts and the world is a dangerous place. And yet you place your souls in danger on both counts.
For you see, the flip side of loving our comforts is that we love our comforts more than other people – and Jesus didn’t tell us to love our comforts, but He DID say to love other people like ourselves. Part of developing as Christ asks us to develop is to love other people more and more. Will you stretch to love people more than your own comforts?
The flip side of fearing other people and the world is that we don’t trust God to protect us, we don’t believe God will take care of us, we don’t have faith in God’s goodness and ability. We really don’t have much faith in God. Part of developing as Christ asks us to is to put more and more faith in God to protect us. Will you stretch and learn to reach beyond your fears so you can grow closer to God?
And so, we have farther to go to develop in our Christian walk.
For a Christian should never love a comfort more than another person. One of the old saints wrote, “When a Christian has a pair of unworn shoes in his closet, he is stealing from the man who has no shoes.” Ouch! Our closets are full with shoes and clothes. Our homes have been feathered with comforts. When will our nests be feathered enough?
A Christian should never fear another person more than he has faith in his God. Especially an ordinary, run-of-the-mill person who is not threatening him, but simply is a man or woman or a family without a good Christian friend. We are afraid to just talk to strangers or have a coffee with them. It’s not like we live in a land where 2/3rds of the people we meet want to kill us and rob us! Yet, we’re afraid to invite a family that has lived beside us for years over to supper, because our house might not be clean enough or our food might not be restaurant quality.
How can we change? What is it that changes us into those special people who love others, who have constant faith in God, who choose to sell our homes and give up our good jobs and become ministers of the Gospel?
Paul provides us the answer in the fifth chapter of Galatians.
13 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. 14 For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Indulging the flesh is another way of saying that we are concerned with comfort. We are not to be concerned with our own comforts – but we are to serve one another humbly in love.
And so we must practice loving others. Invite your neighbors over for a cookout; invite your friend over for lunch; mow your neighbor’s yard when they get behind in their yard work; wash that young mother’s dishes for her; fix your friend’s car; buy the young couple with toddlers a wading pool and watch the kids for a couple hours while mom takes a nap; show up with a complete meal for the family that has just traveled hours to visit a sick relative; offer to walk their dogs and pet their cats while they’re out of town on vacation. Stretch yourself and specifically work and practice loving new people, not just your kids and grandkids and nieces and nephews, but people you don’t know – or want to know.
Practice loving your neighbor as yourself. And learn to love in new ways. You may be really good at fixing your friends broken cars – try grilling them hot dogs. You may be really good at fixing church dinners – try taking care of three toddlers for a few hours. You may be really good at working at the food pantry – try delivering the food and talking for an hour with them about their children and grandchildren, and telling them about how God led you to our church.
Furthermore, Paul tells us:
16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
Following the Holy Spirit will keep you from hurting people and blindly following the Law. Following the Holy Spirit will keep you safe and guide you to do the right things. Listening to the Holy Spirit will tell you who needs help most of all. Be led by the Spirit – do not stay under the law.
How many of you would trespass into your neighbor’s yard? How many of you would trespass into your neighbor's yard to put out a fire on their back porch with a water hose? Most, right? Yet you have broken a law. You would break a law to save a house, right? But how many of us are willing to break laws of behavior that we have learned growing up to rescue a hurting soul from hell’s destruction?
Would you give our benevolence fund five thousand dollars from your retirement account that we might help people truly get cars repaired instead of just give people a tank of gas every month or two?
Would you buy a family a brand new computer so mom could get a job that would allow her to work from home with her children?
Will you sign up to help with Vacation Bible School because you want to serve, or will you tell us this fall that you didn’t serve because “no one asked me”? I’m asking you right now!
Would you give a man just out of prison a job mowing your lawn weekly so he’ll stay out of prison?
Would you take a few days and learn new computer skills so we could put recordings of our services on the Internet? I’ll teach you!
Would you write personal letters to people you don’t really know to cheer them up and lead them to Christ? One letter a week?
Would you spend a Saturday and build and paint a new sign for this church so people can find this church easier?
Would you drive around town putting up posters for events at the church? Would you contribute ten thousand dollars so we could put sermons on the radio? Would you spend a week planting flowers to beautify the church?
Would you write a letter to our District Superintendent, telling her that you are available to pastor a pair of churches with ten to fifteen people each, preaching twice every Sunday and visiting those people in those churches, teaching a Bible study and taking two, just two courses a year to learn how to be a better pastor for little pay? We have a shortage of pastors and the shortage will grow more intense over the next few years. Are you willing to leave behind the life you know, like Elisha did, and step forward for God? Or will you continue to follow the way of comfort, the life you understand, the life of the world and the flesh?
19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.
To truly crucify the flesh, you must take action. You must leave behind your old life – you must step forward and truly belong to Christ Jesus by crucifying your own fleshly desires, your own desires for comfort. You must take your desires and hang them on the cross to die. Give them away, throw them away, drive them away. Let them die on the cross as Christ died.
Paul tells us to live by the Spirit and keep in step with the Spirit. And the best way to do this is to step forward beyond your fears, to step out in the faith that God is with you, to sprint where the Spirit speeds you rather than fall where the flesh flops you. John Wesley, when he convened the first Methodist conference of preachers, said that their purpose in gathering together was that they might save their own souls and them that heard them. Is your own soul saved?
Do you want to have love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control in your life? It happens when you trust God and listen to the Spirit, doing what the Spirit asks you to do. It happens when you decide that you can walk on a high wire without the net of the secular world to catch you, because you know that God will catch you even before you begin to fall.
Put away your excuses – God can handle every excuse if you are willing to follow the Spirit. Destroy your acts of the flesh – God can destroy the flesh and every evil act you can do if you will surrender your will to His. Instead of reaching for comfort, grasp instead for the fruit of the Spirit – and find life in those gentle whisperings of the Spirit, find love in those people you meet, find happiness and joy in watching God work.
Don’t look at the other people you’ve seen in ministry; don’t compare yourself to them negatively. Every minister has a different set of gifts; every minister is good at some things and so-so at other things. God is ready to act in your life and help you to succeed – if you truly believe that Jesus Christ is THE way, THE truth, and THE light.
And so, what is your area of growth? Where do you need to grow? Are you ready to love people more and your comforts less and move from being a spectator to support staff? Are you ready to love people in different ways? Are you ready to chuck all of the excuses into your spiritual waste basket and devote your entire life to serving God full-time? Only you and the Holy Spirit can decide, but if you want to talk about it, contact me. For Jesus is calling you into ministry – how will you respond?
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