 If we want to thrive and not just survive in ministry, we must understand what being merciful to those who mistreat us is and what it is not.
Being merciful is relinquishing your right to retaliation or revenge. Being merciful is not being silent when sin is sin. Being merciful is being kind when communicating the correction of that sin. Being merciful is not being a doormat and enabling that sin. Being merciful is being kind to the unthankful and the evil. Being merciful is not being manipulated by the unthankful and the evil. Being merciful is the active portion of being meek (not being touchy or retaliatory). Being merciful is not being touchy or retaliatory but actively being kind to your enemies—especially to enemies as the result of doing the right thing in ministry. “But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to the unthankful and evil. Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful.“ –Luke 6:35-36
Sometimes, in the beautiful worthy difficulty of ministry, you will make enemies. Even as a broken, humble, and others-centered servant endeavoring to do the right thing, others will actively oppose you with hostility.
Which is why mercy is a core component of ministry. Being kind, even and especially to your enemies, is essential. Jesus gives us a whole new way to be merciful to enemies who would mistreat us. “Blessed are the merciful,” Jesus said, “for they shall obtain mercy.” Watch our study of Matthew 5:7 as we consider the importance of mercy in ministry.  “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
For they shall be filled.” – Matthew 5:6 As we follow Jesus, our metric for making decisions changes. It changes from self-focused to selflessness. We no longer consider whether something benefits us personally or whether or not something advances our agenda, but rather simply whether or not it is the right thing to do. We hunger and thirst for this—whether or not a decision is right. We no longer take into account whether or not a decision personally benefits or harms us—because sometimes doing the right thing will cost us. Our whole metric for making decisions has radically changed! For a disciple of Jesus who continues to count the cost of discipleship, this isn’t a work of the human will. It is a work of the Holy Spirit. Only by the Spirit’s power can we have the attitudes Jesus defines in the Sermon on the Mount.
From the mountain, Jesus delivered a sermon to His disciples. He taught them what their attitudes must be like if they were to continue to be His disciples. He wanted to give them (and us) as much disclosure as possible to know what ministry would be like.
Through this sermon, Jesus desired to communicate the beautiful and worthy difficulty of bringing glory to God through the selfless service of others. However, the attitudes necessary for such a service cannot come from our strength. It is only a work of the Holy Spirit, and not of the human will. And this is true with the fourth beatitude, as the Holy Spirit draws those who continue to follow Jesus into an even deeper level of humility. Watch our study of Matthew 5:6 as we consider what it means to hunger and thirst for righteousness.  What does it mean to be meek, and why is it important? First, meek does not mean weak. To be meek means to be gentle and patient, not given to anger or resentment—critical qualities to have in ministry.
Meekness is the God-given ability to patiently endure without being touchy or retaliatory, relying on God rather than ourselves against injustices. We are hard-wired in our flesh to be touchy and retaliatory. But when we look to Jesus, we never see Him take personal offense or become bitter with resentment. He was meek—gentle, patient, and secure. This attitude is necessary if we are to survive and thrive in ministry. Are you meek? It doesn’t come naturally—it is a work of the Holy Spirit, not of the human will. You can ask the Lord for meekness—He wants to give good things to those who ask Him. Come to Him regularly and ask Him to change and transform you by the Holy Spirit.
As we continue our way through the Sermon on the Mount, we read of the qualities God is forming in His disciples. We must see our spiritual poverty to survive and thrive in ministry. We must recognize the depth and depravity of our sin to realize it’s only by God’s mercy that we have an opportunity to minister.
We will not survive long if we think we are capable of what God has called us to because of our resume or spiritual skill set. It is only by His mercy that any of us are in ministry. This is especially important to be aware of as we consider the third beatitude—“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” (Matthew 5:5). What does it mean to be meek and why is this an attitude important to have if we are to survive and thrive in ministry? Watch our study of Matthew 5:5 as we consider this important, but often misunderstood quality of a disciple of Jesus.  We cannot enter into ministry pridefully as if anything on our earthy resume would qualify us for serving. Not only are we unqualified for such a task, we quickly realize that we are disqualified because of our sin. If our hearts are humble about this, we mourn.
This mourning forces us to realize that it is only because of God’s great mercy that we have any ministry at all. The Apostle Paul wrote about this in 2 Corinthians 4:1, “Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart.” Yes, we are unqualified. We might even be the worst—the chief of sinners. And yet somehow, only in God’s mercy, He has called us to serve—so we do not lose heart. We can mourn over our sin while we receive comfort from the Lord. This is where true worship begins—at the intersection of the awareness of our own sin and God’s great grace, which is greater than our sin! Guilty, helpless, lost were we; blameless Lamb of God was he, sacrificed to set us free: Hallelujah, what a Savior! |
From Pastor Dom...When I first gave my life to Jesus, there were friends in my life who helped me to grow in my understanding of God, through His word, and for those friends Archives
August 2024
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