Shaped by God for Ministry

Two sisters welcomed Jesus into their home. One got busy serving Him; the other sat at His feet and listened. And when the busy one complained, Jesus said something that overturns almost everything we assume about serving God.

“Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.”

Luke 10:41–42 (NKJV)

Only one thing matters — not what you do for God, but what God is doing in you. It was not what Martha was doing for Jesus that mattered; it was what Jesus was doing in Mary that mattered. And whatever God is doing in you, or has done in you, no one can take from you. I want to share three ways to make sure that what you do with your life matters to God — three ways to step into the ministry for which God made you.

Let Jesus shape you before you serve Him

The first way is this: be available to Jesus, for Him to shape you and form you for whatever He wants you to do with your life.

Whenever you are working for the Lord but not involved in the work of the Lord — in what the Lord Himself is doing — you will produce the works of the flesh, just like Martha: complaining, irritable, jealous, angry, worried, encumbered. And yet, if you had walked into that house and looked at the two sisters, you would have sworn Martha was the one doing the work of the Lord.

So come to Jesus to receive righteousness and acceptance — do not try to earn acceptance by the things you do, or you will be overwhelmed by many things. Come to Jesus to receive joy — do not try to extract self-worth and fulfillment from your accomplishments, or they will overburden you and make you bitter and angry. Come to Jesus for meaning — do not look for it in your business, your car, your family, or your children, or you will make idols of them all.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.

Galatians 5:22–23 (NKJV)

Take those nine fruits seriously: unless the Holy Spirit is producing this character in you, you are wasting your time. God did not come just to take you to heaven — that is not what it means to be saved. To be saved means to become the kind of person who naturally produces these things. They are called fruit because they are what oozes out of your life — if life cuts you, this is what should come out.

It is not what you are doing for God that is the work of God. The work of God is what God is doing in you while you are doing whatever you are doing for God.

Consider a recent, sad story: a renowned preacher of the gospel — a seminary professor, author of masterpieces that helped people become better Christians, preacher of mighty sermons that turned many to Jesus — was exposed as having carried on an adulterous affair for at least five years. All that time, people would have said he was busy doing the work of God. He was certainly working for God. But he was not involved in the work of God at all. And here is the striking thing: now that he is no longer preaching, writing, or traveling to conferences, he may be more involved in the work of God than he ever was in fifty years of working for God.

It is the same for many of us. You have been born again for years — but you tell lies. You are a leader in church — but you keep grudges and malice and slander people. You may be cumbered with many things, but that is not ministry with God. What you are doing does not matter to God if what matters to God is not happening in you. Only one thing is needed. Choose it today, just as Mary did two thousand years ago.

God can only be through you what He has been to you

In the same chapter, Jesus tells another story. A man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho fell among thieves who stripped him, wounded him, and left him half dead. A priest saw him and passed by on the other side. A Levite did the same. Then came a Samaritan — a man from a despised people.

But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion. So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.

Luke 10:33–34 (NKJV)

This Samaritan knew what it was to be rejected, abandoned, hated, and unwanted. So when he saw another man treated that way, he was moved with compassion. That is the second way to make sure your life matters to God: realize that it is only what God has been to you that He can be through you to others.

• Have you received kindness from God? Then God wants to show kindness to others through you.
• Has God understood your mistakes and failings? Then that understanding is what He wants to extend through you to others.
• Were you an outsider whom God brought in? Then God wants to bring in outsiders through you.

Do you see why the most important step in serving in any ministry is not what you do for God, but what God has done for you? It is out of what God has done in you and for you that you can do anything through God for others. So find a place to serve — but let it not be something you do so that God will be pleased with you. Let it be something you do so that someone else can encounter God through you.

Think of three places in the church where this becomes real. Praise and worship is not just about coming to sing and clap; it is about revealing God to people as the only and the highest Being deserving of their worship. So ask yourself: has God revealed Himself to you that way, or do you still worship your job, your privilege, your status, your culture? The more God has weaned you of those idols, the more what He has been to you He can be through you to others — and serving on that team is one way He does the weaning.

Guest services is built on a simple conviction: a stranger is a friend you have not yet met. God is the ultimate outsider-insider Person. He took Hagar and brought her in. He took Tamar and brought her in. He took Zacchaeus, Joseph, and Moses and brought them in. This is our family business — not being all about ourselves, but figuring out how to turn the stranger into a friend and into family. If you have experienced this from God, He wants to use you so others experience it too.

And follow-up and discipleship: you know how God chased you. You know how He followed you up and kept hunting you down. Because that is what God did for you, consider being part of the team that calls people, plans visits, lovingly hunts them down for Jesus, and never gives up on anyone.

It is not your gift or talent that God is interested in — it is your heart, your passion and compassion. The Samaritan was not anointed or gifted, but he had compassion; his heart moved him. Will you let your heart move you to follow up with someone and make them welcome? Will it move you to put in the extra hours of practice and preparation so that when people come to worship, they encounter God?

Let everything you do point people to Jesus

The third and final way: make sure that everything you do for others challenges them to turn to Jesus as their Lord and Savior. In John 8, the scribes and Pharisees dragged before Jesus a woman caught in adultery, demanding the stoning the law prescribed. Jesus stooped and wrote on the ground, then said, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.” One by one, convicted by their conscience, her accusers left.

When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, “Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.”

John 8:10–11 (NKJV)

Think about that closing sentence. Did this woman not know she should not sin? Of course she knew. And if she knew but continued, it was because she was powerless against it. So what difference would it make for Jesus to say, “Go and sin no more”? Here is the difference: every time God tells you “I am with you,” it is because He has just given you something impossible to do. When God gives you the impossible, He is inviting you into a life lived in partnership with Him. Jesus did the impossible — showing the love of God to a woman who by law deserved judgment — precisely to invite her into a partnership with God that would enable her to do what had been impossible for her.

This must be how we see ministry. How can black and white worship together in one church? How can women carry leadership roles in places where women are outsiders? How can people give up what they have to care for others? Every time we as a community do something that seems impossible to others, we are challenging people to come to God, so that God can do the impossible in them. And the cycle repeats: as God does impossible things in them through us, what God has been to them He can then do through them for others. This is how your life begins to matter to God — you become a vessel of God producing more and more vessels of God.

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.

Matthew 5:16 (NKJV)

The only light we have is the light of God, because only God is light. So our mission is to shine the light of God’s love so powerfully — to do things people consider impossible — that they are drawn to pursue partnership with God themselves, and find they too can do the impossible: give up sin, love those who hate them, love those who are not like them and do not like them.

Do you want to make sure that what you do with your life matters to God? Then begin where Mary began: at His feet. Ask Him today, “Lord, shape me. Do in me what only You can do — and then do it through me for someone else.” That is a prayer He loves to answer.