Personal Ministry

Five Things God Uses to Grow Our Faith #3 Personal Ministry

We are in the third part of the series called, Five Things God Uses to Grow Our Faith. If you are new or have missed the first two weeks, you missed a lot. The good news is, we are glad you are here with us today. This series, is about ways in which we can draw closer to God.

The reason why we are going through this is because each of us wants a better relationship with God. We all want to feel closer to God. We are all searching for a closer walk. Here is the cool thing, we are all in this together.

When I have talked to people, when I have heard there faith stories, they shared these five things that have grown their faith. These five things have helped many people grow closer to God.

I also believe that God wants a closer relationship with each of us here. God want us to know him in a deeper way.

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September 13, 2015
Personal Ministry
Pastor David Pranga, Brewster Baptist Church

This is what this series is all about: We are examining the five things God uses to Grow our faith…

1. Practical Biblical Teaching – when we open the bible, we read it, and we say to ourselves, this actually makes some sense. Then we take what we read and apply it to our lives.

 

2. Providential Relationships – God brings people in our lives to help us grow. Often, we learn best by placing ourselves in environments where we can grow. It could be in a small group or a mentoring relationship. I believe that God brings relationships into our lives to help us grow.

 

3. Personal Ministry… This week’s topic

Then the next two weeks, we will talk about:

4. Private Spiritual Disciplines
5. Pivotal Circumstances.

Today, I want to talk about the third one called, “Personal Ministry”. Let me tell you what I mean by Personal Ministry. When people share with me how they grew closer to God or how they grew in their faith, they will often tell me about a time in their life, when somebody presented an opportunity to them, to do something. God could have simply provided an opportunity to help someone who had a need. It could have been to help a cause.

I have talked and seen people grow so much in their faith when an opportunity came up. They just felt like this “nudge” inside them. That they just had to get involved. They might have heard a story or a person sharing a need. For some reason, their heart was moved to help. They were drawn in, and for some reason, they just wanted to help out.

These people would share with me how much they grew just by helping out.

Yet, many of have heard the needs that people have. We are moved in some way. Many of us recognize it would be good to help out. But for some reason we choose not to. We may have even felt that nudge, yet we never move on it.

When people share with me this story, they often share they did not feel equipped or adequate to do the work. Other people would share, I did not feel prepared enough to do it. Or there surely should be someone else out there that may be smarter or have more talent in this area.

Each of have our reasons why we believe God should turn to someone else. Yet the thoughts of help or meeting this need keeps coming to our mind. Sometime we just feel that “nudge” to help out.

Let me tell you two reasons why we probably put ourselves out there, even when we don’t feel adequate. First, the need has to be met. Somebody needs to do it. But I believe it’s for a bigger reason. God wants to use you in something that will stretch you. It may bring you out of your comfort zone. It is to stretch and build your faith.

See, God is inviting you to go outside your comfort zone. He may be inviting you outside your skill set, outside your experience, for whatever reason, to serve someone else or to do something for someone else.

Yet, we wrestle with the tension. We begin saying to ourselves… I am too busy, not good enough, or God will ask somebody else.

What I am hoping you understand today, is that this is really a faith issue.  God is in the business of increasing your faith. This is a very important way that God grows our faith in Him. God does this by providing us with opportunities to help other people in the process.

One of the most familiar stories in the Bible deals with a faith issue and a tension that we all face when dealing with personal ministry. Turn your Bibles to Matthew 14:13.

Matthew 14:13

“When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solidary place.”

Let me summarize what happened at the beginning of Chapter 14. Jesus, had just heard what happened to his cousin John, who was called John the Baptist. See John had just been put to death by Herod. Herod, had John first arrested because John kept preaching against Herod’s marriage. Long story, lots of improper things were happening. So the best way for the king to deal with John was to put him jail. Which eventually, the king decided to behead John. So when disciples told Jesus what happened, Jesus went away by himself, to mourn John’s death. Let continue with the story…..

Matthew 14:13b

“Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns.”

The crowds in their anticipation of wanting to see Jesus, started to follow him across the lake. They could see in a Jesus boat and they decided to walk along the edge of the lake to find Jesus. The crowds grew in numbers. Jesus was wanting to be alone to mourn for his good friend, but the crowd kept growing in numbers.

Matthew 14:14-15

When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed the sick. As evening approached, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food.”

Imagine this, Jesus is trying to spend time by himself. Yet, you have this large crowd gathering. Some of these people have walked a half days journey to see Jesus.

Jesus upon seeing this had compassion upon the crowd. I love what happens next, the Bible makes it out, like it’s no big deal.   I would say this is a big deal. Jesus just began healing the sick. Jesus healed a lot of people during that afternoon. Can you image watching countless people being healed?

Well, the disciples had enough for one day. They are tired. The crowd is getting tired. It is getting late. The disciples, in their wisdom, say to Jesus, maybe you should send these guys home. They need to eat. We did not bring anything with us. We are in the middle of nowhere.

This is where the story gets interesting because Jesus does the unexpected….

Matthew 14:16

Jesus replied, “They do not need to go away. You (disciples) give them something to eat.”

Here is the tension in the story….This is where the disciples have the opportunity to do something, to help the people out. Remember, they are out in the middle of nowhere. Jesus recognized they are hungry. Jesus recognized there is no food around. Jesus recognized that they need to eat.

But he lets the disciples know… They don’t really need to go anywhere. You can feed them.

Now that is the tension. It’s that tension of when you sense that somebody has a need that has to be met. You sense there is a ministry that has a need, and there is something in your heart that goes out to that group. You hear of an opportunity, where you can help.

You are unsure how to meet the need. You sense the need is real. And as you’re sensing the need, you feel that nudge, as if God is saying to you, “You go meet it. I am putting this on your heart to be part of it. I want you take that step of faith.”

And your reaction, may be like mine at times. You may begin by saying no, no, no. I don’t have time right now God. I think somebody else can take care of this. Or you might say, this is for those holy people… God, I will begin to pray about this need. What you are really saying is, I will pray that God will bring somebody else to take care of this need.

It might be when you hear that there is a need with our children’s ministry. I know that I should volunteer to do it, but I will start praying about it. “God send our church people that can help in the nursery.”

Or you might hear about a mission trip opportunity. Then you begin to pray that God would raise up people to go on the trip to help other people that are less fortune. Please God just don’t send me.

Or we hear about a need with the food pantry or working with the homeless. We begin to say to ourselves, I will pray for God to raise up a person, who has a heart for the poor.   Maybe God is saying to you that there is a group of people that really needs a bible study leader. God, you must bring us a good Bible Study leader.

What if…. What if God was really speaking to you? What if God was saying, I want you to work in the children’s ministry? I want you to go on that mission trip? I want you to help with the poor? I want you to help those people come to know me through bible study?

And you are saying: No, No. God, let me pray about it. I just want to be praying for those people. God must be talking about someone else. He could not have been talking about me.

There is going to be a time in your Christian journey, where you are going to feel that nudge or a voice on the inside. It may be something inside you that keeps bringing this need or opportunity to your mind. You cannot get away from it.

It may be God saying to you: Okay, I want you to be involved and to meet this need. You can do it. I know you can do it.

Let’s go back to the story… In verse 17, the disciples started making excuses to Jesus… Imagine that for a while. The disciples look at each other. They look at the food on hand. And what do the disciples do …. When something is hard… The disciples do what we often do as well, we simply dodge the questions.

Matthew 14:17

We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish, they answered.

What are the disciples really saying to Jesus? We just cannot do it. We are not prepared. We are not equipped. Jesus, you got the wrong guys. I know that we just witnessed miracle after miracle, all afternoon of you healing people, but this is something far different, God. I can see the disciples just rolling their eyes at Jesus with this answer….Remember that tension we talked about earlier, it’s big time right now…

Matthew 14:18

Bring them (referring to the food) here to me, he said.

Jesus, is in his teaching mode with the disciples. Jesus understood what the disciples had. Here is the key…Jesus is saying to them…. Just bring me what you have….

Sometimes we are like the disciples, we offer excuses… I did not finish college, there is no way I could lead a bible study group. I cannot speak in front of a large group. Jesus is saying, just bring me what you know…. Well, God, I don’t have the time to go on the mission trip, I cannot raise that much money, Well, bring me how much you have….Well, God, I cannot possibly work with children. I don’t have the skills or the experience. Well, bring me the fears you have. Jesus is simply saying, Just bring me what you do have….

Let’s continue…. Matthew 14:19

And he directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and he broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples,

Can you imagine being the disciples? Jesus, takes what the disciples have. Jesus, just takes what the disciples have, blesses the food, and gives it back to the disciples. Now the disciples are standing there with the food.

What do we do with it? You basically have enough food to really feed all the disciples. You don’t want to look around, because you know the need and the people behind you are still right there. What do you do?

The disciples did what they knew how to do, because really that is all they knew they could do. So what do the disciples begin doing? They simply did what they knew how to do.

Listen to verse Matthew 14:19

And the disciples gave them to the people.

The disciples did what they knew how to do, trusting Jesus was going to do something unusual. The disciples had to trust Jesus.   Jesus would have to perform another miracle in their presence. And that is exactly what Jesus did….

When you feel that internal nudging, when you feel that thing in you saying, I want you to serve, I want you to go, I want you to sign up for this, I want you talk to your boss about getting time off for this event, I want you call those people that may be interested in the bible study, I want you to approach that person that might be in need of a helping hand. When you feel that tension….

What Jesus is saying to each of us… I want you to step out of your comfort zone. You may have all the excuses for not doing it. You may not be ready. You may not have the time. You may not have the skill set.

This is what Jesus is telling us…. You just do what you know how to do, and then you trust God to do what only God can do. You simply do what only you can do and you trust God. You trust God in what He can do.

Remember the tension you feel. The fear that there is no way I possibly can do this. Or the anxiety of, I cannot possibly do this. I am not prepared. I simply cannot do it.

Remember, this is all about your faith. It is about your confidence in God. Remember, that God is doing something inside you. God is preparing you for something. God is wanting us to exercise and grow in our faith.

What is at stake is not simply the needs you see, it is not only the needs placed upon your heart. It is not just that the needs might go unmet if you don’t do something. The real issue is with you and God.

Here is the issue… God wants to do something in you. What’s at stake really is… the size and capacity of your faith in God. How much faith do you have in God, for Him to do His part? How much faith do you have in God, for Him to show up and do His part?

See our responsibility is quite simple. God wants me to bring my time, my skills, and my abilities. Then I’m willing to trust God to do only what He can do. I am putting my faith in God. Whether He shows up or not. I am doing my part.

When I think about the big events in the world, the times when we are amazed at what God did, it can often be traced back to a person or a group of people that had faith. They had faith that God would come through. That God would do his part.

Those people understood this principle: You bring what you can…and you let God do His part.

This is simply the story of how God works with the disciples. It is also a story of how God works with us.  God wants us grow in our faith. God wants us to put our faith to the test with Him.

The story continues in Matthew 14:20,

“They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. The number of those who ate was about 5,000 men, besides women and children.

The disciples really wished they could have walked away from this event. Remember they told Jesus to tell all the people to go home. Instead, Jesus asked them what they had. The disciples brought what they had. They did their part. Then Jesus came in and did His part. God showed up. God did what only God could do.

I believe Jesus had a very specific agenda. This was one of those teaching moments for the disciples.  Jesus is telling His disciples and us, “I can be trusted”. I want you to bring me what you have, and I will do the rest.

MY STORY: When I look back at my life, I can see that when I joined God in what He was doing, my faith grew. I want to share with you a few stories from my own life where I felt a nudge or opportunity come about and God showed up….

One of those times was when I graduated from college. I graduated with a physical education degree and coaching minor from the University of Wisconsin Whitewater. Out of the blue, I get this call to go on Staff with Youth For Christ – In Racine Wisconsin.

Racine, was a town of over 100,000 people and it’s a tough town. There are lots of gangs, poverty, welfare, and teen pregnancy. It had one of the highest high school dropout rates in the state of Wisconsin. This was an interesting position because I would be working mostly with Hispanic and African American teenagers who had very little. As might have been expected, most of the kids came from broken homes, where graduating from high school was a monumental and huge achievement.

Here is what they wanted me to do: I would coach basketball & football at the high school level, and I was to set up bible studies for high school students, and bible clubs at the junior high level.

Here is the amazing thing or some would say my excuses… I did not go to a Christian school, I did not have much biblical knowledge, I had no idea how to raise money, and I grew up in a town of less than 10,000 people, mostly in a farming community which was all white.

Remember what I mentioned before… When God calls us, he tells us to bring who we are and then we let God work.

Here is what happened… I came to Racine and worked on staff with Youth For Christ. I brought what I had…A background in sports, a willingness to work with kids, an ability to set up programs and clubs, and teach the bible to these kids.

I saw God open up doors to coach high school football and to set up a high school basketball league, and a traveling team as well. I was surprised to see the local middle school open up their doors to our bible clubs, looking for a good program that would teach good morals to these kids. In fact, God brought teachers… middle school teachers to help run these after school clubs on Fridays, to reach these kids for God and to build into them.

Maybe the scariest part, was I learned how to relate to inner city kids, who had hard shells but simply wanted to be loved, accepted, and to be wanted. God wanted to work in these kids for sure. Kids came out to our programs. Lives were changed. The ministry is still operating today, 18 years after I left. I saw God increase the numbers of kids reached, schools affected, and staff and volunteers involved. Plus, I got to coach sports. All this for God.

I also believed that God wanted to raise my faith in him. I got to see God at work in more ways than I can tell you about.

 

Next Story: The second faith story, was years later. I was working as an Associate Pastor of a church. I had been taking seminary classes on and off. I felt this “nudge” to go to seminary, to finish my degree. I knew the only way to do this was to quit my job and relocate to another state to finish things off.

Here is the problem or the excuses that I came up. It is funny how our mind tells us why we cannot do something… I had no money for seminary, I had three kids under the age of 3, I had a house, a job, and good friends that my wife and I enjoyed hanging out with. We would have to give all this up.

Here was the kicker… I knew when I graduated with this degree, I would be looking for the same job I had.

Why would God want me to do this? Christy and I prayed. We both knew the situation.

Most of the counsel I received from people was your “nuts”. I had business executives, guys close to retirement that cautioned me. To think about what I was doing.

Christy and I went for it. I quit my job, we put the house up for sale, and I started school.

The next year we saw God provide for us in so many ways (financial, with relationships, housing, and opportunities to serve in a large mega church).

God took my little faith and increased it in so many ways. When God nudges you or puts something in your heart, you just have to do it. You just have to trust and put your faith in God.

Question: So here is the question: Where is God nudging you? What is the thing that you have a passion for that God may be saying to you, join me in this? What is it that you have been telling God for a while now, the excuses you have shared with God, why you cannot do it.

Remember the issue is not the excuses of why you cannot do it or the issues that you’re not good enough.

The issue that God has for you…. The real issue is your faith in God. Do you believe God will and can show up.

Let us pray.

Questions for Reflection or Discussion:

 

1. We all have been asked to do something outside our comfort zone (ex. serve in a church setting or ministry context). What was your initial response to that request?

 

2. Can you think of a situation when you were given a responsibility for which you felt inadequate and unprepared? How did it turn out? What did you learn?

 

3. In Matthew 14:13-21 the disciples used their lack of resources as an excuse to question what Jesus asked them to do. What excuses have you used? Why did you use that excuse for not doing it?

 

4. Have you ever sensed God urging you to do something, yet you failed to do it? Why did you hold back?

 

5. What did the disciples want Jesus to tell the crowds? Why? How would you have felt in the disciples shoes? How did Jesus respond to the disciples “suggestion?”

 

6. What do you think Jesus was trying to accomplish in the hearts and lives of his disciples?

 

7. What does this passage teach you about God? What talent, skill, experience, expertise, or ability do you have that, like the loaves and fish, don’t appear to be things God could use in a significant way?