The Ministry That Pleases God

THE MINISTRY THAT PLEASES GOD Leadership Lifter Rick Warren

“Without faith it is impossible to please God…”

MINISTERING IN FAITH MEANS…

1. _____________________________ ________________________________________ ___________ WHEN I DON’T SEE IT.

being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”

2. ___________________________________ ________________________________________ _____ WHEN I DON’T UNDERSTAND IT

“It was faith that made Abraham when God called him and go out had promised to him. He left his own country country without knowing where he was was going.” Heb. 11:8 (GN)

“… By faith (Abel) was commended as a righteous man man when God spoke well of his Heb. 11:4b offering “Out of … extreme poverty welled up rich generosity… able, and .” 2 Cor. 8:2-3

as much as they were

“It was by faith that Moses Moses left Egypt and was not afraid of the King’s anger. He held to like a man who could see the invisible.” Heb. 11:27 (JB)

Leadership Lifter

“By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the people had marched around them for seven days.” “When you pray and ask for something, believe that you have received it given what you ask for.” Mark 11:24 (GN)

Heb. 11:35-40 “They were all commended for their faith yet none of them received what had been God had planned something better…”

ii

Leadership Lifter Hebrews 11:6 Rick Warren

Hebrew 11. I want us to look at the ministry that pleases God. I’m often asked by businessmen and other people in our church “What is it that motivates you in ministry? What is it that keeps you keeping on?” I had a businessman tell me this story: Three guys died and got up to heaven. The first guy goes up and St. Peter says, “Are you ready to come into heaven? How much did you make?” The guy says, “A hundred thousand a year.” St. Peter says, “Come on it.” St. Peter says to the next guy, “How much did you make?” $200,000 a year. “You come on in.” The third guy came up and St. Peter said, “How much did you make?” $20,000 a year. St. Peter said, “Really? What church did you pastor?” What motivates you for ministry? Ministry is too unpredictable to be motivated by security. It is too unprofitable to be motivated by money. It is too demanding to be motivated by pleasure. And it is too criticized to be motivated by fame. So what is it that motivates you in ministry? Why did you do what you do? The only lasting motivation for ministry is because we want to please Jesus Christ. Out of a deep heart of gratitude, I don’t deserve to be saved much less in the ministry. All that God does in us and for us and through us is by grace through faith. So out of a deep abiding heartfelt gratitude for the fact that I’m saved, I want to give my life to Jesus Christ and I want to serve Him in any way possible. I know that your heart is like my heart and my life goal is to one day stand before Jesus Christ and have Him say, “Well done thou good and faithful servant.” At that point, when He says that, it will be worth it all. You won’t be in heaven five seconds and you’ll say, “Why didn’t I serve more? Why didn’t I give more? Why didn’t I love more? Why didn’t I obey more?” To stand before Jesus and have Him say, “Well done thou good and faithful servant,” it really doesn’t matter what other people think of your ministry. Because you only have one master to please and that’s the Lord Jesus Christ. So my motivation (and I know your motivation) is I want to please Jesus with my life. But the catch is not all ministry is pleasing to God. Just because we are serving the Lord does not automatically mean that what we’re doing is pleasing to God. Hebrews 11. The classic chapter on faith. V. 6 “Without faith it is impossible to please God.” Does that apply to ministry? Yes. It doesn’t matter if I’m in ministry or not, if I’m not ministering in faith, I’m not pleasing God. The Bible is even more specific than that. It says, “Whatsoever is not of faith is sin.” If I’m not ministering in faith, I’m ministering in sin. That’s strong stuff. If that’s true, and obviously it is because it’s in God’s word, then the very most important question I can ask myself as a pastor, and that you can ask yourself as a pastor, is what does it mean to minister in faith? If I don’t minister in faith, I’m not pleasing God. And if I don’t minister in faith, I’m sinning.

THE MINISTRY THAT PEASES GOD Leadership Lifter

What does it mean to minister in faith? Fortunately we have Hebrews 11, that classic example of one example after another of men who ministered in faith. I want us to look at six definitions of how to minister in faith. Because this is the kind of ministry that pleases God. The Bible says ministering in faith means… 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Believing when I don’t see it. Obeying when I don’t understand it. Giving when I don’t have it. Persisting when I don’t feel like it. Thanking God before I receive it. Trusting if I don’t get it.

If you want to use this outline Sunday, if you need a message, I grant you carte blanche. I always tell people the first time you use it you say, “Rick Warren says…” The second time you use it you say, “It’s been said…” The third time you use it you say, “I’ve always thought…” Creativity is the art of concealing your source. Vance Hafner said he heard about a guy who was going to be original or nothing and he was both. If my bullet fits your gun – shoot it! I had a guy the other day who gets my tapes in Canada say, “I need to apologize. I’ve been preaching your message outlines.” I wrote back: “Brother, that’s the point!” We’re all in the body of Christ. If you get an outline, you can share with me and if get an outline, I can share with you. Use them. Ministering in faith means… 1. BELIEVING WHEN I DON’T SEE IT

v. 1 “Faith is being sure of what we hope for, being certain of what we do not see.” Faith is visualizing the future in advance. It is seeing the future in the present. Every great achievement began when somebody saw it in advance. Nothing happens in life till somebody believes it’s possible. We didn’t put a man on the moon until one day JFK stood up and said, “Let’s put a man on the moon.” When he said that, the technology had not even been invented. Faith is believing when I don’t see it. Some things have to be believed before they can be seen. The world says, “Seeing is believing.” God says, “Believing is seeing.” You have to see it in advance. Faith is believing when I don’t see it. Eleven years ago I moved to the Saddleback Valley. I’m a native Californian and came back to California from seminary. I moved to Saddleback Valley and I basically had nothing. No members, no building. I didn’t know a single person in the Saddleback Valley. John Jackson said he believed in me and he’d help me out. We moved to the Saddleback Valley with absolutely nothing except a wife and a four-month-old baby. But God gave me a vision. And God gave me a dream in my heart that I could not shake of trying a church that might be just a little bit different in some ways – to try to reach in maybe a new way. I’ve watched that dream unfold like a Polaroid picture over the last eleven years. Now every Sunday I speak to between four and five 2


thousand people every Sunday morning. We’ve started fifteen daughter churches. I had a magazine call a couple of weeks ago. They said “Thought you’d be interested knowing that Saddleback is the third fastest growing Baptist church in America.” Where did that come from? It starts with a vision. It does not start with resources. It does not start with money. It does not start with people. It starts with a vision. Every year the pastors of the twenty largest SBC churches get together for three or four days and talk about church growth. I’ve been invited the last two or three years. I sat with men I’ve admired all my life – Criswell, Stanley, Ed Young, Basano, Gregory, Henry. All of these different guys. I look around the room at these twenty guys of the largest SBC churches and the fact is every one of them is as different as night and day. The fact is, God uses all kinds of personalities and all kinds of backgrounds and all kinds of temperament. I’ve sat there for two or three years looking at these guys thinking, What is it that these men have in common? They are all men of vision. I challenge you to dream great dreams for God. Make your dreams big enough for God to fit into. The size of your dream determines the size of your God. I would challenge you to set some goals because goals are statements of faith. The ministry that pleases God is first and foremost a ministry that believes when you don’t see it. Ministering in faith means believing your church can grow when it looks hopeless. It means that those leaders and those members can change when it looks like they’re never going to change. In our particular situation, it means believing that someday we’re going to get a building when eleven years later you’re still waiting. It means believing when you don’t see it.

2. OBEYING WHEN I DON’T UNDERSTAND IT

Has God ever told you to throw out a sermon after hours of preparation? Has God ever told you to witness to somebody when you didn’t have the time? Has God ever told you to leave a comfortable church ministry and go to an unknown quantity? That’s ministering in faith. It’s obeying when you don’t understand it. Hebrews 11:8 (Good News) “It was faith that made Abraham obey God when God called him to go out to a country that God had promised him. He left his own country not knowing where he was going.” Abraham is a classic example of obeying when I don’t understand it. He was 75 years old and God asked him to give up all his security – when he’s ready for social security, God says You’re going for social insecurity – and He says at 85 years of age I want you to leave, pick up everything and get ready for the greatest adventure of your life. The scary part of it is God gave him no details. Abraham says, Where are we going? God says, You’ve never heard of it. How long is it going to take? You’ll find out. How will I know when I get there? I’ll let you know. Would you go? Would you go at age 75? I want to challenge you to make the rest of your ministry the best of your ministry. You cannot minister in faith without taking risks. If there are

3


no risks in your ministry then you’re not living by faith. And if you’re not living by faith you’re not pleasing God. Constantly I have to ask myself, “Lord, what can I do that will force me to live by faith? That will force me to minister outside of my comfort zone in ways that I don’t feel comfortable doing?” Faith is doing what God says even when it seems absurd. How many stories in the Bible are an example like Gideon: Three hundred men against 135,000 men. The odds are 450 to one. God says, "Here are the weapons you’re going to use, Gideon. Everybody take a torch, a trumpet and a clay pot.” Not exactly your typical warfare weapons. It didn’t make sense. Right! That’s God’s plan. Because faith is obeying when you don’t understand it. Sometimes God will tell you to do something in your church and in your ministry and you’ll think, “There’s no way this is going to work!” God says, Do it. And guess what? It works! We have done more things at Saddleback that didn’t work than did. Someday I want to write a book on the thousand ways not to grow a church. It’s wise to learn from experience but it’s wiser to learn from the experience of others. I don’t have time to make all the mistakes myself. We need to share not just our successes but we need to share our failures. Proverbs 3:5 says “Trust in the Lord and lean not on your own understanding.” One of the tests of ministering by faith is how quickly do I obey God? I’m trying to teach my kids that delayed obedience is disobedience. If I tell them to do something and they don’t do it immediately, that’s not obedience. Delayed obedience is disobedience. “Lord, one of these days I’m going to get around to doing this.” God says, That’s not obedience. That’s disobedience. The ministry of faith, the ministry that pleases God believes when you don’t see it and obeys when you don’t understand it.

3. GIVING WHEN I DON’T HAVE IT.

Hebrews 11:4b “In faith Abel was commended as a righteous man and God spoke well of his offering.” Isn’t that interesting? Giving and faith go together. God uses finances to test us. I think probably one of the verses we pastors overlook most often is Luke 16:11 “If you have not been faithful with unrighteous mammon, who will commit to you true spiritual riches.” God uses money to test our faithfulness. God watches the giving of a pastor. The Bible says if you have not been faithful with unrighteous mammon, who will entrust to you true spiritual riches. There is a direct relationship between how I use my money and the power of God in my life. We don’t talk about that much. The Bible says real quickly there is a direct relationship between how I use my money, how I manage the unrighteous mammon, and god’s blessing upon my life and ministry. It influences how much God can bless my life. I think God expects pastors to take the lead in giving. We teach, “You cannot out give God” and all our members say, “Pastor, put your money where your mouth is!” The land that we now own (It’s very expensive to buy land in Orange County.) is worth nine million dollars – just the land alone. It took faith just to get that. Nine million dollars worth of land. When we first went into a building campaign program three years ago – we called it Possess Our Land (we started to call it Posses The Land but the initials were PTL and thought that was no 4


good for fundraising!) – I thought, “Lord, what an enormous project! God, You’ve got the wrong guy.” I grew up in a little town in northern California with 500 people. I’m a country boy and God put me in one of the most urban, affluent areas in our state. I offer my resignation to the Lord every Sunday. “Lord, if there’s somebody who can do a better job here, I gladly give it up.” I think we need to hold our ministry with an open hand. It’s His ministry. “Lord, You used me to start this church,” but I remind myself it’s not my church. It’s His. “If You want to move me out of the picture, You have the right at any point in time.” I called Ed Young at Second Baptist. They had just gone through a 36 million-dollar fundraising campaign. “I’ve got this nine million dollar piece of property. (We only owe two million on it.) What is the secret of raising 36 million dollars?” Without hesitation he said, “When you as a pastor give sacrificially, your people will.” That’s not what I wanted to hear. But when I start taking the lead in giving and I decided that if there was one area I was going to lead our church, I was going to lead them in giving – I lost all fear of challenging other people. We are to set the example because ministering in faith means believing when I don’t see it, obeying when I don’t understand it, and giving when I don’t have it. I don’t say this to boast so please don’t misunderstand me. But there are many people in my church that make three, four, five times what I make in income and yet last year, my wife and I, led our church in giving. There is only one family that gave more than us. My church doesn’t even know that. But I want God to know it. We determined that would be the fact. Don’t misunderstand me: I’m no big hero. I’m not. The real heroes in my book are the vocational pastors – the guys who are putting their life on the line and who are bringing in an outside income to finance the church that God’s called them to minister to. Those are the real heroes in my book, not the guys in the churches that have enough people in the church to pay their salary. But the guys who say, “God’s called me to ministry but the church can’t support me so I’m going to support myself.” That’s a hero in my book.

4. PERSISTING WHEN I DON’T FEEL LIKE IT

Do you ever feel like giving up in the ministry? I heard about the mother who went into her son’s room on Sunday morning and she said, “Son, you must get up. You must get dressed. You must get ready and go to church.” The son said, “I don’t feel like it.” She said, “You must! It doesn’t matter if you feel like it, you’ve got to go.” He said, “Why?” She said, “Two reasons: One, you’re 36 years old and two, you’re the pastor.” The truth is, I don’t always feel like studying for another sermon. I don’t always feel like counseling one more problem. That’s the last thing on my agenda sometimes. Yet the Scripture says, “Be instant in season and out of season.” Saddleback is a large church but we don’t have a building. For the last eleven years we’ve used 53 different buildings, because we will never allow the building to stop the growth of the church, we just move again. The last time we moved we moved the church nine miles, from one high school to another. There is no glory to setting up and taking down a church for four, five thousand people every week. It’s not fun. It’s long, hard work. A lot of times, I’ve just said, 5


“Who needs this?” I could go get a county seat, brick church where it’s all set up. They could pay my salary and I could go play golf three times a week. But God says, “Be instant in season and out of season.” I remember one time I was setting up, things had gone wrong. The janitor hadn’t got there. The door was locked. Five minutes before the service we’ve got all these hundreds and hundreds of chairs and all these thousands of people waiting to come in. I just turned around and said, “Everybody, pick up your chair and walk.” They all brought it into the gym. I was sweating. I thought, “I’m in no shape to preach.” I was feeling bad about loading in all the sound system, having a little pity party. God said, “Rick, who are you doing this for anyway?” I had to say, “I’m doing this for Jesus’ sake.” That’s what counts. Persisting when you don’t feel like it. Let me tell you how to be a success. Successful people simply do the things other people don’t feel like doing. Do you want to be a success? Do the things that nobody else feels like doing. Most of what is being accomplished in the world today is being done by people who don’t feel like doing what they’re doing. If you want to be an Olympic athlete, you put in hours of exercise. If you want to be a master musician, you put in hours of practice. If you want to be a super salesman, you make the extra calls. If you want to be a godly man or godly woman, you pay the price. You develop the spiritual disciplines and habits that pay the price for godliness. If you want to be a master communicator, you put the hours in to study and you sharpen your skills, you listen to tapes, you go to conferences, you never think that you’ve learned it all. You keep on sharpening that ax. At the end of the first year I burnt out. I’d been working eighteen hours a day, started a church with just my wife and I. We were running 200 at the end of the year. I thought, “Lord, I can’t handle this. At this rate, we’ll be running several thousand in a matter of years.” (Little did I know!) I’m not the man of God I ought to be. I can’t handle it.” This is the only church I’ve ever been a senior pastor of. I came right out of seminary. I burned out. The last message of 1980, I was standing in the pulpit and started to faint. I collapsed. I had a physical and emotional collapse. Spiritually, I was right on with the Lord. But I was emotionally drained. I had two hundred brand new believers and felt like the director of an orphanage. No other leadership. I burnt out. During ’81, I was depressed almost the entire year. A cloud over me. During 1981, the second year of Saddleback’s growth, my goal was not “God, build a great church!” My goal was “God! Get me through next Sunday!” I was hanging on. One of the keys of success is plain old persistence. Faith does not know how to quit. You refuse to give up even when you’re tired. The way you become a success is you just outlast all your critics. Hang in there! How do you develop that kind of persistence? How do you develop the kind of persistence that keeps you in a position when God has put you there, when every bone in your body says, “Move or quit the ministry!” Where do you get that kind of persistence?

6


Hebrews 11:27. The example of Moses. “It was by faith that Moses left Egypt and was not afraid of the king’s anger. He held onto his purpose like a man who could see the invisible.” Notice the key to persistence is that last phrase – he could see the invisible. Only as we see the invisible can we accomplish the impossible. The key to persistence is keep your eyes on God. Keep your eyes on the Lord Jesus Christ. Corrie Ten Boom says, “If you look at the world, you’ll be distressed. If you look within, you’ll be depressed. But if you look at Christ, you’ll be at rest.” It all depends on what you’ve got your eyes on. Persisting when I don’t feel like it.

7

THE MINISTRY THAT PEASES GOD Leadership Lifter 4. THANKING BEFORE I RECEIVE IT.

A good illustration is Joshua. By faith the walls of Jericho fell after the people had marched around them for seven days. Jericho was the most fortified city in the world at that time. God said, “There’s no way a bunch of slaves are going to take this thing but here’s what I want you to do: March around the city seven times a day for seven days and then I’ll cause a miracle.” What were they doing for seven times a day for seven days? Thanking God in advance. Praising God in advance. Faith is not believing God can do something. He can do it whether you believe it or not. Faith is not believing He will do something. That’s hope. You hope He will. Faith is believing that He’s doing it! That’s He’s already doing it. That the answer is already on the way. Mark 11:24. “When you pray believe that you have received it and then you’ll be given what you’ve asked for.” Don’t beg. Just thank God in advance. Make your request and then be continually thanking. If I were to write out a check for $1000 and give it to you, would you wait until you’ve cashed it to thank me? (You might!) No, you’d thank the moment you made the request and it’s been offered. If I wait until God has answered my prayer to thank Him, is that faith? No. That’s just gratitude. Faith is thanking God in advance. 2 Chronicles 20. Jehoshaphat is going out to battle against three enemy armies – Ammon, Moab and Meunites. He’s totally outnumbered. Ammon, Moab, Meunites are on one side. Jehoshaphat and the army of Israel are on the other side. God says,” Here’s the battle plan. I want you to put the choir before the army.” That doesn’t make sense. The choir with their tambourines, singing “Amazing Grace”, are marching into battle. The enemy’s thinking “What is going on?” The army behind the choir says, "Yeah, what is going on?” God says, “I want to make a point. Praise in advance.” Thanking God in advance for victory. The Bible says that because they thanked God in advance, God confused the enemy, they killed each other off and they won the battle and it took them three days to carry off the spoils of war. They called it the Valley of Barracca, which means the Valley of Blessing. The way we have God’s blessing on our ministry is by doing these things, one of which is thanking God in advance. I arrived on the field, just my wife and I, and I started thanking God. “Thank You, God, immediately for people’s You’re bringing to this church. Thank You that You’re bringing them. Thank You in advance. Thank You that You’re going to bring the leaders that I need, that You’re going to bring the people that I need. Thank You in advance.” Believing God in advance. If God tells you to go after Moby Dick in a rowboat, you’d better take along the tartar sauce. You’d better expect God to work. Thank God in advance.

6. TRUSTING IF I DON’T GET IT

The fact is, God always hears and answers every one of your prayers. Fact two, He doesn’t always answer them in the way I want them to be answered. V. 35-40 is a list of people who 8


suffered in ministry. It says “Others were tortured and refused to be released so they might gain a better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging while still others were chained and put in prison. They were stoned. Some were sawed in two and put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute and persecuted and mistreated. The world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground. They were all commended for their faith yet none of them received what had been promised.” I wonder what the health and wealth people do with that verse? None of them received what was promised yet they were commended for their faith. They suffered in ministry. That’s a part of God’s plan too. The Bible says “To you is given the privilege to believe and suffer for His name.” Ministering by faith does not exempt you from problems. We all know that from personal experience. Hebrews 11:39-40 “They were all commended for their faith yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better.” Anybody can trust God in ministry when things are going great. Big deal! Real faith is developed in the valleys of ministry, when the situation looks impossible, when the people look hopeless, when the tide has turned against you and when you’re tempted to ask yourself, “Why is this happening to me?” This is a test! Five years ago, the very first piece of land we put money down on and invested a year and a half of time and zoning, water, use permit, master plan approval and we couldn’t close the deal. The owners came to us and said, In order to keep the escrow open we want you to put down $20,000 non-refundable to keep the escrow open. We’d spent a year and a half time, got everything approved on it. We were excited about it. We’d had services out on it. But we said we couldn’t do it. We couldn’t gamble the Lord’s money. So we dropped the escrow and when we get the funds we’ll close the deal. They said fine. We dropped the escrow and the next day that piece of property was bought by a shopping center. We lost a year and a half of time and $100,000. I thought, “Lord, what kind of leader am I? We’ve done this in faith. We’ve done the best we could. We’ve prayed. We’ve followed You as best we could. We’ve discerned Your will.” Faith is trusting if you don’t get it. God had a better idea. A far, far better idea. It took Him five more years to reveal it. But you don’t think there weren’t some questions during that time? Faith is trusting if you don’t get it. Some of you are in situations and you’re saying, “God, why in the world did You put me here?” I’d say, If you could understand everything about God, He’s not big enough for your problems. If you could figure out why God does what He does and if you could figure out why He doesn’t answer all the prayers that you want answered, if you could figure all that out, He wouldn’t be sovereign enough and big enough to handle all the situations you need handled. It may be some of you are discouraged in ministry, discouraged about your ministry. You’ve worked and you’ve prayed and you’ve sweated and you’ve trusted and you’ve obeyed and you’ve seen minimal results. Satan wants to whisper in your ear, “What you’ve done does not matter.” I want to say, he is dead wrong. Your ministry matters to God. God knows who you are and He’s got your number and He’s got every hair on your head numbered and got your phone number. He put you where He put you because He wanted to put you there. All of us 9


have to stay put where He puts us until He’s ready to move us. Everybody’s got their burden, just in different areas. I’ve discovered that everybody’s hurting just in different areas. Your ministry does matter to God. It is a significant part of the kingdom. What matters is not what anybody else thinks. What matters is, Am I pleasing to God? Can I stand before Him and have Him say, `Well done, thou good and faithful servant. You were believing when you didn’t see it. You were obeying when you didn’t understand it, giving when you didn’t have it, and persevering when you didn’t feel like it and thanking before you got it, and trusting when you didn’t get it.” These all receive their confirmation. That’s the real question. Is my ministry being performed in faith. Prayer: Focus out me and everybody else around you and build a little tabernacle for God in your mind. I want us to use this Hebrews listing as a checklist for evaluation and as a commitment card. The Bible says “Whatever is not of faith is sin.” The Bible says “Without faith it is impossible to please God.” In your personal time with the Lord, ask yourself, "Lord, am I believing when I don’t see it? Or have I let the real fog out the ideal? Lord, Help me to believe when I don’t see it. Father, help me to obey when I don’t understand it. Help me to give when I don’t have it.” Some of you are going through some tough times right now. You feel like the tide’s out in your life. Would you say, “Help me to persist when I don’t feel like it, to hold to the purpose and look at the invisible. Lord, I want to thank You in advance that You are going to renew my ministry. I ask You to begin renewing it today. Help me to dream great dreams for You. Help me to make the rest of my ministry, the best of my ministry. In Jesus’ name. Amen.”

10

The Ministry That Pleases God

Recommend Documents