Audio Transcript

How will I find my ministry calling? Will I find it internally, like some impulse that will lead me to start a new thing? Or will my ministry calling come from the outside? Will it come from others telling me where I’m needed? This is a great question, and it comes in today from a listener named Caleb.

Caleb references a conference you preached at years back, Pastor John. Here’s his email: “Hello, Pastor John! At a conference, now many years ago, you went to Colossians 4:17 to argue that God gives ministries to his children. We don’t stumble upon our ministry; instead, he decisively ‘throws’ us into them, so to speak. Any chance you’d be willing to expand on how this works, and how it has worked for you in church and parachurch contexts? Thank you!”

First, let me share several passages of Scripture that caused me to say that we are not the decisive cause of being in any particular ministry — God is. And then I’ll step back and ask how that divine work is experienced in our minds and in our hearts so that we can make it more practical for people as they find their way into ministry and church or parachurch.

God Grants the Ministry

First, Paul says to the elders who are gathered in Acts 20:28, “Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you [literally, “set you” or “put you” — etheto in Greek] overseers to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.” God put those elders there as elders. They did not put themselves there — God did, decisively.

“We are not the decisive cause of being in any particular ministry — God is.”

Second, Ephesians 4:11–12. Paul says that Christ “gave [to the church] the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.” These ministers of the church are the gift of the risen Christ to his body. They are where they are as a gift of Christ.

Third, in Matthew 9:37–38, Jesus says, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” And the word for “send out” is ekballō, “throw out.” He threw them into ministry. “Send out, throw, the laborers into the harvest.” So when the Lord answers this prayer, he does the decisive work and makes sure that the workers are where he wants them to be.

Fourth, Romans 10:13–15:

Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”

Now, it’s possible for a rogue preacher to preach without being sent by a church or a mission agency. I don’t think that’s what Paul is talking about here. I think Paul is saying that nobody can preach authentically, nobody can preach with integrity for God, with God’s authority, unless he is sent by God. If anyone is preaching the gospel the way he ought as a faithful spokesman of God, he has been sent by God, not by himself. God is the decisive actor in putting them in that gospel-preaching ministry.

Fifth, Luke 12:41. Jesus had just told a parable about being ready for the second coming, and Peter says, “Lord, are you telling this parable for us or for all?” And Jesus answers like this: “Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom his master will set [or appoint] over his household, to give them their portion of food at the proper time?” So when Jesus thinks of pastors and teachers of his people, he thinks of them as stewards put over a household. He has appointed them. They are not there randomly. He has set them there, and they are to feed and take care of his house.

Sixth (and this is the last that I’m going to mention), there’s the text that Caleb referred to — namely, Colossians 4:17: “And say to Archippus, ‘See that you fulfill the ministry that you received in the Lord.’” So Archippus did not put himself in his ministry. He received the ministry from the Lord.

How We Experience God’s Calling

Now, those six passages are the reason that Caleb is right when he quotes me as saying, “We don’t stumble upon our ministries; instead, God decisively throws us into them.” But now, in practice — in the church, in parachurch ministries, wherever — we have to ask the question, How does God work inside of us, inside of people (in their mind, in their heart), so that they find themselves in the ministry where he’s putting them?

What’s the conscious experience of God’s work of guidance, of leading, in getting us to where he wants us to be? And I’ll mention just four things briefly that are typically the way God does it. And I say typically because he’s God and he can make exceptions to these.

Rising Desire in the Heart

First, there is ordinarily the rising in our hearts of a relentless and abiding desire for the work. Paul says in 1 Timothy 3:1, “If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task.” That certainly was true for me. Wow. In the two stages of my calling into the ministry, God exploded in the fall of 1966 when I was 20 years old with a relentless and abiding desire for the ministry of the word. And then he did the same thing in 1979, the fall of ’79, with a relentless and abiding desire for the proclamation of the word in the pastoral role. These desires were not flashes in the pan; they were deep and unshakable, and they overcame significant obstacles.

Fitness for the Ministry

Second, there is ordinarily a God-given fitness or giftedness for the ministry, which is shown both in a cluster of abilities that we have and in the fruit of people actually being helped spiritually by the use of those abilities — and all of that confirmed, not just by our own individual selves, but rather by the community of believers, and especially the most mature and discerning believers.

“There is ordinarily the rising in our hearts of a relentless and abiding desire for the work.”

Paul didn’t just say to the elder, “If you desire it, you’ve got it.” He gave a long list of qualifications (1 Timothy 3:1–7). So the person moves into a ministry role (1) because of a perceived set of abilities, and (2) because of some manifest fruit in people that are really being spiritually helped by those abilities, and then (3) through the mature brothers and sisters recognizing and confirming that fruit and giftedness.

Specific Encouragement

Third, there’s often a specific encouragement from other people that you should do this particular ministry. Paul said to Timothy, “I want you to go with me” (see Acts 16:3). That’s pretty direct. This happens very often. Someone says to another person, “I really think you should do this.” And it proves to be a providence from the Lord, an encouragement that gets them over the hump of hesitation.

Confidence in God’s Favor

And then finally, number four, there’s a correlation between our most consecrated, spiritually intense, wholly submitted moments on the one hand, and the sense of God’s favor and guidance for the ministry in those very moments on the other hand. In other words, when we feel most confident in God’s favor and guidance, those are the moments when we are least worldly, least unspiritual, least indifferent.

There’s a correlation between those seasons of life — when God seems to blow the cobwebs of worldliness and selfishness and greed and pride out of our heart — and it’s in those moments when we sense the leading toward this ministry most keenly and surely. God confirms them not in the carnal, selfish moments, but in the humble, brokenhearted, sacrificial, loving moments.

So, in summary, then, there are practical, relational, subjective experiences that move us toward ministry. But in the end, it is the hidden hand of God’s gracious providence that puts us, throws us, where he wants us to be.

Audio Transcript

On Wednesday, we looked at our greatest joy. What could make you happy forever? The surest and most stable answer to this question is found in the Bible, in four representative texts. Those were Psalms 40:16; 70:4; Romans 5:11; and 1 Peter 3:18. And they get mentioned a lot on this podcast to make one precious point: God himself is the prize of the gospel.

But even as God is the prize of the gospel, he daily lavishes on us all sorts of other created gifts that are good and lawful and should be embraced with thanksgiving. But handling such gifts is not without challenges for all of us, and particularly for Jameson, a podcast listener with today’s question.

“Pastor John, hello! Here’s my question for you today. I have Christian friends who believe that alcohol and drugs, particularly pot, are morally good things to be received in the spirit of what Paul says in 1 Timothy 4:4 — ‘Everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving.’ But I know Paul also says, ‘“All things are lawful,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful,” but not all things build up’ (1 Corinthians 10:23). I’m trying to figure out what we can thank God for, and what we cannot thank him for. (1) Can we thank God for a substance that is illegal for us — say underage drinking or recreational pot where it breaks the law? And (2) does Paul imply that we cannot thank God for anything that is lawful for us but not helpful to us? I guess I’m asking, in what ways would you qualify Paul’s ‘nothing is to be rejected’? When my friend attempts to thank God for the pot that I don’t think benefits his life, and which is illegal for him to use, I’m troubled.”

Right. You should be troubled. I’m glad Jameson got to the point where he said, “I guess what I’m asking is, In what ways would you qualify Paul’s ‘nothing is to be rejected’?” because that is really the issue. The issue is not, What can I give thanks for? Paul teaches that we should give thanks for everything. It doesn’t help his case at all. Ephesians 5:20: “[Give] thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus.” But that does not mean “Give moral approval to everything.” It means, rather, that we recognize that, in the providence of God, he makes everything serve his wise and loving purposes, even some very painful and even sinful things.

Key Question

I don’t think the key question is, What should we thank God for? When Paul said in 1 Timothy 4:4, “Everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving,” he’s saying, “That’s why everything exists — namely, to reveal the goodness of God and to awaken in the human soul thanksgiving.” In other words, we should only use creation, all of it, the way it was designed to be used — namely, with thanksgiving.

So Jameson says the real question is — and he’s right, I think; it’s certainly the question that exercises me — What does Paul mean when he says nothing in creation is to be rejected? I think he means nothing is to be rejected because it is ritually unclean. According to Mark 7:19, Jesus declared all foods clean. So they’re all lawful, not to be rejected. None of the Old Testament dietary laws applies anymore. They were a temporary way for Israel to set itself off from the nations.

The church doesn’t aim to set itself off from the nations in that way anymore with food laws. Nothing is ritually unclean for the Christian in that sense. It’s lawful — it’s all lawful. None is to be rejected as ritually off-limits, which also means that the false teachers in 1 Timothy 4, who were forbidding marriage and requiring abstinence from foods (1 Timothy 4:3), were falling back into the old legal way rather than walking in the freedom of Christ.

Three Principles

But to say that nothing is to be rejected as ritually unclean does not mean that all is to be eaten or drunk, even with thanksgiving, because there are other factors to take into account, which Paul doesn’t mention here because they’re not the issue with the false teachers in 1 Timothy. But Jameson is right that he should bring in Paul’s principles from 1 Corinthians, because they are relevant as to what we shall reject or not reject. I think there are at least three principles that Paul mentions as to what we do with nature, the goodness of nature.

“To say that nothing is to be rejected as ritually unclean does not mean that all is to be eaten or drunk, even with thanksgiving.”

One principle is love. First Corinthians 10:23–24: “‘All things are lawful,’ but not all things are helpful. ‘All things are lawful,’ but not all things build up. Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor.” So we do not simply say, “I’m free. All foods are clean, and that’s that. I eat what I want.” No, that’s not the way a Christian talks. We ask, “Will it be helpful? Will it be profitable? Will other people benefit from my enjoyment of this use of this, this doing of this?” That’s the principle of love.

Then, in 1 Corinthians 6:12, he brings out two other principles, I think. He says, “All things are lawful for me” — same beginning, but he continues differently — “but not all things are helpful. ‘All things are lawful for me,’ but I will not be dominated [controlled, taken over, enslaved] by anything,” even good things. Here the principle looks the same as 1 Corinthians 10, but it’s not quite. Instead of saying, “Seek the good of your neighbor in what you eat,” he says, “I will not be dominated or enslaved by anything.”

You might say this is the principle of self-love, a proper self-love. Be watchful not to be addicted. Be watchful not to be damaged. I think those would be the two principles. (1) Is it tending toward my slavery, making me a slave? I’m out of control here. I’m utterly dependent on this thing. (2) Is it hurting me? Is it doing me damage as my master?

Everyone Makes Distinctions

So three principles, at least, put limits on the statement “nothing is to be rejected”:

Love: Will it help or hurt others?
Addiction: Will I be enslaved? Is it enslaving me?
Damage to my body or soul: Will it dominate me hurtfully?

Maybe the clearest way to show Jameson’s friends that they don’t really mean it when they say, “Since everything that God made is good, absolutely nothing’s to be rejected” — they don’t mean that, because they know good and well that there are mushrooms that will kill you if you eat them. There are some people with such severe peanut allergies that they would die if they ate a peanut. They won’t even let you have peanuts on the airplane when these people are on board. They don’t serve peanuts. They know this. These friends know this. They make distinctions themselves.

“Is cannabis helpful to others when we use it? Is it addicting to my mind? Is it hurtful to the mind or to the soul?”

So the questions are these: Is cannabis helpful to others when we use it? Is it addicting to my mind? Is it hurtful to the mind or to the soul? Those are the key questions.

Our Radical Call

It might help to close by me just doing a little memory exercise here. When I came to Bethlehem Baptist Church 43 years ago as pastor, the church covenant said this: “We engage to abstain from the use and sale of alcoholic beverages,” which meant that teetotalism was required for church membership. Now, I told the leaders when I came, “That is seriously unbiblical. Even though I myself see good reasons in our culture, in our day, with my personality, for being a teetotaler, that’s not a biblical requirement for church membership.”

So how did we change it? We did. I mean, it almost cost me my job in the second year I was there, but the vote passed, and I survived. How did we change the covenant? We made it more radical. Here’s the present wording: “We engage to seek God’s help in abstaining from all drugs, food, drink, and practices which bring unwarranted harm to the body or jeopardize our own or another’s faith.” So not just alcohol or cannabis or whatever, but all drugs, all food, all drink, all practices. The way we test what we eat or drink or do is this: Does it bring unwarranted harm to the body, or does it jeopardize our own or another’s faith? I think that’s a good application of Paul’s principles in the New Testament.

Part 1 Episode 221 Why does it matter that Jesus is called both the apostle and high priest of our confession? In this episode of Light + Truth, John Piper turns to Hebrews 3:1–6 to show how these two titles meet our two greatest needs.