One Group Does the Ministry While Everyone Else Grades the Performance

Sermon outline

God never meant a few people to do the ministry while the rest watch and critique; every believer is a priest and minister with a gift to use, and the only motive that will keep the whole body working together is love.

1. One group does the ministry while everyone else grades the performance

   In most churches an Old Testament priestly system operates, where one person or a small elected group does the entire ministry while the rest of the body sits passively, evaluating and criticising their performance. That was never God's plan. He wants every believer involved in the life and ministry of the local church.

   “But this has never been God's plan. He wants every believer involved in the life and the ministry of the local church.”

2. Everyone is a minister unto the Lord

   From Genesis God expected deep fellowship with man, with man administering everything in close relationship with Him. After the fall He chose Israel as a foreshadow of what He would do in Christ: redeemed by the blood, baptised in the cloud and the sea, drinking from the rock that was Christ, and called a kingdom of priests. Moses wished all God's people were prophets, but Israel failed through disobedience. In Christ the plan is fulfilled: we are a royal priesthood, and every believer is an ambassador, under the King's control, speaking for Him and going where He sends.

   “An ambassador is under the full control of his king.”

   • Genesis 1-2
   • Exodus 12:13
   • 1 Corinthians 10:1-4
   • Exodus 19:6
   • Numbers 11:29
   • 1 Peter 2:5-9
   • 2 Corinthians 5:20

3. Every member has a gift and must use it

   Each one has received a gift to minister to others as a good steward, and the Spirit distributes as He wills. We do not all have the same function, so do not covet how God uses someone else. The gift may be free, but the believer has a responsibility to work in it and develop it.

   “There's a responsibility on the believer to really work in those gifts and to develop those gifts that God has given him.”

   • 1 Peter 4:10
   • 1 Corinthians 12:11
   • 1 Corinthians 12:18
   • Romans 12:5-6

4. A body working at sixty per cent is crippled

   The fivefold ministry exists to equip every believer and release them into their ministry, and that is what the Bible school is doing. If only fifty or sixty per cent of members function, the body is crippled and limited in its task. Instead of chasing this prophet or that move of God, believers must understand that they are the move of God in their local church. A functioning church is active, fulfilled, united, stable and mature, with each part fitted together under Christ the head.

   Illustration: If any part of your body, a hand, a foot or an organ, stopped working, you would get help and medication, because that is not how God made it. A church at sixty per cent is the same.

   “We are the move of God in our local churches and in the world around us.”

   • Ephesians 4:11-16
   • 1 Corinthians 12

5. Gatherings led by the Spirit

   When the church comes together each one has a psalm, a teaching, a revelation or an interpretation, and the Holy Spirit should conduct the meeting as a conductor brings each instrument into the symphony. 'Let all things be done decently and in order' has two halves: order and structure, yes, but also letting all things be done. That keeps meetings alive, creative and spontaneous rather than monotonous, and calls for humble authority and flexibility in leadership.

   “Yes, we can have a program, yes, we can have an order structure of things, but when the spirit of God wants to move, we have to let the spirit of God move.”

   • 1 Corinthians 14:26
   • Ephesians 5:18-19
   • 1 Corinthians 14:40

6. The motive for everything is love

   Much Christian work is done out of competition, pride and selfish ambition. The motive must be love: love for God with all we have, out of which grows our work with others. When Jesus restored Peter He did not give him a contract but asked three times, do you love Me? God's motive, Christ's ministry and the apostles' compulsion were all love, and without it even the greatest sacrifice counts for nothing.

   Illustration: A new believer serving with first love is asked by someone who has had the same seat for fifteen years what he has ever done for the Lord. The motive behind that question is pride and competition, not love.

   “This is the only motive that will keep us on fire for him.”

   • Philippians 2:3
   • Matthew 22:37-40
   • John 21:15-17
   • John 3:16
   • Ephesians 3:19
   • Romans 8:38-39
   • 2 Corinthians 5:14-15
   • Hebrews 2:3
   • 1 Corinthians 13

7. Love is the trademark of the church

   Jesus warned of false prophets with powerful ministries and wrong motives, and said we would know them by their fruit, and the fruit of the Spirit is love with all its qualities. All will know we are His disciples by our love for one another. The early church had one heart and soul, met daily in one accord, and God added to them daily. So the believer must be connected to a local church, serve from the right motive, and work in one accord with the team. The love walk is where fulfilling your calling begins.

   “The love walk is the beginning of you fulfilling your calling.”

   • Matthew 7:15-20
   • Galatians 5:22-23
   • John 13:35
   • Acts 4:32
   • Romans 12:10-11
   • Acts 5:12-14
   • Acts 2:46-47
   • John 15:9-12

In this message