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Week Three - The Assignment
As we've already discussed, Jesus' call to Himself is three-fold, setting those who respond apart for salvation, discipleship, and ministry. The call of Jesus is for all sinners. The ministry of Jesus Christ is to reconcile sinners to God, and the ministry of all believers is to act as ambassadors for Christ, pointing others to Christ and spreading the message of salvation. If the call is the same for all believers and the ministry is the same for all believers, what sets one believer apart from the next? The assignment! God has uniquely created each individual with His ultimate purpose of reconciling the lost to Himself in mind, giving each a specific set of gifts, talents, abilities, passions, experiences, circumstances, and opportunities to be used for His glory. When a person becomes a believer and surrenders completely to God's will for his/her life, God begins to use those gifts, talents, abilities, passions, experiences, circumstances, and opportunities together to accomplish His purpose through that believer. When the believer begins to understand the specifics of his make up and begins to sense God using him, he will experience a sense of fulfillment and purpose. He will begin to understand that no one else can do exactly what he was designed to do in the way that God equipped him to do it and will discover that he has been assigned a "niche" by God in which to live out the call and ministry that all believers share. Rather than constantly differentiating between the call and ministry that all believers share and a believer's individual specific assignment, people often refer to a believer's niche, or assignment, as being his/her ministry or calling. For example, if John carries out the ministry of Jesus Christ while working as a missionary, most would say that mission work is John's "calling." If Jennifer spreads the gospel through her school campus club, most would say that the campus club is Jennifer's "ministry." To borrow this terminology, there are as many ministries/callings as there are believers and ministries all work together to accomplish God's will and bring glory to Him. Whatever your assignment, God has equipped you to carry out your calling and ministry, and it is He who will bring about the results that He desires. Remember, your calling is not your assignment or task, your calling is to follow Jesus. Jesus will give you a task, but you focus on following Christ. Psalm 139:13-16 Write it out in your journal, underlining the words or phrases that touch your heart. Romans 8:28-30 Write verse 29 in your journal. Take a few moments and write your thoughts, concerns, and questions in your journal. Allow the following thought suggestions to guide you. How does it feel to know that God has equipped you for a specific assignment and that you have what you need to be an effective minister for Him? What are your thoughts as you read the assigned scripture?
What has God taught you today about assignment? Review:
The assignment that God has given you does not stand alone. You are a part of a team. God has not told you to do everything to reach the world for Christ and equip other believers; He has given you a specific set of responsibilities in the world wide task. Like a large stained glass window in a historic church that has many pieces of glass to make one picture, you are one piece of the picture that God is using in the world and through your church. Every person has a task and the body functions best when each part is doing their part. Part of your mission is to serve and give faithfully to the work of the ministry. Anyone called to ministry understands that at times you may be the recipient of an offering or some financial help for a ministry that you are involved in. You should understand more than most that each dollar given to a ministry is precious and important. You should also understand that financial giving is a mandate of God to every child of God. (Malachi 3:6-12 ) Giving affects you, your church and the ability of the world-wide mission to continue. Paul was traveling and sharing the love of Christ. He worked to earn a living in some places, but in other places was supported by the churches so he could continue to establish more churches and share the love of Christ. It has always been a part of the calling of believers to financially support ministry efforts. 2 Corinthians 8:8-15 describes multiple churches working together to share in a single offering. This is the picture of the mission giving and coordination Southern Baptists have had since 1925. Baptists participate in a method of giving to missions called the Cooperative Program (CP). Each church decides what percentage of their offering each week will go toward CP missions and what part the church will keep at home. When the church sends their mission money to the Cooperative Program, the money is divided among missionaries around the world, mission work in North America, seminaries, disaster relief ministries, evangelistic media campaigns, church planting and much more. The Cooperative Program supports mission work in your state, around the nation and in many countries around the world. Every week when you give financially to your church, you are giving to reach and minister to people around the world. Christians want to help with issues like world hunger, clothing, medical help, church planting and outreach ministries. But, there are so many needs, which ministries will you support? The genius of the Cooperative Program is that you can give to all of those missions each week and your offering will be combined with other people's offerings to make the gift large enough to raise up new missionaries, support existing missionaries, provide clean water for poverty stricken countries, get Bibles to the lost, start new churches and much more. As a part of the team that is the body of Christ, you have certain responsibilities; to carry out your assignment and to encourage the other members of your team. You have a responsibility to serve, to give, to pray and to go. Take a few moments and write your thoughts, concerns, and questions in your journal. Allow the following thought suggestions to guide you. How does it make you feel to realize that your assignment does not stand alone and that you are a member of a larger team? How does it make you feel to know that you are not only an ambassador of Christ, but a member of His body here on earth? In your experience, do the members of the body of Christ behave as a team? Explain. What is your role in making sure that they do?
What is God teaching you about your assignment? Review:
As you discover your assignment, you may be tempted to compare it with someone else's, estimating your place, or rank, on the spiritual ladder. Be very careful when comparing your assignment to other's assignments. Ranking assignments into some type of hierarchy takes the focus off of Christ and puts it on the assignment itself. If Christ is at the heart of each assignment, working through each believer, then no assignment is any more/less important or essential than any other. All assignments are a part of His plan, whether or not some carry more responsibility or naturally seem to gain more respect or honor from other believers. Back in Paul's day, ministering among the Jews, to other Jews, would seem to be a more important assignment than ministering among the Gentiles. However, Paul points out that the ministries are equal because it was God at work in both. As human beings, we have a very bad habit of comparing ourselves to one another. This would be an acceptable practice if our ultimate goal (as believers) was to become like another believer, but it isn't. We are to become like Christ, and should compare ourselves only to Him, allowing Him to judge our progress and work and the progress and work of others. Comparing ourselves to one another is counterproductive. It causes us to become proud, judgmental, envious, and/or discouraged. It causes division in the body that hinders the ministry of Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 1:10-13 and 1 Corinthians 3:3-9 Take a few moments and write your thoughts, concerns, and questions in your journal. Allow the following thought suggestions to guide you. Are you someone that is continuously comparing yourself to others or people that you know to one another? Explain or give examples. Are there any unimportant assignments? Explain. How does that make you feel? As you discover your own assignment within the body of Christ, what is it that you hope to do with that information as a member of the body of Christ?
What is God teaching you about your assignment? Review:
As you begin to discover your assignment, remember the attitude of ministry Jesus modeled. It is fine to be excited about your assignment. In fact, God wants you to be passionate about it. Paul felt that way about his assignment. God designed your assignment just for you and you for your assignment. It's only natural you would feel excited and confident in your assignment, but you must guard against the tendency to allow your confidence and enthusiasm to grow into pride and arrogance. Be careful to always carry out ministry with the goal of pointing the lost toward Christ and bringing glory to God. Take a few moments and write your thoughts, concerns, and questions in your journal. Allow the following thought suggestions to guide you. Are arrogance and pride things that you tend to struggle with? Explain and/or give examples. Does it help you to realize there are others who feel as passionate about the way that God has designed them as you do about the way that God has designed you? Explain. How can you guard against arrogance and pride in your assignment?
What is God teaching you about your assignment? Review:
People who are not Christians live their life striving for power, stepping on people to get to the top and hurting others so they will look good. But, that is not the way of the follower of Christ. Christians understand that God will move and shape their life's calling and God has called each person first to serve. As you discover your assignment, be careful also to guard against jealousy. As we've discussed, you were designed with your assignment in mind and vice versa, and there are no assignments any more/less important than any other because Christ is at the center of each, ministering through each believer. However, there are some assignments that are more visible and/or may elicit more respect and honor from the body than others. Our human nature desires recognition and acceptance. We have already received love and acceptance from God and the opportunity for a fulfilling relationship with Him. That should be enough. To desire more than what God gives is selfishness, and it must be overcome if we are each to be content in our own assignment. If we cannot be content in our own assignment, then our discontent could impair the overall work of the body. Remember the servant's attitude that Jesus demonstrated? Remember the humiliating death He died? Reread Philippians 2:8-9 . How did God bring honor to Jesus? How much greater is honor given by God than honor given by man! Take a few moments and write your thoughts, concerns, and questions in your journal. Allow the following thought suggestions to guide you. Are you someone who struggles with jealousy? What desire is at the root of jealousy? What does jealousy do to the body of Christ? Have you ever witnessed this? What benefit is there in being given an assignment to which less honor is normally attached? Would you rather be given honor by man or God? What has God been teaching you about your assignment? |
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