Are you a worker in your church? Are you a volunteer? Are you a pastor? Are you one of those who gives his or her all for the sake of the gospel and the love of the Lord and his people?
If you are one who sees the importance of the glory of God in his church, I would guess that you are also one who knows what it feels like to experience some pretty sweet joys and some pretty significant pains. Ministry can be great. Ministry can be hard. Being a pastor can be so very sweet. Being a pastor can be so very discouraging.
Reading Luke 10, I find a couple of thoughts that I believe will help those of us who serve to deal with the joy and the despair of ministry. These words remind us not to fly too high when we experience success. They also help us not to crash and burn when things are not as we want them to be.
As Jesus instructed 72 followers before sending them out on mission, the Lord told them how to react when a town either received them and their message or rejected them and the message.
Luke 10:8-10 – 8 Whenever you enter a town and they receive you, eat what is set before you. 9 Heal the sick in it and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ 10 But whenever you enter a town and they do not receive you, go into its streets and say, 11 ‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near.’
What do you notice about those instructions? What changes and what does not? Whether there is joy or sadness, celebration or condemnation, one message remains the same—the kingdom of God has come near. Whether the people in a town love this fact or hate it, the kingdom of God is still the kingdom of God.
After the 72 returned, they celebrated with Jesus a successful mission trip. They particularly celebrated the spectacular stuff, healings and demons being cast out. But Jesus taught them a valuable lesson regarding their rejoicing.
Luke 10:20 – Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
The joy for the 72 was not to be in their success, even over demons. No, they were to rejoice in a singular fact that no amount of ministry failure could take from them. They were to rejoice that their names were written in heaven. One’s heavenly citizenship is far more important than the experience of the greatest of miracles on earth.
Do you see how this might help the joyful or the discouraged minister of the gospel? Do you see how this might help the passionate church volunteer in seasons of success and failure? It can.
In a season of great ministry success, when all is well, when new folks show up, rejoice. But before you let yourself fly high based on your ministry circumstances, rejoice that the kingdom of God is solid and sure. Rejoice that your name is written in heaven if you know Jesus. Love the goodness of God to let you experience the joy of success for a season. But find your hope in something far more stable and certain, the kingdom of God and your place in heaven.
And when things are not going the way you want, when that sweet family in whom you’ve invested so much tells you they are going to shop for another church, when your lost neighbor tells you they do not want to hear about Jesus, when hardship and pain knock on your life’s door, hope. Hope not in your ability to right the ship. Hope not in your ability to fix people. Hope in the fact that the kingdom of God is solid and sure. Hope in the fact that your name is written in heaven if you know Jesus. Grieve the sorrows of this life without pretending a false happiness. But set your heart solidly in a place that the sorrows of ministry cannot crush it. Set your heart on the hope of the kingdom and the joy of heaven. It is there, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of the Father, that your ultimate joy and hope is firmly, irrevocably set.
As a pastor, I can tell you that there are joys and despair in ministry. Someone will come to faith. Someone will grow past a problem. Someone will flake out. Someone will get sick. If I rise and fall on the tide of my circumstance, I will not make it. But if, by God’s grace, the Lord will help me to remember the certainty of his kingdom and the joy of heaven, I can press on for his glory.
Pastor Travis Peterson 