Castlemaine Church of Christ

As the year draws to a close a lot of us re-evaluate our commitment to ministry. Often we hear “Its time to give it away” or “I’ve had my turn, now its up to someone else” or maybe “Its been tough, maybe I should give up” Or maybe we can be duped into thinking our ministry is not that important and so on. I have said time after time in this church that we value the least spectacular ministries more than those up front ones because they are the ones that no one notices, but also they are the ones that we could not function without. Let me assure you that in God’s economy you are indeed valued and needed.

I think the word for us today from God is “Hang in there” Paul writing to Timothy says “As I urged you when I went to Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain men not to teach false doctrine any longer ……………….”

If you know anything of the ancient middle East you will know that Ephesus was a tough gig. Imagine Timothy, young, expectant, excited even at his first position in leadership and Paul says, “by the way you are going to run into so many difficulties that you will need to be diligent in ‘hanging in there’ there will be many who will oppose you, many who will undermine you, many who will teach stuff contrary to the gospel and will teach that what you say is rubbish.

Timothy was not promised a bed of roses in his first church, quite the opposite and I believe that today we too can be challenged in whatever calling we have. The message to Timothy was ‘hang In there’ and its the same message to all of us today.

We are called to ministry and I am of the opinion that we hang in there no matter what until we are called to something else. I am of the belief that no matter how tough or how easy a ministry might be, when God calls He equips. It is when a ministry is empowered by the Holy Spirit after God has called you to that ministry that you will find it much easier to hang in there. Its when you are not including God and trying to do it all yourself, that you find it tougher.

Let me thank and encourage all those volunteers who fill vital ministry roles in the Church, you are called for a purpose and that’s to see lives changed and to see the kingdom of God present in our midst.

God’s Word for us today ( 1 Timothy 1:3-11) paraphrased quite simply says ‘Hang in there’

Blair

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