588 Fulfill Your Ministry - 2 Timothy 4:5

Are you a minister? Do you have a ministry? Let's talk about that today. I'm Mike Henry Sr. with Follower of One. Welcome to the Follower of One podcast. And thanks for joining us. Today, I want to talk about a passage in second Timothy chapter four, verse five. The verse reads,  "As for you always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry." 

That's from the English Standard Version. Let's focus on this last phrase, "fulfill your ministry." Do you have a ministry? The Greek word translated "ministry" here is  used several times in the New Testament, and it is most often translated "minister" or "ministry."  But it's also many times translated as "service" or "servant." "Fulfill your ministry" means Paul's challenging his protege, Timothy to step into the calling God has given him. Are we all called? Are we all called by Jesus? Does he have a job for us to do? Ephesians 2:10 says  "We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, that we should walk in them."

I believe each one of us is not only created, but then also saved to do a particular work, to do things that God intended; to do things that make God visible. When he challenges us to go the extra mile, because we follow him, he becomes visible in our world. And that job of serving people so that Jesus would become visible, to me that's ministry. 

And so I think we all have a ministry. And I think this command here today applies to each of us. Let's fulfill our ministry. 

How do we do that? Well, we have to go to work. We have jobs, or we have things that we have to do every day. And yet we found at Follower of One, five daily activities that we believe can put everyone on mission with Jesus, can put us into our own ministry. Those activities are Pray, Appreciate others, Know what you believe, Serve others and Speak for yourself. And we talk about all those topics on the Follower of One website, and we talk about them regularly in this podcast. When we do those things, we put ourselves in a position to be able to hear Jesus, as he guides us through the Holy Spirit.  He guides us to make him visible in our world to do things because we believe he's real and he exists, and he's the only way to God. 

So our job today is to fulfill our ministry. What's our calling? If we're not sure, let's ask God. Pray to him right now and ask him, "What do you want me to do today, Jesus? Here I am. I want to do what you want me to do." He will give you ideas. If those ideas align with scripture, and there are a blessing to others, find a way to do them. By all means, don't shortchange your employer or the commitments that you've made to other people. But find a way to serve Jesus in your actions today. That puts you into ministry.

You have a ministry. Today, let's be ministers. Let's make Jesus visible in our world because we listen to him and we served others. That's what he calls us to do, serve other people. And that's what I believe fulfilling our ministry is: finding the people around us who need us to serve them and stepping into that role.

Would you join us today? Become a marketplace minister. Just tell God right now. "Here I am. What do you want me to do?" And then let him put you to work. Thank you for being a minister in your workplace or in your marketplace today. And thank you for listening to this podcast and for considering ways to make your faith relevant and applicable in our world.

This is a great opportunity we're each given every day to make Jesus visible. So let's follow him and do what he says.  One thing that we do to practice this through our online community. We have an experience called a Marketplace Mission Trip. This is a two-week activity. If you're hearing this on air date, there's another one of these mission trips beginning in less than two weeks.

Go check it out at https://community.Followerofone.org. You can sign up for our online community and request access to the next Marketplace Mission Trip beginning January the 23rd. You can do those things in our online community at no charge at no cost. Go check those out at https://community.Followerofone.org. Thanks very much.