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Attitude of Ministry, part 1 of 3

Jonathan Santiago

Week 1: What is attitude?
Attitude is something you have all the time.

Week 2: Perspective
Perspective can change over time.

Week 3: Focus
God gives us certain things to focus on.

What God gives us to deal with, his ways and how he works things through his pastor and his truth is not always what we see as most beneficial to us. Attitude is a way in which we choose to interpret what God has for us. We can choose to interpret with a good attitude or with a bad one.

Bill Blackwell

I want to thank you for making the effort to be here tonight. From my experience, I've seen in the times we go that extra mile, God always honors that faith. I'm expecting for all of us to be able to leave tonight with something just a little extra from God.

Attitude is built up over time. It's literally what we bring to the moment: every prayer, every sacrifice, everything we've ever done in our Christian life will determine, moment to moment, what our attitude is when we respond to something. This is what defines our attitude that people see.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8
  1. Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
  2. Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
  3. Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
  4. Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
  5. Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.

Each of the three weeks as we go through, this will be a cornerstone scripture in how we see the living, the carrying out of our attitude in ministry. Rick Hahn said, "There is a distinct difference between our attitude about ministry and attitude of ministry." An attitude of ministry comes from the inside out.

1 Samuel 30:1-6
  1. And it came to pass, when David and his men were come to Ziklag on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the south, and Ziklag, and smitten Ziklag, and burned it with fire;
  2. And had taken the women captives, that were therein: they slew not any, either great or small, but carried them away, and went on their way.
  3. So David and his men came to the city, and, behold, it was burned with fire; and their wives, and their sons, and their daughters, were taken captives.
  4. Then David and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and wept, until they had no more power to weep.
  5. And David's two wives were taken captives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite.
  6. And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the LORD his God.

An attitude of ministry will cause us to endure only if there is that essential ingredient of encouragement. Being able to encourage ourselves will allow us to pray that next prayer. David was upset because he was being pursued by King Saul through no fault of his own. These things have taken place, and he came up on Ziglag utterly destroyed. So what did he do? He encouraged himself in the Lord.

Moment by moment in life, we take the opportunity to make different choices, to have different perspectives. Our focus will always be on some thing, but that focus has been determined by things that have taken place prior to that time. David's perspective was predetermined by choices that he had made in days prior. That's where he got that gumption, that ability. That's what allowed him to endure and carry on.

An attitude of ministry will enable us to make right and wrong choices. Joshua and Caleb and ten others were sent out to spy out something that was already theirs. It had been promised.

Numbers 13:28-33
  1. Nevertheless the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, and very great: and moreover we saw the children of Anak there.
  2. The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south: and the Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites, dwell in the mountains: and the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and by the coast of Jordan.
  3. And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it.
  4. But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we.
  5. And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature.
  6. And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.

Here was something that God had already promised to them, yet there was something that had to be accomplished. They sent out twelve spies, and all twelve saw the same thing. But only Joshua and Caleb said:

Numbers 13:30
  1. And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it.

Wait a minute! It sounds like there is something that has to be done, some action that is required. But yet, what did it say in verse 27?

Numbers 13:27
  1. And they told him, and said, We came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it.

They arrived carrying a vine that was so great that it had to be carried between two of them. What more evidence was required? Yet we see in some of them an answer of fear. What is our Canaan today? What is the thing in our own ministry that needs to be overcome?

Let me draw a distinction between sharing and ministry. We share the gospel in thousands of ways:

  • Invitation
  • Being a friend
  • Offering to pray
  • A kind word

But there is a distinction. We can share, but maybe ministry has not taken place. Ministry is overcoming spiritual opposition. Sharing is the "front line"; it's the first thing that happens. But when God moves, and opposition is overcome, then ministry has taken place: a demonstration of the power of God.

The ten spies who brought evil report were unwilling to see ministry happen. But Joshua and Caleb allowed God to minister.

In our attitude of ministry, we see a change in a co-worker, in a family member we've shared with for years. Now there is a softening of the heart, an easing of the mind, a better foundation with which to work. It's our conversation, our attitude of ministry that allows the spirit of God to cause a shift in the spiritual perspective of others around us. That's awesome!

Making right or wrong choices

Understand that our attitude of ministry will cause us to have influence. The greatest part of that is that it happens first in our own heart. So whatever it is that people see in our conversation, we had to be there first.

In 1996, it had been exactly fifteen years since I had last visited the congregation of Norfolk, Virginia. The church in Waukegan had chartered buses; we were getting ready to visit. I had submitted my request for time off from work. I spent literally five days prior to leaving making arrangements for all of my responsibilities to be covered. All the bases were covered. On Friday afternoon, the boss walked around passing out paychecks, and he came to me and hands me one envelope. Normally when you're paid on a weekly basis, and you're getting ready to go on vacation, they hand you two checks, one for the advance pay. He said to me, "Bill, I don't think this is going to work next week." I was stunned! I didn't know what to do or say. So I followed him around. He got to the last person and his hands were empty; there were no more envelopes. I was scratching my head and thinking, "What's going on here?" I had done everything that was required. So my friends started coming up to me and saying "Bill, you've got to talk to him. You're right." And it really started to fester my attitude. So I got up to give him a piece of my mind. Halfway out of my chair, the Holy Ghost said to me, "Would you rather be right or righteous?" What was that? I sat back down in my seat. The emotion was there; I was charged up to go rip this guy apart. But I stayed at my desk until I had to see the boss anyway with the end-of-day paperwork. And right when I got up, there was this entourage of important people from the front office, engineers and such, who came through the shop. If I had gotten up the first time, I would probably have been in full steam, tearing him up, in front of all those people. And it would have totally destroyed my testimony that I had built up over the years.

Two weeks after I got back from this time off, (and I did get paid; they cleared all that up after I got back), my boss stood on the factory floor and literally poured out his heart to me. I'd never heard anything like that from him. But he needed a compassionate ear -- he told me some family issues and some historical things that had happened in his life. Rewind back to the moment when I was ready to tear him up. If I had done that, would I have heard him open up to me? Not in a million years.

If we develop an attitude of ministry, God will bless an honor that.

Daniel 3:16-18
  1. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter.
  2. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.
  3. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.
Daniel 3:18-28
  1. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.
  2. Then was Nebuchadnezzar full of fury, and the form of his visage was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego: therefore he spake, and commanded that they should heat the furnace one seven times more than it was wont to be heated.
  3. And he commanded the most mighty men that were in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and to cast them into the burning fiery furnace.
  4. Then these men were bound in their coats, their hosen, and their hats, and their other garments, and were cast into the midst of the burning fiery furnace.
  5. Therefore because the king's commandment was urgent, and the furnace exceeding hot, the flame of the fire slew those men that took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
  6. And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace.
  7. Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonied, and rose up in haste, and spake, and said unto his counsellors, Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered and said unto the king, True, O king.
  8. He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.
  9. Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the mouth of the burning fiery furnace, and spake, and said, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, ye servants of the most high God, come forth, and come hither. Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, came forth of the midst of the fire.
  10. And the princes, governors, and captains, and the king's counsellors, being gathered together, saw these men, upon whose bodies the fire had no power, nor was an hair of their head singed, neither were their coats changed, nor the smell of fire had passed on them.
  11. Then Nebuchadnezzar spake, and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who hath sent his angel, and delivered his servants that trusted in him, and have changed the king's word, and yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god, except their own God.

What had the king set up? It's like, "you die if you don't do that." And they were put in the burning fiery furnace, heated to seven times its normal temperature. So now, they arrived at the moment with their mind made up, predetermined and settled in their heart. They knew exactly what they were going to do. They didn't know what they would face, necessarily. Neither do we. We don't know what challenges and opportunities we will face from day to day. So the king thought that he would have them killed, but in the process of answering the king with a made-up mind and a settled heart, what happened? God showed up on the scene. When we go into these moments and we have our minds made up and our hearts settled, God knows what we're going through. God will always honor faith. We just have to be of that mindset and sureness to allow God to do what he desires to do for the benefit of ... who did it benefit? I mean, the kind didn't just take away the law; he completely reversed it. And notice that the honor wasn't being given to the three Hebrew children; it was all for God. Did they get their individual personal rewards? Absolutely, they did! What kind of bolstering of their confidence do you think they had after that? How did they change? What kind of blessing and encouragement did they walk away with? So it benefitted everybody, and God got the glory.

Daniel 3:29
  1. Therefore I make a decree, That every people, nation, and language, which speak any thing amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made a dunghill: because there is no other God that can deliver after this sort.

That's pretty dramatic! It's miraculous to say the least.

Daniel 3:30
  1. Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, in the province of Babylon.

So they were recognized. But it was all resulting from them making sure that God had every speck of glory due to his name and his power. They didn't take anything on themselves. They received benefit; they received promotion because God chose to use the king to reward and honor and elevate and lift up and promote. Again, it was God who did that.

Let's look at the definition of attitude. And as we do, I want you to think about your life, where God has brought you from and where God desires to bring you to.

Attitude
a settled way of thinking or feeling about someone or something, typically one that is reflected in a person's behavior.

We've all come from different backgrounds. But looking forward, where is it that God desires to take us to? For Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they really didn't know. But they had that purpose settled in their heart: "Come what may, God gets all the praise and the glory."

I'm looking forward to seeing the fruit. There are victories to be won, miracles to be had, prayers to be answered. Got follows us around; he walks where we walk; he knows what we think; he knows every teeny-tiny detail of our lives. So where does it stop? Is there a cap? Is there a limit?

God is the one who hung the stars in the sky; he put in us the breath of life. Where does it stop, God's potential to provide? It's all because of our attitude of ministry. What limit is there? What is it that God does not desire to give us? We could write a volume of stories filled with the testimonies of what God has done in our lives.

Homework: What controls our attitude toward ministry?

  • Hebrews 3:13
    If we fellowship daily, that will control our attitude of ministry.
  • Matthew 23:11
    Be a servant to others.
  • John 14:26
    The Holy Ghost will bring to remembrance everything that is taught.
  • Psalms 1:1-3
    What controls our attitude of ministry? Delighting in the word of the Lord.
  • Psalms 73:17
    Come before the Lord in his sanctuary, praising him. That sanctuary is anywhere you and the Lord happen to meet. God can meet you anywhere.
  • Matthew 8:24-27
    Build up your faith.

Getting this right will affect every aspect of our personal ministries.