First Lesson In Ministry That Should Be Hardwired 

Luke 9:3 – He told them: “Take nothing for the journey—no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra shirt.

The first time Jesus sent the disciples out, He firmly instructed them to take nothing with them. No staff, a waking stick. No bag, don’t carry anything that we would normally pack for the incase moments. No bread, in case of hunger. No extra shirt, for personal hygiene. The instructions were simple – take nothing!

Luke 9:4 (NIV) – Whatever house you enter, stay there until you leave that town.

This was not an assignment that would take a few hours. He expected them to go for days. They were to be accommodated by people they didn’t know. Yet they were to take nothing. Go away from home and your comfort, to the uncertain and unknown, but take nothing!

Luke 9:5 (NIV) – If people do not welcome you, leave their town and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.”

Jesus didn’t promise that the provisions will be guaranteed to flow without hitches. Jesus promised that they may even miss accommodation here and there. They may be rejected and ejected. Yet they are to take nothing for such contingencies. Take nothing!

The lesson is simple yet fundamental. In ministry you fully trust God. It is God who calls us to ministry, empowers us and sends us. It is God who provides the ministry and sustains it. The ministry is God’s business and not yours. The best we can do in ministry is to avail ourselves and God will do the rest.

Let it be hardwired in your system that this is God’s ministry and He will sustain it in His own ways. He has a plan. He will provide. Nothing will go wrong.

Even without human funding, God will sustain and progress His work. You cannot blackmail the ministry by withholding tithes and offerings. You cannot arm twist God and His church by refusing to give tithes and offerings. This ministry started and was sustained with nothing from those God sent. Take nothing!

We should treat it as a privilege that we can be asked to contribute something to a ministry that can operate with nothing. We should feel honored that we are allowed to give something. It shows our love for God, but it doesn’t make us indispensable partners. Gladly give something that you are blessed, otherwise even without you and your giving the work won’t stop. He told them to take nothing!

Luke 9:5 (NIV) – If people do not welcome you, leave their town and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.”

The things the disciples would need were to be provided by people that God had prepared in advance. If those people failed to provide, a curse would be on them, but the work won’t stop. Our wealth and influence was given to us by God, so that we can sustain His work and support it. If we do not do so, the work will still go on, but we shall live under a curse for refusing to deploy God given resources and influence to support His work. The disciples take nothing because God gave you something they will need. It is because God gave you influence and resources that He tells the disciples- take nothing!

The lesson is simple and clear – this work is fully depended on God and not us. Without me, the work goes on. Without those who God gave resources, the work goes on. No one is so important or critical or strategic for ministry. The work can go on without us, and to prove it – take nothing!

No one is so gifted that the work depends on Him or her. No one is so rich that the work depends on them. No one is so influential that without them we would be stranded. Take nothing and see how God operates without human help. This work fully depends on God.

There if a great minister dies, the work will go on. If a gifted powerful minister apostasies, the work will go on. If the most experienced amongst us retires, the work goes on. If your favorite pastor who brought progress is transferred, the work goes on. Take nothing because this work isn’t yours and it doesn’t depend on you. 

When you threaten to leave God’s work, it threatens your colleagues but it doesn’t threaten the work nor God. When you threaten to stop coming to church or stop giving tithes and offerings, you are not threatening God or His work. This work was here before you and will be here after you. Others stopped coming to church, but the church goes on unshaken and without them. Others threatened to stop giving, yet the church goes on without feeling the shortage of what they stopped giving. It’s a favor God has allowed you to attend church and contribute, it doesn’t make you too important, and to prove it, Jesus said – take nothing!

No pastor is too important. No Elder is too important. This work will move on in a better way without any of us. Even if you break the choir and start another choir, God’s work goes on undeterred. You can start another organization but this one doesn’t depend on you – it won’t suffer your absence!

Such an organization that Christ set up, cannot be threatened by bad publicity. It was not started nor sustained by publicity. You can insult and publicize your insults and scandalize the church, but guess what, it goes on. In fact it may seem like no one even noticed your breaking news on scandals. The church is run and sustained by God, it will not be affected by your scandals revelations. It operates without human contribution, that is why Jesus told them – take nothing!

Luke 19:40 (NIV) – “I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”

Just before you quickly conclude that resources may not be important but people are, take note that Jesus said, if people keep quiet, the stones will cry out. If Jesus sends us to go, and we refuse to go, we will discover that we are not as important as we thought. The work we should have done will be done by someone else or even by stones. None of us is too critical for this ministry!

Esther 4:14 (NIV) – For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”

Help can always arise from another place if we refuse to serve God, but we who refuse will perish. God’s work doesn’t need us. We are privileged to serve. We are privileged to give tithes and offerings. We are privileged to use our influence to help the church. We should thank God and seize the opportunity to participate, fully understanding that it can go on without us!

May this lesson be hardwired in us. May this lesson make us humble. May this lesson help us fully depend and trust God. May we serve God in a better way consequently, in Jesus name, Amen!

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