Today on Forms and Patterns, we will be examining The Business of Ministry. We will be reading some Scriptures and I will love you to follow, follow the Holy Spirit and listen intently to what He has to say to you. We are going to start by examining what Jesus said in Luke 2:49. "And He said to them, “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?" Now I want to read verse 48 to us so that we will see what Jesus called the Father's business. Let me start from verse 47: "And all who heard Him were astonished at His understanding and answers. ⁴⁸ So when they saw Him, they were amazed; and His mother said to Him, "Son, why have You done this to us? Look, Your father and I have sought You anxiously."

 

Listen To Podcast: THE BUSINESS OF MINISTRY

 

Jesus was sitting in the temple with scholars, teachers and He was listening to them and asking them questions, and He was also answering them, and when they heard Him, they were astonished at His understanding and His answers. And when His mother came to Him, and they were looking for Him, He said to them “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?" The Father's business is my priority; the Father's business is my agenda. My ministry is the Father's business. So Jesus called ministry the Father's business. So, what He was simply saying to them and making them to understand is that, my devotion, my attention, is the Father's business, which is ministry. And what was He doing? He was listening to the teachers and He was speaking to them and giving them answers. He called that the Father's business.

 

I want us to see another Scripture in John chapter 9 and verse 4. Jesus saying here also: "I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work." I must work the work of Him who sent me, I must be about my Father's business, while it is day, while I have the energy, while I have the strength, for the night is coming when no one can work. What is the picture that Jesus is giving to us here? Ministry is not for lazy people. Ministry is not part-time. Ministry is your life. It is the Father's business. When you are doing business, you do business by serving and making sure you put your whole heart to it. When you put your whole heart to a work, then you call it business; it is about transactions, it is about dealings; activities you engage in for profit is called business.

  

So ministry for Jesus are the activities that He engaged in, His work, His dealings, His transactions, for the profit of the kingdom of God, and this is the same perspective that He wants us to have. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. This was the mind of Jesus as regards the kingdom, this was the mind of Jesus as regards ministry, it was business for Him, and the same thing must apply to us. Our transactions, our dealings must be about profit to the kingdom. No wonder Jesus went into the temple, and chased out all those who were buying and selling. He said "how have you made my Father's house, the den of thieves" where activities that profits the devil is going on.

 

He said the house of my Father should be the house of prayer where profit is made for the kingdom, where kingdom investments and kingdom transactions are taking place. So, the questions Jesus is asking us as ministers are: “What are we doing? What do we call ministry? What are we doing with the assignment that He has given us? How are we taking it? What mind is in us? Is it the same mind that was in Christ Jesus or we have taken on another mind? Have we made the Lord's house the den of thieves or the house of prayer?” These are things we should meditate and ponder on very critically.

 

I want us to see a Scripture in Acts 6:2-4 and see the perspective of the disciples of Jesus Christ in the early church. The Bible says "Then the twelve summoned the multitude of the disciples and said, “It is not desirable that we should leave the word of God and serve tables." There is a business of ministry; it is not desirable that we abandon the call, the major thing and then major on the minor. We must major on the major and that is how we understand the business of ministry. These apostles understood it, the same mind that was in Jesus was in them, and it is the same mind that God is asking that we all have again as His ministers. It says: "“It is not desirable that we should leave the word of God and serve tables. ³ Therefore, brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business;

 

 So they saw serving the children of God, serving the saints as business. Whatever we do for the sake of the kingdom is business. It is ministry! And they said, "we are not looking for anyhow people. We are looking for people of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business; ⁴ but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” ⁵ And the saying pleased the whole multitude. And they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas, a proselyte from Antioch." They selected these brethren to be over this business, while the apostles focused on the business of the word and prayer.

 

So the same mind that was in Jesus was also in the apostles. They have themselves over to the ministry of the word and prayer and made sure that other business were not tampered with. Now listen, before we now, you know, push aside the other business, I want us to see what Jesus said in Matthew 25:34-40 and see what Jesus recognized as activities we must engaged in, our dealings and transactions that are recognized in heaven. Mathew 25:34-40.

 

"Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: ³⁵ for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; ³⁶ I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’ ³⁷ “Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? ³⁸ When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? ³⁹ Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ ⁴⁰ And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’"

 

So when we talk about the business of ministry, it is not just the ministry of word and prayer. It also includes the ministry of serving tables. But how do you serve the tables? Hope you are sensitive enough to know those that Jesus has called "my brethren?" Hope you are sensitive to know the people that God would want us to visit in prison? Those that God would want us to clothe; those that are hungry that God would want us to feed. Because all these cumulate into the business of ministry, and these are activities that we do and engage in that profits the kingdom of God, and they don't only have reward in this time, they also have reward in time to come, which the Bible records in Matthew 25 that the king would say to those on His right hand; in that day of judgment, when rewards would be handed down, when God would be giving rewards to those that did ministry according to His pattern and the way He has given to us, when He will examine whether we were sensitive to the needs of the people around us, whether the brethren around us were able to serve tables, even as much as we are serving in the place of the word and prayers.

 

It is important for us to know, let this same mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus. There is a duty, do ministry as business. Major on the major! All the things that we are looking out for, all the accolades of men, all the razzmatazz, and all the things that we are looking unto and giving our attention, those are not the things that Jesus is looking out for. What is He looking out for? He has made us to understand in this Scripture, in Matthew 25; He is looking at how sensitive you are, how discerning you are in ministry. He is not just you praying all day or fasting all week. How sensitive and discerning are you to the work that God has given to you? Because when you are discerning and sensitive, you will become like the children of Issachar that understands the time and season, and you will know what to do per time. Then you are in the business of ministry.

 

The Business of Ministry of ministry is not in the big buildings and then in the high networks that we clap for and celebrate today. It is in our discernment to the times and seasons, discernment to service. How and where is God asking you to serve now? Those are the core and the major things that we must pay attention to. If God is saying now is the time I want you to give yourself to prayer, your transaction should be in the place of prayer. If God is saying this is the time I want you to reach out, go out and feed my people with the word; it is time to do it. You must be discerning and sensitive with the word because the business of the king, the assignment of the king requires haste, you don't have all the time, you must give it your all, you must give it your full attention.

 

He said "for we must work the work of Him who has sent us and be busy with His business while it is daylight, the night is coming on us when no man can work, when no man can labor." This is the time to get into the business of ministry. Do your ministry the way Jesus want! Do ministry the way the Father desires it, do ministry in the way that pleases the king that is why He has sent you. He has not sent you for your own pleasure, but for His own pleasure. I pray, as we take to heart the business of ministry, as we allow this mind that was in Christ to dwell in us, we will excel in Jesus' name.

 

Amen!

Thanks for the gift of your time, I am Lara Gboyega Adedeji!

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