SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/20/2017
10:23 PM
My Worship Time Focus: The Strength
of the Ministry
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Colossians
1:29
Message of the
verse: “29 For this purpose also I
labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me.”
“Kopiao (‘labor’)
means to work to the point of exhaustion.” writes John MacArthur as he
describes this word that we find in our verse that we are looking at
today. I have to say that when I have
been around the three major Pastors since I became a believer that this
certainly was a quality that all of them had, and have as two are now with the
Lord, and one is the Pastor I sit under at this time. It seems to me that God has given gifted
pastors a lot of strength to work at the ministry until they are exhausted and
for that we should all be thankful.
When you read the book of Acts and also the letters that
Paul wrote you can see that he worked himself to exhaustion many, many
times. Let us look at an example of this
from Paul’s writing to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 11:23-28:
“23 Are they servants of
Christ?-I speak as if insane-I more so; in far more labors, in far more
imprisonments, beaten times without number, often in danger of death. 24 Five
times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. 25 Three times I was beaten
with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day
I have spent in the deep. 26 I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from
rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the
Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea,
dangers among false brethren; 27 I have been in labor and hardship, through
many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and
exposure. 28 Apart from such external things, there is the daily pressure on me
of concern for all the churches.”
You cannot be a good Pastor and be a lazy Pastor as lazy
ones will never fulfill the ministry the Lord has called them to. “Striving is a form agonizomai, which refers to completing in an athletic event. Our English word agonize is derived from it.
Success in serving the Lord, like success in sports, demands maximum
effort.”
Now we have to look at the last phrase in verse 29 which
Paul says that he strives “according to His power, which mightily works within
me.” Paul was doing the word that God
had given him to do and he could have never done it without the power of the
Holy Spirit working in him.
John MacArthur concludes this chapter with these
words: “These eight aspects of Paul’s
ministry should characterize every believer.
All Christians serve Christ in some capacity. Paul’s message to all in this passage is, ‘The
things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these
things’ (Phil. 4:9).”
Let us review the eight aspects of ministry that we have
been going over since the 8th of Feb. 2017.
1.
The Source of The
Ministry (Col. 1:23c, 25a).
2.
The Spirit of
Ministry of the Ministry (Col. 1:24a).
3.
The Suffering
of The Ministry (Col. 1:24b).
4.
The Scope of
the Ministry (Col. 1:25b).
5.
The Subject of
the Ministry (Col. 1:26-27).
6.
The Style of
the Ministry (Col. 1:28a).
7.
The Sum of The
Ministry (Col. 1:28b).
8.
The Strength of
The Ministry (Col. 1:29).
2/20/2017 10:51 PM
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