“THE CALLING OF THE SERVANT”

Acts 6:3 - Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business.

There have been so many Christians over the years that have obeyed the call to ministry and by the grace of God have gone out to start a fellowship and have created a church from the fellowship. And through this, church is now looking to rise up leaders to serve in the church to guild and direct other young servants to grow and serve in the ministry.

            

But the biggest danger today in the ministry is that the qualifications for ministry are not being followed by a lot of churches. Don’t get me wrong; there are a lot of young godly men that the Lord is raising up. But I am talking about the church that is in such a hurry to just fill the needs of ministry that these churches rush to pick unqualified people to do the work of the Lord in the church.

            

And in the rush to fill these needs, the church is not meeting God’s qualifications to ministry and then the church ends up with divisions and controversies that it can cost the integrity of the ministry. But we must remember is that the ministry must follow God’s word and allow the Lord to rise up the right people.

            

So the questions are, what are the guidelines that the church should follow to raise up godly men and women? And what should the leaders look for when wanting to raise up the right person in the ministry?

            

In the Book of Acts chapter 6, God gave us some biblical guidelines to what leaders were to look for when raising up godly people for the work of the ministry.

1. A man of a good reputation - What this means is that for a person to have a good reputation, you need to be going to the church for a while. I have always believed that any person wanting to get involved in ministry had to be going to the church for at lest 6 months and be going to at lest 2 services per week and coming consistently.

In 1 Timothy 3:10 - And let these also first be tested; this is what God wants to see in us, when tested, do we lose heart and run, or do we wait on the Lord?

This will allow the person who is coming to church to get a vision to the philosophy of ministry in the church and allow the Lord to fully use them.

2. Full of the Holy Spirit - First it is a person that shows the fruit of the Holy Spirit in their lives (Galatians 5:22-25).

This walk is what a pastor or leader wants to see consistently in the life of the believer. It is through the work of the Holy Spirit that allows the person to be waiting upon the Lord. In Romans 12:1-2 - Paul wrote that the life of the believer is to be a living sacrifice and to have our minds transformed by the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

But also by the work of the Holy Spirit, is the understanding that the call to ministry is to be a servant (John 16:13-14). So many want to lead, but the call to ministry is to serve.

3. Wisdom - The word wisdom means “having the knowledge of how to regulate one’s relationship with God.” This wisdom comes from fellowship with God through the word of God.

 In 2 Timothy 3:16-17 Paul writing to young Timothy and to us is that it is His word that transforms us for every good work. In Hebrews 5:14 the word says that the Christian that is mature in the word of God will have the discernment to know the good from the evil.

I pray that as we all press toward the goal (Philippians 3:14-16) and that the Lord will continue to guild you and show you all that He has for you and to continue to use your life for His glory till we all are received up in glory.