Worship With Purpose: Minister To The Lord

“As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.” Acts 13:2

This is a monumental time in the history of the early church. From this one prayer meeting the first missionary movement was born. Out of this assembly, the first of Paul’s three missionary journeys to the Gentile world was organized, and it was all constructed by the Holy Spirit. But before this ministry ever begin, we see that the early church first ministered to the Lord.

What does it mean to minister unto the Lord? It means to come together in a worship service to praise, pray, and proclaim the word of God. The word minister comes from the Greek word leitourgeo which means to gather for public worship. In this instance is was accompanied with fasting. In other words it was in a church service that the Holy Spirit called out Paul and Barnabas to begin this great missionary movement in the Christian church.

We tend to take our services for granted. Not trying to be too critical, but a lot of times we come together and go through the motions making it more of a formality than spirituality. I believed that God was already at work in Paul and Barnabas’ hearts prior to this service, but it was in an atmosphere of true worship, which was girded by expectation, that they got the confirmation from God to begin this journey.

The lesson is that Before we can have a ministry for the Lord, we must first have a ministry with the Lord! Many churches today are not relevant simply because they see themselves as a ministry to the community, but no to the Lord. When we see ourselves as ones who minister to God and allow him to minister to us through his word and Spirit, it is then that we become a great ministry to the world. We can’t give anything that we have not received first. Jesus told his disciples “Freely you have received, freely give.” (Matthew 10:8) We dare not take a long journey without first filling up the car with gas and we cannot be journey men and woman for God without being filled with the Holy Spirit. These things are accomplished when church sees itself not as formality but spirituality.

So let us seek to be good ministers to the Lord first by allowing him to minister unto us. Let us each week come and “Present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto the Lord which is our reasonable service.” (Romans 12:1) By presenting ourselves to him in true worship, it is then he can present us to the world as a true and relevant church. And that’s what our culture needs more than anything right now!

Pastor Robby.