IF YOU GO INTO MINISTRY expecting to make a great amount of wealth, then you do not understand what ministry is. Ministry is about reaching out to the hopeless, speaking for those who have no voice, and reaching the lost and dying by proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ so they may inherit eternal life. Ministry is about winning souls for Jesus Christ. “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost,” Luke 19:10.
IF YOU GO INTO MINISTRY expecting to make a great amount of wealth, then you have lost the purpose of what ministry is about. “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many,” Mark 10:45, Matthew 20:28.We lay down ourselves, our ego, our desires, our will in exchange for picking up our cross, dying to selfishness, and following His Will, giving our lives in service to Him, and going forth to tell others about Jesus Christ and who He is. “He must increase; I must decrease,” John 3:30.“And he said to all, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me,” Luke 9:23. Note the words “Let Him Deny Himself.”
THE WORD “MINISTER” on its own means “servant.” MINISTERING TO (SERVING) OTHERS is a calling.
IF YOU GO INTO MINISTRY JUST SO YOU CAN GET WEALTHY AND MILK PEOPLE DRY, then your ministry is built on the foundation of self and on things that will collapse when the storms come. IF YOUR MINISTRY IS BUILT ON SELF, THE LOVE OF MONEY, EGO, GREED, AND BUILT WITHOUT CHRIST BEING THE FOUNDATION, your ministry will eventually collapse.
“Jesus replied, ‘Foxes have dens and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head,” Luke 9:58. There isn’t a bible verse that says Jesus lived in mansions while He on earth, and there’s isn’t a bible verse that shows Him demanding payment before or after He ministered to people. There isn’t even a verse that shows Jesus demanding money for His ministry. You will find Jesus preaching repentance and bringing hope to the hopeless, healing the sick, teaching crowds of people, delivering those who were possessed. He is Savior and Lord, and we see Him in the Scriptures as ministering to those who cried out to Him, those who recognized their need for salvation. In those same Scriptures, we see Jesus overturning the table of the money changers for taking advantage of those who were purchasing animals they needed to make sacrifices, “Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. ‘It is written,’ he said to them, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers,'” Matthew 21:12-13.
I will end this post with these words from the book of Jude Verses 10 and 11 and 2 Peter 2:11-13, “These men, however, slander what they do not understand, and like irrational animals, they will be destroyed by the things they do instinctively. Woe to them! They have traveled the path of Cain; they have rushed headlong into the error of Balaam; they have perished in Korah’s rebellion,” and “Yet not even angels, though greater in strength and power, dare to bring such slanderous charges against them before the Lord. These men are like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be captured and destroyed. They blaspheme in matters they do not understand, and like such creatures, they too will be destroyed. The harm they will suffer is the wages of their wickedness. They consider it a pleasure to carouse in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deception as they feast with you.”
King Rehoboam, King Solomon’s son, has flipped my brain inside out and upside down as I have been studying his life for the last two days. Each verse got more interesting, but what King Rehoboam did scared the living daylights out of me.
“And it came to pass, when Rehoboam had established the kingdom, and had strengthened himself, he forsook the law of the Lord, and all Israel with him. And it came to pass, that in the fifth year of king Rehoboam Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, because they had transgressed against the Lord, With twelve hundred chariots, and threescore thousand horsemen: and the people were without number that came with him out of Egypt; the Lubims, the Sukkiims, and the Ethiopians. And he took the fenced cities which pertained to Judah, and came to Jerusalem.” (2 Chronicles 12:1-4KJV)
I shook my head as I read this passage of Scripture. It’s a little unnerving. First thing to note is that in this particular verse Israel is in reference to Judah. Second thing to note is King Rehoboam was very high in popularity at this time. Not only was he popular but he had also made an attempt to serve God. The Results: Judah prospered. We find this evidence in 2 Chronicles 11:17 (KJV), which states, “This strengthened the kingdom of Judah, and for three years they supported Rehoboam son of Solomon for during those years they faithfully followed in the footsteps of David and Solomon.”
Rehoboam had success and was enjoying a time of blessing. He and his kingdom were firmly established and made strong. He was at the highest point in popularity and in power. Then, we see a tragic turn of events. In the time of blessing, Rehoboam “…forsook the law of the Lord, and all Israel with him.” King Rehoboam committed two major sins: (1) He forsook the law of the Lord, and (2) He caused all Israel to sin because they followed his lead. We can see Rehoboam’s sin didn’t just affect him; it affected all Israel. When you are a leader, it is inevitable that people will follow you. They look at your example, and eventually, you will see them modeling what you have modeled for them. Any leadership role you play, you are held with a higher level of accountability by God. How you lead those who follow your example will affect your standing in the eyes of God. In this case, Israel took its leadership from Rehoboam and the whole nation forsook God’s law; they forgot about God and abandoned him.
There were consequences to them forsaking and abandoning God and His law. We can see the results of their sin in verses 3-5 (KJV), which states, “With twelve hundred chariots, and threescore thousand horsemen: and the people were without number that came with him out of Egypt; the Lubims, the Sukkiims, and the Ethiopians. And he took the fenced cities which pertained to Judah, and came to Jerusalem. Then came Shemaiah the prophet to Rehoboam, and to the princes of Judah, that were gathered together to Jerusalem because of Shishak, and said unto them, Thus saith the Lord, Ye have forsaken me, and therefore have I also left you in the hand of Shishak.”
I think it’s safe to say God has His limits. This verse, “…Thus saith the Lord, Ye have forsaken me, and therefore have I also left you in the hand of Shishak.” I looked up the word “forsake” in the Hebrew Language. The Hebrew word is “azab” which means “to loosen, to relinquish, to permit.” When we decide to forsake or abandon God, we are letting go, giving up on God; when we decide to forsake or abandon God, we are voluntarily surrendering our claim to God being the One we follow. There does come a time when God has had enough. We don’t like being ignored or disrespected or pushed aside. Can you imagine how God feels when we ignore, disrespect, or push Him aside? He is your Creator, who has given you life. It is not wise to push God aside or show Him any kind of disdain or indifference toward Him especially when God has lavished you with mercy and grace and has poured out His blessings upon you.
King Rehoboam and the people repented, and God saw the change of heart. Sounds good, right? Forgiveness doesn’t mean you will NOT suffer the consequences. The consequences may not be as severe as they would have been if you didn’t repent. Let’s look at verses 7-8 (KJV), which states, “And when the Lord saw that they humbled themselves, the word of the Lord came to Shemaiah, saying, They have humbled themselves; therefore I will not destroy them, but I will grant them some deliverance; and my wrath shall not be poured out upon Jerusalem by the hand of Shishak. Nevertheless they shall be his servants; that they may know my service, and the service of the kingdoms of the countries.” What was their consequences for forsaking God and His law? They would end up the servants to Shishak, King of Egypt. By being the servants to Shishak, they would learn and know what it is like to be ruled by a man rather than being ruled by God. The NLT phrases verse 8, this way, “But they will become his subjects, so they will know the difference between serving me and serving earthly rulers.” Need I say more on that?
Shishak attacked Jerusalem and ransacked the treasuries of the Lord’s Temple as well as the palace. Then, the gold shields which were made by King Solomon were stolen. God didn’t spare Rehoboam, a king, from the consequences of his choices. Do you think he would allow any of us to escape the consequences of our own individual actions and choices? The problem is when you make something else the lord of your life, you become a slave to that object. When you make a person the lord of your life, you become a slave to that person. Whatever consumes you is what you are a slave to.
GOD DOES NOT AND WILL NOT SHARE HIS GLORY WITH ANOTHER. You are the temple of the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit will not share the same temple with another object or another person. If you are backslidden, lukewarm, complacent, or lost God as your First Love, then you, being the temple of the Holy Spirit, will no longer be experiencing the Glory of God. You, whom the Holy Spirit once resided in, will be Ichabod, meaning “The glory has departed from Israel.” Do NOT grieve the Holy Spirit. If you find yourself in any of these conditions, I strongly encourage you to repent and make things right with God.
CAN YOU DUPLICATE OR SUBSTITUTE ANYTHING FOR THE GLORY OF GOD? NO, NEVER, CAN’T HAPPEN, IMPOSSIBLE. Sure, you can try. King Rehoboam tried to. Look at verse 10-11, which states, “King Rehoboam later replaced them with bronze shields as substitutes, and he entrusted them to the care of the commanders of the guard who protected the entrance to the royal palace. Whenever the king went to the Temple of the Lord, the guards would also take the shields and then return them to the guardroom.”
I make no apologies for finding what Rehoboam did to be foolish. He was trying to keep the former glory of the temple by using substitutes. “King Rehoboam later replaced them with bronze shields as substitutes, and he entrusted them to the care of the commanders of the guard who protected the entrance to the royal palace…” He tried to keep the original appearance of the glory of the temple. Rehoboam had the guards protecting bronze shields which were cheap, shoddy, and inexpensive. He had substitutes to keep up the appearance of the former glory. The temple no longer demonstrated a genuine display of the glory of the Temple, but it only gave a FAKE appearance of the former glory of the temple. Remember everything was stolen from the temple. Now all Rehoboam could use was substitutes.
When you are no longer for God, when you are backslidden, when you are not in right relationship with God, if you have forsaken God, then the glory of God is not seen in you. You can put on a performance or even display a picture of perfection, but that fact is, when you are FAKING, the fake display you are putting on will lack intensity, clarity, vividness, and the brightness that only the true glory of God has. YOU CANNOT DUPLICATE THE GLORY OF GOD IN YOUR LIFE JUST LIKE REHOBOAM COULD NOT DUPLICATE THE FORMER GLORY OF THE TEMPLE. Just because you put on a picture of perfection does NOT mean that God is going to accept you and your behavior. Nothing you do will substitute the presence and glory of God in your life. Either you are for God or against Him. You are either serving God or not. Nothing can replace God and His glory shining in your life.
The way Rehoboam ended his reign and his life was in a very sad state, “But he was an evil king, for he did not seek the LORD with all his heart.”
We can all learn from Rehoboam. First, when you go through good times and times of blessings, guard your heart. Hold your faith closely, and cling to God. Cling to the truths of God. Second, when you repent and humble yourself before God, He will NOT reject a broken spirit and a repentant heart. Third, be steadfast in your love for God and make your face like flint determined to do His will.
As we live life, let us live in such a way before God, that when we stand before Him to give an account for how we lived our lives, we will hear the words, “Well done, My Good and Faithful Servant.
“What sorrow for those who say that evil is good and good is evil, that dark is light and light is dark, that bitter is sweet and sweet is bitter.” Isaiah 5:20 NLT
Stained Glass Confessions 