10 Days in Matty 10: Day 8

So it’s been a while since our last entry for “Ten Days in Matty Ten.” Let me give a little refresher.

In Matthew 10, Jesus send out his disciples and gives them power to heal and cast out demons. Them he gives them 10 sort descriptions of what the ministry should be. Here’s what we’ve seen so far.

1. Go to the lost sheep. Translated: Make it understandable to non-believers.
2. Preach: The Kingdom of heaven is near. Translated: Reveal God’s plan through worship
3. Heal people. Translated: Make life-change a priority.
4. Don’t bring extra money or clothes. Translated: Don’t worry about having all the cool “stuff”.
5. Find a worthy person to stay with. Translated: Find another worship pastor to connect with.
6. If you aren’t welcome leave. Translated: If you aren’t welcome, leave.
7. Be shrewd and innocent. Translated: Follow the characteristics laid out in Titus 1.

Now to Day number 8.

“But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, for It will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.” -Matthew 10:19,20

Jesus tells his disciples not to worry about what to say because God will speak through them.

This was probably a big deal for the disciples. The disciples weren’t all the smartest guys you’d ever meet. They weren’t trained traditionally on how to teach. The guys who did the teaching were raised up in the synangogue learning from the best teachers how to teach. The disciples didn’t have a lick of that training. So they were probably really nervous when it came to the thought of teaching by themselves in public.

What does this mean for me? Yes, it means that God will speak through me at the right times. But it also challenges me in worship ministry.

This challenges me not to worry about how good the music sounds or how cool everything looks because God can speak regardless. I shouldn’t be consumed with trying to have the coolest or hippest worship ministry in town. That’s not what I need to try to accomplish. As we mentioned earlier, seeing peoples lives changed is the priority.

But this is by no means whatsoever and excuse to do things poorly. We also mentioned that we should strive to do our best in everything we do. We should try to have the best music, or the best videos and graphics. But we should try to do it the best that we can with what we have. We talked about this before so I’m not going to elaborate. If you do want to know more about that click here.

So I should try to have the best music and videos and such that I can, but it shouldn’t be the goal of my ministry. I have to practice playing and singing and leading, but I shouldn’t do it so people can say, “Hey Sojourn has the best music ever.” I should try to make the best videos I can, but not so that I get any recognition for it.

Like I said earlier, this verse is not an excuse for us to slack off. It doesn’t give us a reason to rest comfortably in our laziness. We must do all things as if done to the Lord. But this is an excuse to try harder, to do better, and to dream bigger.