The Five-Fold Ministry

Offering message: Release your tithe with your faith. Jesus was strengthened by angels, and He could have called angels to keep Him from having to go to the cross. We have divine protection. Ps. 30:5 God’s favor lasts a lifetime. His anger goes away, but not His favor toward us. God is for us. Be passionate about the things you hate, such as sin. God rebukes the devil for our sakes. God is our rear guard, and His armor is covering us in the front. Interlude message: The Holy Spirit is real and is in us. Pastor Dale tells of the first time he was confronted with the Holy Spirit manifesting in tongues and praise. It is God’s heart for men to praise Him, stand in the gap, worship Him in spirit and truth, and be righteous. Don’t be ashamed of the Gospel. The presence of God will hit people and change them. Pastor Dale tells of two drunks who came to a service to heckle, but who were saved, one of them who is now a missionary. Sermon message: (Eph. 2:19-22) We are to build on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, not just those went before, but those who are living now. First Peter 2:3-6 says that we are living stones, with Jesus Christ as the chief cornerstone, and He is alive. These scriptures refer to the apostles and prophets who are living now. Apostolic ministry must be present tense. First Cor. 12:27-31 names the five-fold ministry gifts. Pastor Dale relates about the experience of being on a train in Bulgaria with an atheistic woman who spoke English and an elderly believer who never had a Bible. You can survive without teachers, apostles, pastors, prophets, and evangelists, but why would you want to. The Word is precious, but we miss out when the apostolic and the prophetic are taken out. Want all of God. (Eph. 4:7) The gift of Christ is apostles, prophets, teachers, pastors, and evangelists. The order is not in rank or value, but in the process of time. The measure of the gift of Christ comes first and then the grace comes. If you see a need, you may be the one who has the grace to meet it. Follow the grace that’s on you. Our yoke is easy and our burden is light. Grace is contagious. Jesus dropped His mantle on the church. The apostolic minister networks the gifts together. Anointings can be on you; you take on those aspects. If you hang around prophets, you’ll prophesy. You may take on the characteristics of all of the five-fold ministry gifts, but you need more. We’re after the image of Christ. The ministry gifts are for equipping of the saints for the work of ministry and for edifying the body of Christ (Eph. 4:12-16). An effective believer needs input from all the five-fold ministry gifts. Speak the truth in love that we may grow in all things into Him. Receive what God is doing. You develop easier and better if you receive from the five-fold ministry gifts. John 15:5 tells us the importance of abiding in Him, with bearing fruit as the by-product. Work in the flesh will come to nothing. Your talent is not your ministry. If you can do it without Jesus, it’s not a ministry.