Ministry Equip Session #1 - Am I called to Ministry? If so, now what? | Adlin Cotto

This is City Post Church. We're about three things.

Build equipped and send all under the.

Lordship of Jesus Christ, a small church plant in Fort

Worth, TX. Who decided to do things a

little differently? Adoramos Ayesu cristo.

I love City Post because of the people.

It's where I belong. We truly preach the word.

I love City Post because of the community we've been able to

build to do ministry like Jesus for light to push back darkness.

This is City Post podcast, so we see that this idea of being

called to a task is not foreign, is not new.

So it comes with the territory when we become followers of

Jesus. I check I don't know the

languages I should do language courses after retirement, but

the word for calling in Hebrew and in Greek, they don't have

different words. So the context of the sentence

will give you the meaning. In the New Testament, the call

to salvation is obvious. So when you read in Ephesians,

when you read Paul, this call to how is called to is referring to

this call to salvation. But the context will tell you if

you are called to wait, ask to do something for the Kingdom or

if he's talking about salvation in Hebrew, the same thing.

It's just one word, but the context gives you and it's very,

very clear when you read particularly the Old Testament

about this particular people who were called by God to do a

particular task. So that sets the stage for us to

understand when we say I have a calling from God.

So when we talk about having a calling from God, the word means

to ask or invite to announce as an authority or this strong

inner sense that you have to follow a vocation.

So this is going to give you a window to the answer to the

question, how do I know? This urge that you will feel as

you serve the Lord is a key in identifying a particular calling

in your life. So just as with God's will, I, I

didn't find this, I use the terms that made sense in my

head. So there is a general call and

then there is a particular a particular call.

So we have a general call in our lives and it's that call to

salvation. But also we have what happens in

our lives, what has gold called us to be or to do?

Because we have relinquished our lives.

And we decided in churches to give my life to Jesus.

So when you relinquish your life and you say I'm going to follow

Jesus, there is a call that comes with that and is a general

course. So we are all as followers of

Jesus called to something. So I'm going to give you a

verse. You have to use your Bible.

You have to find what is the call in your card and then go

over there and stick it wherever the the task is.

OK, they are they can you help them?

I there was a time in my life when I was a new believer that I

like dancing. I like dancing salsa, merengue.

So Barbara doesn't like dancing very much.

And I remember one time that there was something and I was

thinking, hi, I wish we could, you know, I would love to go

dance, blah, blah, blah. Even in reading in my Bible I

got that verse to keep my eyes and things above.

So it is OK I still dance. I still dancing my my 4 by 4,

but so as followers of Jesus, we are called to to do all these

things. So you cannot say I haven't been

called. I don't have a calling.

I don't know. No, no, because the Bible and

you know, that's just a sample. If we really read carefully, we

can list plenty more. So let's consider I am doing the

wrong clicking. OK, so when we talk about a

particular code, like a particular task, God calls us to

obediently serve. So there is no excuse.

You cannot say I don't serve because I, I don't have a

calling. Oh, I still don't know what God

wants me to do. That's a wrong attitude.

There is a law that God has already called us to do.

So when we are thinking about this particular task that God

may have for us, we know that when he calls us, he will equip

us. So this is when there is a task

in the Kingdom, a task in the church that God calls us

particular we know we can trust that he will equip us.

How do I know that? How do I know that God equips

those he calls Yeah. And we see, you know, for Noah,

he gave him a plan for Solomon. There was a lot of work that

David did it. No one went.

Even with all the excuses that we have learned about Moses, God

will equip us. So he promised to be with us.

So there is really no excuse. This takes us to the issue of

gifts. The only way that we can really

know how am I serving the Lord in a particular area is through

the gifts. And this church is evidence of

giftedness and how everyone is working according to his or her

gifts. We see how this is working and

it is working great. So there are three passages,

basically 2 that give the list of gifts, spiritual gifts and

that one is First Corinthians 12 and Romans 12.

Ephesians is a great passage, but these are, I don't think

that these are gifts. These are positions like

offices. So for this you need particular

gifts to be able to do this. Now we are not going to discuss

theological things, and so I summarize the basic gifts that

we will see. I believe that there are some

gifts that have ceased because they had a purpose in the book

of Acts and that purpose has been fulfilled.

I am not saying that that the Holy Spirit can give it to

someone and use it. I am saying that in contemporary

culture, I believe that there are some that are not as

prevalent as others and Paul says that we have to seek that

he has a list and he says we have to seek the greater the

ones who verify the church. So I made if you look at at the

gifts that are that Paul identify there is a word of

wisdom, word of knowledge, faith, healing, miraculous

powers, prophecy, distinguishing between spheres, discernment,

speaking in different kinds of tongues.

That's languages and the interpretation there is

prophesying is not telling the future is preaching God's word,

proclaiming God's word, knowing God's message and communicating

God's will to people, serving, teaching encouragement or

exhortation, giving, leading mercy.

So what I want us to do, OK, there are some guidelines if you

are wondering about gifts, there are some guidelines in Scripture

about the gifts. Corinthians was a problematic

church and a lot of the guidelines you find in

Corinthians because police addressing the abuse and misuse

of some of the gifts. But these are the guide, the

guidelines as we find them in the text regarding the gifts,

the Spirit distribute the gifts. You don't seek the gift.

The Spirit will give you the gift.

Now you may have a talent and natural inclination that will

strengthen that, that will accompany a gift or that will

become a gift. OK, like Eric, he can play any

instrument. That's a talent.

But God has given him this gift for worship that really God has

equipped him for the ministry of worship.

The gifts are given for the common good.

So it's not for your own benefit.

It's not so you become Mr. or Mrs. Special or because then if

you feel superior than others, then you violate one of the

general gifts calls that are to consider others better than you.

The gift distributes as he determines.

I do know that every believer gets at least one.

No believer is without a gift. Why yes, the Spirit dwells in

you and you play a role in the body.

So you play a role in the body either for the Lord will equip

you for that role. The church may be edified.

That's the purpose, to edify the church.

If you feel that the Lord has called you to something and it

doesn't edify the church, or if we hear someone that says the

Lord has called me to do this or that, and everything is

essential and fighting achievement, forget it.

That's not it. That's not it.

It's for the edification of the church.

And Paul admonishes us to excel in those gifts that build up the

church. OK, in Romans 12, there is this

guideline to always, never lack sin in exercising your gift.

Gifts come, I have discovered late in life.

I honestly thought that I was going to be a youth minister

until I die. And then I discovered through my

lovely daughter Leanne, who has the gift of discernment and word

of wisdom, that God works in seasons.

And it is so true. It is so true.

But for a while I struggled with with this notion about you know,

what has God called called us to do so God will work in seasons.

God, God will work to supply needs.

But the point is that you will obey, that you will serve the

Lord right there where He has placed you for the time He has

placed you. And then if there is a changing

plan, He will let you know that you have accomplished your your

task and there is another task to accomplish.

Usually it's going to be in the same area of giftedness, but we

are going to see how general or specific this can be in

efficiency. 4, you see, of course, is Paul writing, but the

guideline is to equip God's people for works of service.

So when we exercise our gifts, the gifts are done so we can

equip this model of discipleship having people working with us.

We want them to discover their gifts and through our example

and our leadership be equipped. The importance of multiplying

the Bible study leaders because as the groups grow, we're going

to need leaders. So that's the idea we want to be

equipped and we equip each other that there is some repetition

because it's Paul writing that the body of Christ may be built

up. Then we reach unity in in the

faith and knowledge and that we mature.

You exercise your gift, you will grow and you will mature and

it's going to get better and we are expected to grow in every

area of our faith and of our life when we exercise our gifts.

Now the question is, how do I know in first Corinthians 12,

this is the order that Paul gives because of the issue in

Corinthians. So he he put we, he put them in

what he considers his priorities, the ones who build

the church first. So with the gifts, there are

some dangers that we have to work and avoid.

There is the danger of arrogance and pride.

If we have to keep each other accountable, when we see a

brother or sister that the gift is getting to their head, we

have to lovingly say brother, sister and mother, you know,

keep it down a notch. There is a danger of misuse and

abuse. I have a friend who is a

licensed counselor and she tells me the damage that pastors do on

people because of Muse and abuse of their authority and they just

because they are the preacher or the pastor, there is a danger of

division or disunity when people start.

That was the problem in Corinthians.

I belong to Paul. No, I belong to so and so.

No, I belong to Apollo. No, I speak this.

So I am great at you. You don't do this, but I do

this. So it's good to know this

because when we see it happening, do we say no, no, we

talk about this, this, this is not from the Lord.

We'll have to address it. There is a danger of burning

out. How?

How is this a danger? How will this happen?

That in exercising your gift using the guidelines, you end up

burned out? What happened along the way?

Yes yes, you're doing it on your own strength.

It becomes a task, it becomes a job.

You are pleasing people, you are impressing people is suddenly

you lost track of who is your motivation and and who is behind

your. So this idea of burning out is a

reality. Pastor Gabe can he has

experienced not that he has burned out, but in dealing with

pastors in pastoral work, we see this and it happens when you

stop abiding, when when you stop, you stop praying.

And it is a it is a change is very smooth.

You suddenly don't stop and you say, Nah, I'm going to rely on

myself. You know, I know, I know how to

do this. It's very sweet.

But there is a danger of false teaching because of the other

ones misinterpretation and the unhealthy focus on experiences.

And that happens with the, I call them spectacular gifts.

But if he goes to your head, you took a detour.

So how do I know? How do I know what is my gift?

I'm going to tell you this story.

First is trial and error. You have to try it.

You have to try. I always said I have been in

churches where they have very traditional and they had

committees on committee. So a committee on committee

person, they look at your committee, they look at the

church, and they assign you your workers or the people who are

going to live with you. I always rejected that because

you don't know my ministry. You're not going to tell me who

is going to come with me. I'll tell you who is going to

work with me. So I would give opportunities

for other people to come watch the youth ministry teach with

me. And when it didn't work, I said,

praise the Lord, this is not the one next.

So trial and error. How do you know?

You try one thing in ministry and you are miserable.

Great. Praise the Lord, that's not the

one. Move on.

You have such a great time. You have such a great joy.

You're looking forward to do this again.

You're on the right track. So trial and error is some

variable because it's a win win situation.

The other one, there are spiritual gifts inventories.

They have inventories that are very specific and lengthy and

they have, I have one at home that is very is for use.

So it's very summarized and very general.

But if it's well now, the confirmation from others, people

from the church, mature believers will come to you and

say, give you a chance, give you an opportunity.

Do you want to help me with the kids?

And then, wow, this is great. So people will come to you.

People will come and say, you know, I think that you, you did

this great. That decoration that you did

with the balloons for BBS was so wonder.

That is affirmation and confirmation that you're doing

something right to accomplish, to accomplish a task.

That God has for you in the Kingdom through the local body

and prayer. Pray you pray Lord, what do you

want me to do? But if you.

Ian Bounds wrote quite a bit on prayer and one of the things

that Ian bound says that when you pray about something, you

need to be willing to be the answer to your prayer.

So Lord, I'm praying for people to give for India.

So when you pray, Lord, you know, help show me, show me.

Then you have to be open for opportunities and you have you

cannot say no when someone comes and inviting invite you to do

something. So let me tell you part of my

testimony when we came to know the Lord in I came to know the

Lord 1983 Robert came to know the Lord 1984.

So by summer 1984. We are as we are established as

new believers in this independent fundamental artist

church. He was was a great church.

They did a great job discipling us and then before we developed

spiritual blinders, the Lord moved us to His own Baptist

Church. So I am a new believer.

The only thing I know is the Bible.

I am reading this Bible and I love it.

And when the pastor, we come visit our house, oh I love it.

I loved it. Everything about church, you

come to church 3 * a week, We go to church 3 * a week.

You will give 10%, we give 10%. So the IT was a small Spanish

mission from an English speaking church.

And I see in the bulletin the pastor's wife, Stella, Stella

Quintero, she was about to give birth and there is this

announcement that she needed help doing the bulletin.

And one Sunday I see the, the, the Annuncia, IE even the next

Sunday. And I am thinking, I look at the

bulletin and I'm thinking I can do this then, you know, I think

I waited a whole month hoping that maybe someone will come and

say a link with you. But no.

So I talked to Robert and I went to the pastor and I started

doing the bulletin. We were at the church until 87

then we the Lord moved us to First Baptist phone panel and we

were there until I was going to say 1 thousand 1995.

OK, that's like 11 years. So I calculated 52 Sundays plus

revival special location, about 50 bulletins a Sunday.

I did some bulletins. I don't remember if I did the

bulletin in Templo because I remember going to Kinko's.

But the point is that one one answer to announcement answer to

an announcement in this bulletin as a new believer, so I think I

have make over 30,000 bulletins in my in my life one answer to

this small announcement. The same thing happened with

helping the pastor's wife with the kids.

There is this you know, and I am thinking my kids are there.

Let me see. And I tried it.

And the piano. OK, so this is another story.

I learned to play piano. My mom loved performing.

I hate performance. I am a very background person.

I don't want to call attention to myself.

I like to work in the background.

I don't need to be recognized. So plus, have you ever have you

ever seen the movie? Is it Mozart?

No, it's not Mozart Amadeos. What is what is the name of is

it Mozart? Mozart versus what is the arch

enemy? No, no, the guy that went crazy,

Well, you have to see the movie. The point is, the point is that

I remember I learned to play the piano.

I have a good ear, so I learned to play by ear and I would do it

for my own entertainment. I am not a, you know, I don't

go. No, I am very mechanic.

Very, very limited. Well we were in our church in

Florida. They got the Oregon that had

instruments. It was very easy to follow.

The problem was that the the worship leader didn't know what

he was doing. When you are using, when you are

using this organ, you have to follow the Oregon.

The Oregon cannot change the pace, cannot go faster or you

program it. But it was bad and it was a

nightmare. More than once I stopped the

service so they could go with the organ because it was awful.

It was bad. It was a small church, so I have

the freedom. So I hated it.

Every time they would ask me to play the piano, I hated it.

I hated it making a mistake. It was awful.

I would pray for someone to come and play the piano.

The Lord answered me. Because in Templo I play for a

while. And then the Lord brought this

seminary student that he was, you know, super.

And I went back to. So I have experience exercising

a talent that was not a gift. I had a talent, but I it was not

a gift. No by a million plus the

heartburn it was. But I also experienced the call

to use ministry. That has been the greatest thing

ever and the joy. I tell you my preparation for

the kids class every Sunday is the highlight of my week.

I praise the Lord, I say just me, OK?

I love, I love it, I love it. You know, whoever comes, it does

not matter. I am ready, I am ready.

So that's how you know that you have a gift and that you are

exercising it accordingly. So with every gift that the Lord

will give us, we see how easily the gifts, how versatile the

gifts can be in its implementation.

So you, you cannot say, well, it is wrong to say I'm not doing

anything because I haven't determined or discerned of my

gift because we all all all know all the things that God has told

us to do. But in discovering your gift,

trial and error and you're, you know, you have inclinations.

Now there is a difference between gifts and talents and

but you know, once you are like born with them and the other

ones are spirit given, but they work together.

The Lord is not going to assign you a gift that goes against if

you already he need you in your mom's womb.

So I know that you're going to have this talent.

So when we see the list of gifts in the Bible, this this art

categories, because then we have like specific things like

decorating or painting or, I don't know, praying.

I didn't put the prayer ministry because it's part of the

pastoral ministry. But there are so many specific

things that you will learn to discover.

Where is the best place for me to exercise this gift that the

Lord has given me? That's when you decide.

Like Connie. Connie has found her way into

the youth ministry. She has a heart, she's curious.

She has let me try it. I want to know what this is

about. So she has done exactly right in

discovering the place for ServiceNow.

These are the last words in Jeremiah 29.

I can relate to this verse. Jeremiah is saying.

He says, I will not mention his word.

You know, he had a he had a hard time with the people hearing his

message. He was rejected.

He's the weeping prophet Pobrecito.

But he says when I consider I'm not going to tell them any

longer, I'm not going to say anything else.

He had this fire inside of him that did not let him quit.

So there Amaya, 29, he says I will not mention his word or

speak anymore in his name. His word is in my heart like a

fire. So you have this thing inside of

you that doesn't let you not serve in that area.

And Hebrews 11/27, speaking about Moses, he says by faith

Moses left Egypt not fearing the King's anger.

He persevered because he saw him who is invisible.

I think if you want to know how to persevere in exercising your

gift, you see Him who is invisible.

You don't care about the King's anger, you don't care about

opinions, you don't care about difficulties.

Why? Because you see Him who is

invisible, you know that He has given you this gift.

That is one of the keys to persevering.

Hebrews 12123 is one of my preferred passages.

The author of Hebrews tells us we throw off everything that

hinders and the scene that will tangle.

Also, we are called to live holy lives.

We want to be a vessel of the Holy Spirit.

He's the one doing the world, but we want to be a feed vessel.

OK, Then we run with perseverance.

This is not a short race. This is a super long marathon.

So we run with perseverance and then we fix our eyes.

We keep our eyes on Jesus. Once we move our side to other

people words, I don't know, whatever we lose it.

We lose it to persevere in exercising and being faithful in

ministry. Dealing with people is hard.

That's why the body of Christ is such a wonder that we being

imperfect with all our you know that he loved us and we belong

to Jesus and we follow him and we work together and we love

each other. This is great, but we can annoy

each other, you know, it's like any family.

So we fix our eyes on Jesus and we know that he paid the

ultimate price. He went to the cross, He had his

eyes on the price. We do the same.

So if you're wondering how do I know my specific goal, identify

your gift, pray about it, trial and error.

If you want to do an inventory, talk to Pastor Ricky, listen to

the admonitions of others, but try try.

And my last. This is this exercise.

So in summary, God calls us to serve where we are.

You you cannot say let me learn more about the Bible and then no

golf course. I tell you our experience as new

believers. We were new believers and Robert

was the the teacher for the new believers class and he was a new

believer. That's how he started.

I was a new believer and I was just helping the the pastor's

wife with the kids. But I am learning.

I am I tell you, I thought it was amazing.

We all have at least one gift when we engage in ministry and

we use our gifts, we we the honor the Lord.

And remember the parable of the talents.

This is not talent like ability. This is Money, La Mina, but you

are faithful in the few, yes, you're faithful with more.

So you have been given something invested.

Use it because you will be held accountable.

Ricky is going to be held accountable at a higher level.

And all of us who teach, we have a higher accountability.

So we will give an account how well we did the pancakes and how

wonderful was the dog document the Google Doc for and how well

we let in worship and how much. So we are not accountable for

the results. We are accountable for how we

exercise the gift that the Lord has given us and I urge you,

this is toll riding. Live a life worthy of the

calling you have received. This has to do with salvation,

but also I think it applies to that gift that God has given us

to serve the role that we play. Live a life worthy of it.

If a time comes in your life that you have been serving and

you need a break, that is OK. You need to acknowledge that you

need a break. That is perfectly fine.

But the point is that you need to step back and see what

happened, that I need this break and you know, take a Sabah, take

some time to reconsider. The Lord will show you when we

left the other church where we were serving, it was the last

time that we did youth ministry officially like youth ministry

because then we we have been praying for Ricky and we didn't

know it was going to be CD Post. So we decided to support Ricky

and everywhere we went, you know, we were just watching to

see where the Lord wanted us. Also because we cannot run after

we can reach all our lives is where the Lord wants us.

So when CD Post was born, Ricky, I understood I the need is with

Elenita Living because Ricky's preaching style, he reaches

everyone, you know. It doesn't matter if you're a

young teenager, you hear his preaching and he reaches

everyone in the audience. But Elenita Living and Leah, you

know, and Jacqueline Eveline Jackson.

So that was where my eye was. You know, when I am looking for

Lord, there is no place of youth ministry here.

There is no need now and this is how you know praying and looking

always keep your eyes open. Keep your eyes open.

The Lord believe you and I am doing exactly what I have done

when I do youth ministry except the locking.

So I prepared as well as I prepared when I was leading

youth ministry. I read as much as I can when I

was doing youth ministry, but now plus my experience was my

mom would say that it was solid. I don't know how how you

translate solidarity like a female name when if you don't

know Spanish you miss it. I lost my in my experience in

youth ministry, the churches where we served were there was a

complete disconnect between the children's ministry and the

youth ministry. Complete disconnect.

And being in youth ministry, I always wondered what's going on

with these people doing children that we are receiving these

kids, you know, with no knowledge, no professional

faith, like what are they doing? So now the Lord has given me the

opportunity to gap that bridge because I know that when our

kids go to Connie's Indiana's class, they'll be ready.

They will be ready. They will know how to serve.

They will know the Lord hopefully, and they will know

their Bible. So that's another thing.

The Lord knows where you. So my advice, pray, try it and

learn. Persevere.

Keep your eyes on Jesus. Learn as much as much as you

can. Ask questions, seek the

encouragement of others. That is why we are a body.

Let us pray. Let us pray.

Lord, we thank you for today. We thank you for the wisdom of

your Word, for the leadership of your Spirit, for the truth that

we learn in knowing how you have established things to work for

kingdoms sake. How do we be build up the

church? What is our role and how we help

others so we grow in unity and we grow closer and we become

more like you. And by the way that we love each

other, people will know that we follow you and hopefully they

will come and look for answers to their questions and seeking,

seeking the life that you offer the forgiveness of sins.

So I praise you for this time. I thank you for Gabe and Pastor

Ricky as they have outlined this series of training sessions just

to equip us more in our service to you.

Thank you for those who are already exercising the spiritual

gift that you have given us. And I pray that as you reveal

yourself to others that they realize where you want them to

plug in just to serve you, because it is a wonderful

privilege to serve you. In Christ name we give thanks,

we give thanks. We love you.

In Christ name, Amen. Thank you.

That's all for.