I don't want to be here anymore!

In your ministry assignment, have you ever said that?  Has your life and ministry taken a turn that you don't really appreciate?  OK, I know we can say it stronger.  Are you in a place you hate right now?  For many pastors and ministry leaders we have to admit we have been or are there now.
So does God have a Word for us?  Well of course!  But, we may not like it.  Listen to what God said to His people through Jeremiah:


This is what the Lord of Host, the God of Israel, says to all the exiles I deported from Jerusalem to Babylon:  "Build houses and live in them.  Plant gardens and eat their produce.  Take wives and have sons and daughters.  Take wives for your sons and give your daughters to men in marriage so that they may bear sons and daughters.  Multiply there; do not decrease.  Seek the welfare of the city I have deported you to.  Pray to the Lord on its behalf, for when it has prosperity, you will prosper."
Jeremiah 29.4-7 (HCSB)


For whatever reason we are where we are because God has placed us there.  Jeremiah never says God will move you because your unhappy or its hard or its not what I thought it would be.  He says don't stop living, don't stop serving, don't stop being productive.  He does say pray for the place where you are.  Perhaps God can use us in those difficult places to bring about a great spiritual "prosperity" for His people.  

What do you expect from your proclamation?

What do you expect when you preach or teach?  Do we expect results or are we just glad they listened?  Micheal Green in his book Evangelism of the Early Church states that the early church looked for a response from their hearers.  I think that in our churches today many seem to lack the power of the Holy Spirit at work.  We have settled for just having an audience rather than looking for a response.  We should expect results!

What did the early church look for?  According to Green they anticipated three responses.

1. Repentance.  The early church looked for the individual to repent from their sins.  We have made a mistake in the early church to not express the need for repentance when someone makes a decision to be a Christ follower.  If they are concerned that they will have to give something up they have not really embraced repentance.
2. Faith.  Green says, that "repentance toward God is matched by faith towards the Lord Jesus Christ."  While the gospel does not spell what this faith is specifically in every occasion.  There is a consistent belief in Jesus Christ.  Paul's teaching was that faith in Christ entailed a belief in who Jesus was, His crucifixion and resurrection, His ascension into heaven and eventual return.
3. Commitment.  The final expectation is that of a commitment.  Again Green says, it is a commitment onto Christ.  In our attempt to make the gospel "marketable" we have made coming to Christ.  Coming to Him requires a commitment.  Will the new Christ follower fully understand what that means?  No probably not but we should not hide it from them either.  The commitment is most often demonstrated by a commitment to baptism.