Frankie Mazzapica - What Does Your Ministry Look Like?
Thank you for tuning in today. My name's Frankie Mazzapica. The title of today's message is "What Does Your Ministry Look Like"? What does it look like? I wanna say this. If your assignment were over, your assignment on what God has put on your life, if it were over, you would not be here right now. The Lord would snatch you up and take you to heaven. If you've ever lost a loved one or a close friend, their assignment was over on this earth and the Lord snatched them up. If they could come back and talk to you just for 30 seconds, they would say two things. Number one, "I do not want to come back to this earth". That would be the first thing, period. The second thing they would say is, "Heaven is real and hell is real as well".
How many of you know that's what they would say? Come on, you know. And the reason why they would say that is oftentimes we know it here, but we're not so much convinced to change our behavior, our thoughts, and how we live. And they would come down and say, "Wake up. Heaven is real. Hell is real". We gotta be ready for that. And so, if your assignment was done, he would snatch you off the earth, that you can worship the Lord there. You can serve the Lord in heaven. But there's only one thing that you cannot do in heaven and that's to impact the people around you. Your friends, your family, you're assigned to them. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
There are three areas that if you're going to complete your assignment, you gotta dial it in, you gotta be laser focused on three areas. The first one is how you walk with the Holy Spirit in mind. The second one is how you live among other Christians, your family, and how you live among people that are outside of the family of God. And then number three, it's this mentality, it's this lifestyle, of trusting in what you cannot see. So let's just dive right into it. Sometimes, the Lord will give us a slither, like a crack, of what it feels like to live for him. In the way that fulfillment, it's like, have you ever walked out of a grocery store, pushing a cart, and you unload the groceries, you put it in the car and now you got this empty cart and you turn around, you're like, okay, I could leave the cart here. It doesn't affect me at all, but it affects somebody.
And so I'm gonna push this cart into a cart, whatever you call it, cart holder. And then you're probably, I don't know if you're like me, when I'm walking back to my car, I look like a peacock. Does anyone see what I just did? Or if you're at a stoplight and somebody is in a parking lot and they're trying to get into the lane and you stop the car and you let them in and you kind of smile to yourself. I'm like, Do you see how unselfish I am? Do you see how good I am that I just let them in, and then you're kinda like, I know I did something good but you better wave go, you... anyone? But with that feeling that you get, everybody gets to experience those feelings, but it's still a slither of this emotion and it explodes in you.
It's like overwhelming when you say, okay, that's a slither. Everybody gets to experience that. But I want to know what it feels like to have it in my bones. So here we go. Let's talk about just this living with the Holy Spirit. Watch this. In Mark chapter 1, verses 9 and 10: Jesus is leaving Nazareth, Nazareth of Galilee, and he walks up to the Jordan River and John the Baptist is baptizing him. And then John baptizes Jesus. And the Bible says, as he was coming out of the water, he's coming out of the water, the Bible says this. Immediately the heavens were torn open.
Now, let me just say this. Whenever I pray, I tell the Lord, "I know that this room is full of angels. You have ripped the curtain between the physical and the spiritual so that people can see angels, they're aware of it. You've done it before, Romans 2:11, you have no favorites. I'm expecting it. I'm wanting it". And people that pursue God, the heavens get ripped open for them. Not necessarily every time seeing angels, but you get to experience things that very few people on the earth have ever experienced. But anyway, the windows get the heavens get ripped open and watch this. Like, here's a visual illustration. It's like a dove, the Holy Spirit came and rested on the Lord's shoulder.
If you're going to complete your assignment rather than just living your life, making money, get married, live in a house, and die. You actually fulfill your assignment. We have to recognize that the Holy Spirit is resting on the children of God. He's resting on you. Now, let me ask you a question. If there were a real dove sitting on your shoulder, but you didn't want it to fly off, how would you walk? How would you live? Every step you take would be with that dove in mind. Every move you make would be with that dove in mind. You don't want to say something too loud. It would be with that dove in mind.
The Bible says in 1 Thessalonians 5:19, it says: "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit". When the dove is not in mind, because you can grieve him and, in this intimacy that you have with him, it flies off because listen to this, you cannot play in the darkness and walk in the light at the same time. You can call yourself a Christian all you want to. "I believe in God. I believe in God". Here's a little secret: Satan believes in God and he knows the Bible very well, very well.
And so, when we begin to live as if the Holy Spirit is not there, I want you to know that there is a separation between you and the Holy Spirit. When we stand before God, it is not going to be, you're not gonna get in just because you believe in him. In Matthew chapter 7, verse 22, it reads like this: "When people stand before me, they will say, 'Lord, Lord, didn't we do miracles in your name?'" These are children of God. "'Didn't we cast out demons in your name?'" These are children of God and the Lord will look back at them and say, "Depart from me. I never knew you. Depart from me. You didn't, we had no relationship". I had a friend of mine. He's still my friend. But when I was 16 years old they had, I don't know if they still do this, but there were movie theaters at the mall. Do you guys remember that? Do you remember that?
And I remember standing in the mall and we were looking at the marquee trying to pick a movie. There was a new movie out and I can't remember what it was, but I do remember that the actress, whoever she was, was gorgeous. And so we're sitting there, should we see this movie? Should we see that movie? And then David said this: "I would like to see that movie," with the actress that was gorgeous. Says, "I would like to see that movie but it's just not worth it". What was he saying? He said, "I can't go watch that movie, let my eyes, let my imagination live like that, go in this theater of darkness and expect for the Holy Spirit to be okay with that".
If you're gonna fulfill your assignment, rather than just walking through this world and living like some, you know, random person just walking through and live your life and die and back up. If you're going to make an impact at all, we have to remember that the way we talk, the way we live, has to be with the dove in mind. And when we do something or say something, we feel that distance. Welcome to being human. We back up and say, Lord, I'm sorry. And bam, you will never see the Lord move so quickly as when you feel distant with him and you say the words, "I'm sorry". You will never ever. He's like, you feel him straight away. Would you give the Lord a hand clap for that? Come on, he's good. He's good.
So, number one is being aware of the Holy Spirit. Now, let's talk about this assignment that we have with each other. And apostles and preachers and evangelists, all these offices, supposed to make you, equip you, watch this, to build up people. It's supposed to equip you for that. Now, what does that entail? Two things, number one, think of what you wish people would do to you. Now, we all have these different love languages. You, some people, they really feel loved whenever somebody gives them a gift. They really feel loved, when they hear encouragement or they get help. Think about what you like the most, and what you like the most is the indication of what your assignment is to give others, because that is the easiest thing for you to do. It is to build up people.
Now for me, I thrive on words of encouragement. It makes me feel stronger and taller. And so that's what I give to others. I write sticky notes in the house and I put them up on the mirror and on the doors to the people in the family. My wife has been out of town for the last 5 days. And so she came in this morning, she woke up at, like, 4, she got to the house around 7, and I've got sticky notes waiting for her. This morning, the alarm went off and I hit the alarm and I laid there and said, "I'm not going to church today". This morning. I'm like, "I can't get up. I can't". I hit the snooze for, I think, almost an hour, just I'm not doing it. I'm not doing it. I'm not doing it. Why?
I watched the Olympics to midnight. I was watching events that I've never cared about in my life, taking a big rock and throwing it to... why do I care? I don't even care. I'm like, "Oh Jesus, let us win the gold. Let us win the gold". I stayed up till midnight. I'm obsessed with these Olympics. Then my alarm goes off. I don't wanna come in. So I come walking in and I'm the fakest smile you've ever seen in your life. And then I see one of our worship leaders and I said, "Hey, how you doing"? And she said back, "I'm not doing good. I've had a hard week". And I'm thinking, "Well, I'm not doing good either". I'm like, "This whole church is in trouble. The worship is not looking good. The preacher is not looking good. We are in trouble".
And then, Pastor Dwayne comes up to me and he goes, "Pastor, we're gonna have great church today". All of a sudden I looked at him and I said, "Yes, we are". He just, like, reached into my soul and, like, lifted it up. This is what I'm talking about. When we have this mentality that when we see people, whoever we see, it is my assignment to lift them up. This is my assignment and some of you have this gift where you can look at someone's face and see that they're not doing good. Don't leave them there. By the time you walk away, they ought to be feeling stronger. They ought to have light in their eyes.
Don't talk about yourself and how awesome you are. They don't care about how awesome you are. There are some people that can't talk about anything except for themself. They leave people right where they are. But when you are saying, "My assignment from God means more to me than the breath that I breathe. I would not, I don't even wanna breathe. I'd rather not even be here if I'm just gonna waste my time living my life like everyone else. I'm gonna walk with the Holy Spirit in mind. I'm going to look for people to lift up. This is what I do". Everybody say, "This is what I do. This is what I do".
Number three, this mindset, this belief, I live by what I cannot see. This is how I live. The Bible says this in Hebrews chapter 11, verse 6. Watch this. This is a powerful statement. "You cannot please me unless you live by faith. You can't please me unless you live believing in what you cannot see". And then the Lord says this: This faith has two parts to it. It's like a sandwich. There's two pieces of bread. Faith has two parts and he says this. If you're gonna please me, you gotta believe in both. The first one is that I am here, that I exist. Without that, forget about it. You can't please me. You can try all day. I'll never be pleased with you. You have to know that I am here.
Number two, you have to know that if you pursue me, I will reward you. If you don't believe that about me, then there's a massive part of faith that is keeping me from being pleased with you. Now, there are times where I am certain that God is gonna come through for me. But most of the time I have my fingers crossed so tight, I think I'm gonna break one. It's like I know God's gonna come through for me, but I'm kinda hoping that he comes through for me. If you've ever been there, say "Yes". Come on, let me hear you. If you've ever been there, say "Yes".
And so, I take great comfort in the ember of faith that God requires in the moments where I'm like, I know like I know like I know like I know I've got a burning...what do I wanna say? Bonfire of faith. It's like shut up in my bones. But then when I only have an ember of faith, let me tell you what he does with that, because he knew that we would be there. And so he made for certain that a particular moment in the, when he was living life was recorded in the Bible. Not every miracle he did was recorded. In John chapter 21, verse 5, it says this: "That if they would have written down everything that Jesus did, every miracle," says this, "surely the entire world could not contain the books that would be written".
How could that happen? That means everywhere he went, everywhere he went, hundreds of people being touched and delivered and lame, why, it happened all the time. But Jesus was like this particular instance has to be recorded. What instance was that? In Mark chapter 9, this father brings his son who was so demon possessed that he was frothing at the mouth. The devil would throw him into a campfire and try to kill him. And his father walked up to Jesus and he said, "Will you help me? I don't... like, I need help". And Jesus says back to him, "Well, do you believe I can do this"? And the man says this: "I need you to help me believe". But he had enough faith to ask the Lord. But that was it. Let me put it this way. He had enough faith to say a one-sentence prayer, but that was it. An ember. Not a bonfire, an ember.
And Jesus looks at him in Mark chapter 9 and he says, "In the name of Jesus, demons leave this boy and be free". And the boy was free. You see, that ember of faith just enough to actually say it, not think it, not feel it, say it, one sentence. That is enough to put that together. I know that you're there and I know that you'll reward me. There are things that you you ask for because they're right in front of you. I need you to help me with this. But as you grow in the Lord, you will tell the Lord, "I need you to help me with this". But that's not where your prayer stops. You back up and you say, "I need you to help me with this, but there are rewards that I don't know about. There are opportunities that I don't know about".
Ephesians 3:20 says we can't even imagine what God is capable of doing. And so you end up praying, "I need you to do this, but God, I know that you reward people just for looking at, just for saying a sentence. But I want the things in my life that I cannot imagine". Nod at me if God has at least once given you something that you didn't even imagine was available. Nod at me, nod at me. Put your hands together. You didn't even know. That can be the story of your life. Pay attention to the Holy Spirit. Look for people to lift up and then, number three, force yourself to believe in what you cannot see. Would you stand to your feet? Put your hands together for the Lord. Come on, he's a good God. He's a present God.