While I shared this message at Jamie’s ordination service, it was a Word I needed to remind myself and others who are tasked with the joy of ministry.

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There is something wonderfully disruptive about grace.

Grace interrupts the life we thought we were going to live. Grace begins rearranging our priorities, our marriages, our relationships, our ambitions, our schedules, and eventually even our careers. But God doesn’t capture our hearts simply for our own benefit. We are saved for a purpose.

The way Paul writes his letter to the church in Ephesus reminds us that the Christian life always begins with what God has done. There are six chapters in Ephesians. In the first three chapters, there is only one imperative, one command: remember. In the last three chapters, there are over forty commands.

Before Paul gets to all the things we are supposed to do, he spends the first half of the letter reminding us about our relationship with God. He reminds us how much we are loved by God, that God chose us before the creation of the world.

“For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.”
Ephesians 1:4

Notice the verbs throughout Ephesians 1.

God chooses. God adopts. God redeems. God forgives. God reveals. God calls. God seals.

Before Paul tells us to do anything, he reminds us of what God has already done for us. That’s grace.

And that is particularly important for those of us in full-time ministry. If I preach well enough. If I pray hard enough. If I say the right words to a hurting person. If I’m funny enough, winsome enough, serious enough, whatever enough, then this I will be successful.

But the Gospel tells us a different story.

Before we ever started moving toward God, God was moving toward us. Before we chose Him, God chose us to be his daughters and sons. Before we imagined doing any of this, God was preparing the good works to which we would be called.

We were captured by grace before we were called to ministry.

That order matters.

Eventually Paul moves from everything God has done in Ephesians 1–3 to the calling of Ephesians 4:

“I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.”

Paul doesn’t say, “Live a worthy life so that perhaps God will love you more.”

That has already been settled. Your calling has been received. Now go live it out.

Our identity in Christ always comes before our activity for Christ.

Paul goes on to say that we are called to “equip the saints.” That has become one of my favorite metaphors for pastoral ministry. A pastor’s job is to equip God’s people to live out their faith. We don’t do it for them. We give them the tools, the Gospel story, so that they can carry the good news of Jesus Christ into a hurting world.

That means our calling is never ultimately about us.

Our energy, time, talents, gifts, skills, and passions are always in service to the people around us.

Our teaching is for them.
Our leadership is for them.
Our prayers are for them.
Our tears will be for them.
Our hearts will ache and, at times, break for them.

We are called to equip God’s people for works of service so that the body of Christ may be built up.

But after doing this for a couple of decades, there is one particular danger of ministry I have learned to take seriously:

Don’t allow your work for Jesus to replace your love for Jesus.

Because it can.

That might be one of the strangest dangers of ministry. You can spend your entire day doing things for Jesus without actually spending much time with him.

You can study Scripture because you need to teach something.
You can pray because someone asked you to pray.
You can worship while simultaneously thinking about how the service is running, noticing the woman sitting alone, or seeing the man crying in the balcony.
You can sit with people in their pain and talk beautifully about the presence of God while slowly becoming numb to his presence in your own life.

You can become extraordinarily competent at the practice of ministry while your own soul quietly becomes hollow.

And sadly, that’s what happens to the church in Ephesus.

Flip to Revelation 2…Jesus sends the church a love letter where he says,

“I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance.”

They were doing ministry. They were working hard. They were enduring. They were persevering through difficult times. But then Jesus says:

“Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first.”

That should haunt those of us in ministry just a little bit.

Because apparently it is possible to do the work faithfully while losing the love that first drew us into this work.

So don’t forget your first love.

Before we are Pastor, Reverend, Doctor, Professor, Elder, or whatever title people put in front of your name, you are simply a normal person who has been captured by the grace of Jesus Christ.

Protect that relationship.

Read Scripture sometimes when you have absolutely no intention of teaching it to anyone.
Pray prayers that no one will never hear.
Worship privately more than you do publicly.
Have friendships where nobody needs you to be their pastor.
Take Sabbath seriously.
Let other people pastor you.

And remember that Jesus Christ does not love you more when the church is growing, when the sermon goes well, when everyone thinks you’re doing a great job, or when your ministry feels successful.

You were loved before you accomplished any of it. Don’t allow your work for Jesus to replace your love for Jesus.

You were captured by grace before you ever did anything for the Lord