#453 Fulfilling your Ministry

Welcome to Kingdom Writers, where we help equip and empower Christian writers of all genres to share your unique gifts with the world. We're your hosts, C.J. and Shelli Hitz.

This podcast is filled with spiritual encouragement as well as prayers to help you overcome the resistance you face as a writer. Your story matters.

Welcome to the Kingdom Writers Podcast. My name is Shelly Hitz, one of your hosts. This episode is an excerpt from our virtual writing retreat we host every month inside our membership Christian Book Academy. You can join us with a special coupon code just for podcast listeners and this will get you 50% off your first month. Use the coupon code podcast and this way we can help you take a step of faith and finally finish your book. So go to ChristianBookAcademy.com and enter the Coupon Code Podcast at checkout for 50% off your first month. Come join us at our retreats and all the other things that we offer throughout the month, and I pray that the encouragement from this episode blesses you.

There's this guy that Paul mentions two times in the New Testament that I thought we would focus on here today, and that that guy's name is Archippus. Archippus. And that's found in Colossians 4:17. And then also we're going to read a little small passage in Philemon. But I'm going to start with the colossians passage. It's 4:17. And Paul says this near the end of this letter to the Colossian church. He says, and say this to Arquebus.

Be sure to carry out the ministry the Lord gave you.

And I love that. And the NIV puts it this way, complete the ministry. And then the ESV says, fulfill the ministry. And that's where we get today's theme, fulfilling our ministry.

I even like the way that Eugene Peterson in the message put this is he said, quote, and oh yes, tell Archippus, do your best in the job you received from the Master. Do your very best is what it says in the message. And I love that. It's as if Paul is tacking this on at the end of his letter. Oh yes, and tell Archippus this. I don't want to forget this. I wanted to point Arquebus out and I believe in many ways the Lord is saying similar things to us as Kingdom writers. Finish the ministry. Carry out the ministry that God has given you. Now let me read the second passage here that we find this name Archippus in. It's Philemon 1.

Well, there's only one chapter in Philemon, but it said the first couple verses. It's Paul's opening. He says this. I am writing to Philemon, our beloved co worker, and to our sister Appiah and to our fellow soldier Archippus, and to the church that meets in your house. And so what we read here is that most likely Philemon is the husband and father, Appiah is his wife. And Archippus it very well could be, and scholars believe this, that Archippus is the son of Philemon and Appiah and that the church in Colossae actually meets out of their home, their household.

And so those are the two times. We don't know a ton about Arquebus.

But it's just interesting that Paul points him out very specifically here. And I want you to just imagine one person being singled out at the end of this letter to the Colossians Church. And most scholars actually see Paul's admonition to Archibus as a simple encouragement. Now some have believed that maybe he's actually giving Arquebus a gentle rebuke so, so some can believe that the majority of scholars actually believe that it was more of a gentle admonition to Arquebus as simple encouragement.

Similar to Paul's exhortations in his epistles to Timothy and also to Titus, which we read similar words of challenge to those two men in the faith. It's also interesting to note, some of you may know this, that Paul had never actually visited the Colossian Church. Now if you know anything about Colossae, it's, it's located in modern day Turkey. So it was some distance away from where Paul would be, would be writing from. And so he never actually visited, he never did get to the Colossians Church. It was just so far out of the way. And I think his intentions were to get there, to visit, but it just didn't happen.

And so he didn't make it there. But we can be sure that his written words to them made such a tremendous impact. And how many agree that they're continuing to make an impact to this very day? The written word. We should never underestimate the written word. And I am speaking to kingdom writers, writers who have an opportunity to write words that impact people way beyond what you ever thought or imagined. Your words ending up in places that you never imagined your words being downloaded on Kindle from halfway around the world because it's just that simple. But you've got to push the publish button in order for that to happen. You've got to get your words out there. I Had a couple beautiful coffee chat calls yesterday with a couple people. And I always love these because I'm able to hear the hearts of the people in this academy, in this membership. I'm able to hear their hearts of what they're writing about and hear these great topics and these titles for the books. I'm just like, wow, I should have thought of that. I mean, just incredible. And it gets me excited. But you know what it gets me excited about?

Get this thing to publish. Get this thing out there. We need to get this message out there. As I hear these stories, and a couple of these are really close, by the way, of the people that I talk to. They're just going through the editing process. They're kind of looking through it one more time, but. But they've essentially finished the meat of the writing now. It's just putting the polish on it. But as I talked to one person yesterday.

She'S had this ready for about two years. Two years. And so I kind of gave her a gentle encouragement to say, it's time to get this thing pushed across that finish line. People need to hear this. This is a great title. This is a great topic. And so it was kind of like my encouragement to her to say, let's keep going. You can do this. With God's help and with the support of this academy and others that have been down this road, you can do it. You can do it. Carry out the ministry that God has entrusted to you. Fulfill the ministry that you're called to. Paul is saying, and by the way, slip this in here at the end of this letter to the Colossians Church and tell Arquebus. Make sure you tell Arquebus this. I want him to know this from. From Paul.

We are each an Arquebus and have a ministry to carry out each one of us. And I'm so grateful that Paul pointed Arquebus out. I'm so grateful that I can just imagine Arquebus hearing those words and having a fire lit under him.

Especially coming from such a mentor. You know, Paul was great friends with Philemon and Appiah, but I think as he's calling Arquebus a fellow soldier, what an honor to be called a soldier in the army of the Lord. And you and I, as kingdom raiders are all part of that. We are each soldiers in the army of the Lord. We have such a great privilege to serve alongside one another as fellow soldiers. And Paul was giving this instruction, giving this encouragement, giving this final challenge in his letter, saving it for his friend Archippus, this young man, they had this potential, they had this ministry that he'd been given. And Paul is saying, what are you doing with your ministry, Arquebus? What are you doing? These are important days, we would all agree. These are incredible days. We're living in these potentially final days of humanity as we know it. We have this great opportunity to keep pushing the gospel, moving the gospel forward around the world in our writing. Your words and my words, we never realize fully where those words are going to go. And even though Paul didn't visit Colossae personally, his words impacted that church. And do you know that he even said, and by the way, I want also.

You to pass this letter along to the church that meets in Laodicea. I want them to read this letter as well. And some even believe that Arquebus had a connection to Laodicea in terms of personal involvement there with that church, which was about 12 miles away from Colossae. Regardless, this letter was going to get a lot of mileage. And you know, your books can get a lot of mileage. You know, your book and my book could get so much mileage, more than we ever even imagined. How many have ever picked up a book in a secondhand store that looks like it had been dog eared a thousand times? And that thing has got a tattered cover. You can just see that the thing is discolored. It even might even have some coffee stains on it. But you know that you hold in your hands a classic. I've seen books like that by Corrie. 10 boom books that look like they've been passed around to 10 different families and gone halfway around the world, who knows, on an airplane or a ship, you never know. But that book looks tattered, it looks worn, it looks like it's got some miles on it. Wouldn't you like your book to be in that category? Like it's been through a whole bunch of sets of hands and it's encouraged a whole load of people.

This is part of fulfilling our ministry, getting our books across the finish line to where they can now be available.

To go around the world, to be available to be passed from one set of hands to the next. And I want to say that Paul's encouragement to Archippus and his family should also encourage all of us to complete the ministry God has given us. Fulfill the ministry that God has given us.

My final challenge to you in this encouragement is to say, kingdom writer, be sure.

Be sure in the days that you find yourself in right now, in 2025, be sure to carry out the ministry that God has put on you. It's a responsibility we should not take lightly. If you and I have been called to write words that challenge and encourage others anywhere around this world, because when we hit that publish button, we have no idea where our words are going to end up. But if you and I have indeed received that call, what are we doing to fulfill the ministry that God has given us? What are we doing to carry out the ministry that God's given us? And that's my challenge to all of us here this morning on September 26, 2025.

That's great. Thank you so much. CJ, how many of you feel encouraged from that today and just feel like God is speaking to you? Just let us know what is your takeaway from this today. And cj, why don't you pray corporately over all of us for this weekend? You know that God would run swiftly through our writing, through our time with him, and that his will would be accomplished. And then we will open up the breakout rooms for prayer with each other.

Yeah. Oh, Father. I just want to.

Lift up prayer, Lord, for all of these kingdom writers that are here and also those who are watching or listening to the recording.

Wherever they're at. Lord, I just pray that each one would be filled with your holy spirit today.

To fulfill the ministry that you've given them, to carry out.

The ministry that you have entrusted them with. What a privilege that you've entrusted us with ministry, Lord. What a privilege that you've called us to be kingdom writers whose words could end up where we never even imagined. I want to ask, Lord, that with whatever each person's working on today, I pray you would empower them with your spirit, that each one would be given insight, each one would be given God ideas that wouldn't have happened had you not downloaded those into their minds. Give them creativity, inspiration, light a fire under each one. That might be getting close, but maybe they put it off for a bit, but they're close. They just have a little more polish to go on the. The final draft.

And it's ready to go out. It's ready to be published. I pray, Lord, that there wouldn't be any delay.

That we would take credit for.

I pray, Lord, that you would give us what we need. I pray too, that you would.

Help each one overcome every obstacle that the enemy throws in front of them. May every assignment of the enemy be canceled in Jesus name. Every obstacle removed in Jesus name. Any hindrance removed in Jesus name. May we all say at the end of our lives we carried out the ministry that we were given.

May we be challenged like Archippus today to carry out this ministry, to fulfill the ministry that we've been so privileged and entrusted with.

We just pray blessing upon all that you're going to do today and into tomorrow and even into the days and weeks and months to come. We ask all this in Jesus name. Amen.

If you're ready to take a step of faith and finally finish your book, we have a few ways we can help you. First of all, you can join our free Writing Week challenge to create a writing habit in just 15 minutes a day. Thousands of writers have taken this over the years and it is incredible the progress that you'll see. So join us at Writing Week. And again, this is completely free Inside our Book Writing Lab workshop. You can choose your book topic, write an outline and create a writing plan in just 90 minutes so you'll finally feel confident that you'll actually finish your book. Get started@bookwritinglab.com and finally, you can get more support and personalized feedback from myself and our team by joining Christian Book Academy. And because the honest truth is most writers stay stuck and never finish their first draft. But inside Christian Book Academy, we help you partner with God to write your book so you can become a published author. So finally, ditch your self doubt and take a step of faith so you can finish your book. Join Christian book academy@christianbookacademy.com and get 50% off your first month by using the Coupon Code Podcast at checkout. There's a special coupon code for our podcast listeners. We love you, so come over to ChristianBookAcademy.com, use the coupon Code Podcast and we look forward to working closely with you.

Thank you for listening to this episode of Kingdom Writers. We believe that you, as a Christian writer have a specific role to play in the Kingdom of Heaven to impact lives for eternity.

And because of this, we choose to pour out our lives into encouraging writers like you to not only tell your stories, but to take the courageous step of self publishing your stories in books that will outlive you and leave behind a powerful legacy. This podcast is sponsored by Christian Book Academy where we help you give bright birth to your books. We invite you to join our community of Kingdom writers.