 Hey guys, what's up? It's Isaac and in today's video I'm going to be talking about three really difficult things about doing ministry and kind of my ministry journey. I also want to let you know that this video is done as a collab with Samuel Perez and his ministry United 12. He has made a video very similar to this one and I'm leaving the link to it in my description. He's going to be talking about his ministry journey and some of the difficult things that he comes across in his own ministry journey. He creates awesome content and he's a real gift of encouragement. He loves Jesus and so encourage you check out his channel check out the video in my description after you watch this one. Okay, on with today's video. So the first thing the first difficult thing about doing ministry and this is this is me personally like there's lots of different ways that you can do ministry and there's lots of different ways and difficulties that come into it depending on what kind of ministry you're doing. So for me, a lot of the ministry that I do, yeah, it's in the local church as well, but a lot of it is online, creating content, resources, blog posts, that kind of thing. So I'm going to get into that kind of world. The first one is the feelings of inadequacy and feeling ill equipped. And I think no matter what kind of ministry you're in, you felt this to some extent because you're never totally equipped for whatever you're doing. You're never totally you feel adequate in what you're doing. And I think that's where we should be as Christians. We should be in that spot where it's like, I don't have everything I need here. So then we can look at God and say, God, I feel weak. I feel incomplete. I feel inadequate. Can you help me? Can you be here with me? Can you minister to me as I minister to others? Can you be here? Like that is that is amazing thing that we can be able to ask God, say, God, I need your help in this because if we felt totally equipped and felt totally, you know, never felt inadequate, then we would just kind of push God aside and we do our own thing because we're like, well, I'm good, I'll be good. But no, God has prepared us for this work. He said, look, go and I will be there with you. God's going to be there with us, but we need to step out there boldly and do it. And that's something difficult that I've had to deal with is just this feeling like, I don't, I don't know what I'm doing. And that's part of the where authenticity comes in where I say to you guys, and I say this, it's like, I don't get everything right. I don't know everything. I'm just learning and growing and sharing that with you guys as I learn and grow. And I think that is a good place to be. The second difficult thing about ministry is discouragement. And to be honest, for the last kind of, I don't know, month or so, I felt like I've kind of been in a season of discouragement and just kind of feeling a little bit down about the whole thing. And not that I'm like, oh, giving up or it's time to hand in the towel. But there are seasons where it comes easier and then other seasons where you feel a little bit discouraged and maybe, you know, the things that really encourage you, they weren't there or something, whatever it is. They're just seasons that are discouraging. And I think that's okay to acknowledge in ministry that those do happen. And I think that is just the way that God has designed it. So in the midst of those kind of discouraging seasons, we can continue to look to God and pursue Him. If everything was always up all the time, if we're like, yeah, this is great. This is great. I'm doing fantastic. Everything is going great. There's no discouragement. I feel totally encouraged. I think there could be a tendency to get prideful or boastful or, you know, and I think the fact that, yeah, some seasons are kind of discouraging. It brings us down to go back to what we're doing this for. What are we doing ministry for? We're doing it for God to honor Him, to serve Him, to be a witness for His kingdom. And that's where my heart is. So even in the midst of discouragement, we can look back at Jesus and say, God, look, I'm discouraged, but I know why I'm doing this. I know I'm doing this for you. It's not about any kind of exterior results or, you know, any of the fame or power or whatever that goes along with success in this realm. No, it's for you, God, and it's to be a witness for your kingdom. The third thing is, and this is more specific to kind of online, but not really actually, is obsessing about the numbers. Whenever you're in ministry, I feel like there can be a tendency and a temptation to look at people, number of people as a validating source for your work. For me, it could be looking at a video and saying, oh, this video got this many views. Therefore, my work is validated because that many people saw it. Or, oh, this video only got this many views. That means it didn't really mean anything or it wasn't worthwhile or I wasted my time or it was meaningless. I think we can fall into this trap even if you're doing like a Bible study and not as many people are showing up and you might feel, oh, is this even, you know, is this a waste of time? Is this still meaningful? All that kind of thing. But I think what's important is to not obsess about the numbers. At the end of the day, we're called to be witnesses. We're called to go. We're called to be bold for God and to preach the gospel and to disciple. It's not about, oh, masses of people so then other people can look at you and say, wow, that guy's really doing something. It's about that individual person that you're touching on a day-to-day basis and able to impact their life and able to encourage and challenge them. It's about one person. It's not about, oh, the hundreds or thousands or tens or whatever it is. It's about one. It's about one person that you are impacting and that you are encouraging and challenging and really discipling in this. And that's what's important. It's not about the numbers. It's about honoring God in the midst of our ministry. Because if we get obsessed with the numbers, if I only had this amount of numbers or, you know what, I just need this many views or I just need this many people coming to my church or this many people at my Bible study, we lose focus to what our goal is. And it's not about, oh, let's get all the people together just so then I can feel validated. No, it's about being able to impact that one person. Well, guys, that was today's video. That was a little bit of insight into ministry. And I would like to hear from you guys if you are in some kind of ministry, whether that's at your local church or online or whatever it is, I'd like to hear what are the difficult things that you have encountered and how do you deal with them. Once again, this video was done as a collab with Samuel Perez from United 12. I'm leaving his video, which is going to be similar to this one, link in my description. So I encourage you to watch that video, leave him a comment and subscribe to his channel. I want to give a huge shout out to my patrons on Patreon. You guys are awesome. I really appreciate your support. And if you want to help me do what I'm doing here and make it so I can be able to do this full time, because that's my goal. I would love it if you would support me on patreon.com. And that's the place where you can support this ministry and be able to help me make the content that I make, because I'm really passionate about making content for people to help them follow Jesus more passionately. So anyway, if you want to help me out and support me on there, you can do that link in description as well. Thanks so much for watching, guys, and I'll see you next time. See ya!