Am I Called to Ministry? Five Tests

00:00:00.000 | (music)

00:00:04.000 | Hello and welcome back, and thank you for making the podcast a part of your week.

00:00:08.000 | We started this week on Monday looking at flashy

00:00:12.000 | pastors who flaunt their wealth. What should we make of them?

00:00:16.000 | There, Pastor John briefly mentioned a text in 2 Corinthians

00:00:20.000 | where Paul says that we are not like so many peddlers

00:00:24.000 | of God's Word. That's verse 17. It's a

00:00:28.000 | memorable phrase, but that whole section is valuable for anyone

00:00:32.000 | called to ministry. It offers up 5 tests to help you discern whether

00:00:36.000 | you have been called to be a minister of the Gospel. It's a

00:00:40.000 | very high calling. It's high because ministers are,

00:00:44.000 | Paul says, "the aroma of Christ to God

00:00:48.000 | among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing

00:00:52.000 | to one a fragrance from death to death, to

00:00:56.000 | the other a fragrance from life to life." That's 2 Corinthians 2

00:01:00.000 | verses 15 and 16. Gospel ministry

00:01:04.000 | is not about becoming a creator. Gospel ministry

00:01:08.000 | is not about making content. Gospel ministry

00:01:12.000 | is telling sinners, "Come with me and live

00:01:16.000 | or turn away and die." The

00:01:20.000 | stakes are that high. Here's Pastor John to paint an especially

00:01:24.000 | sobering picture of what the ministry represents.

00:01:28.000 | If you knew that tomorrow you were going

00:01:32.000 | to go to Nicolet Mall and walk down

00:01:36.000 | among all those people, and as you walked

00:01:40.000 | some would get behind you and walk with you and be saved

00:01:44.000 | and everybody else would drop dead. Everybody.

00:01:48.000 | Would that feel heavy?

00:01:52.000 | Would you want to go there? Wouldn't you be tempted

00:01:56.000 | to say, "I don't think I can do that.

00:02:00.000 | Who is sufficient for these things? I'm going to be a divider of the human race

00:02:04.000 | in India. Who

00:02:08.000 | can bear this?" That's the question that he asks

00:02:12.000 | in verse 16 at the end. Who is sufficient

00:02:16.000 | for these things? Now in

00:02:20.000 | one sense, of course, the answer is nobody.

00:02:24.000 | But that's not Paul's answer here.

00:02:28.000 | He said in chapter 1 verse 12 that by the grace of God he had this ministry.

00:02:32.000 | He said that also in Romans 1 verse 5. And here

00:02:36.000 | in chapter 3 verse 5, just drop down six verses to chapter 3

00:02:40.000 | verse 5, and you see our sufficiency,

00:02:44.000 | this is at the end of verse 5, our sufficiency is from

00:02:48.000 | God. So no, nobody is sufficient

00:02:52.000 | in themselves. There are no sufficient missionaries, no sufficient pastors,

00:02:56.000 | no sufficient anybody who's following Jesus. We all lean

00:03:00.000 | like cripples on God.

00:03:04.000 | So I think one of the most crucial questions now that you can

00:03:08.000 | ask yourself as we come toward the end of this service

00:03:12.000 | is whether you can do this.

00:03:16.000 | Can I do this? Can I

00:03:20.000 | bear the weight of being the aroma

00:03:24.000 | from life to life? Yes, that would be glorious. And death

00:03:28.000 | to death, that would be almost unbearable.

00:03:32.000 | So can you do it? And the answer, I believe, is

00:03:36.000 | given in whether you deal with verse 17 a certain

00:03:40.000 | way. Paul gives here

00:03:44.000 | five tests to help

00:03:48.000 | you know whether you can do this.

00:03:52.000 | And I'm going to take these five tests and turn them into

00:03:56.000 | questions and close with those

00:04:00.000 | five questions. So these are five questions

00:04:04.000 | for everyone, and how you

00:04:08.000 | answer them, I think, will encourage you that

00:04:12.000 | by God's grace you can do this.

00:04:16.000 | Number one, do you treasure Christ

00:04:20.000 | enough so that you don't peddle

00:04:24.000 | His Word? For we are

00:04:28.000 | not, like so many, peddlers

00:04:32.000 | of God's Word. We don't sell

00:04:36.000 | the Word of God. That means

00:04:40.000 | we love Christ more than we love money. We don't

00:04:44.000 | love money and use Christ. We love Christ

00:04:48.000 | and can let money go. That's the first question.

00:04:52.000 | Do you love Christ more than you

00:04:56.000 | love money? Question number two.

00:05:00.000 | Now here the next four questions come in four

00:05:04.000 | phrases which strictly, grammatically

00:05:08.000 | modify the word "speak." So

00:05:12.000 | it's literally, "We speak from sincerity.

00:05:16.000 | We speak from God. We speak

00:05:20.000 | before God. We speak in Christ." That's the

00:05:24.000 | four next questions. So let's take them one at a time, turn them into questions.

00:05:28.000 | One, or two, will you

00:05:32.000 | speak from sincerity?

00:05:36.000 | That is, will you mean what you say?

00:05:40.000 | Will you renounce all sham,

00:05:44.000 | all pretense, all need to look like what

00:05:48.000 | you're not? Will you be real?

00:05:52.000 | Question number three, will you

00:05:56.000 | speak from God? Translated in the ESV,

00:06:00.000 | "commissioned by God." That's one meaning.

00:06:04.000 | Will you speak from God? That is, will you take His Word and speak it, not

00:06:08.000 | your own word? Will you take His authority and speak it, not your own

00:06:12.000 | authority? Will you take His wisdom, power, and

00:06:16.000 | live in it, not your own wisdom and power? Will you always

00:06:20.000 | look away to His Word, power, wisdom?

00:06:24.000 | Lean on Him. Be from Him.

00:06:28.000 | Question number four, will you speak

00:06:32.000 | as before God? Which I think

00:06:36.000 | means, will you count Him to be your judge

00:06:40.000 | and no man? That is,

00:06:44.000 | will you fear no man and know that

00:06:48.000 | God alone is the one to whom you give account? Will you play

00:06:52.000 | to one audience and not worry

00:06:56.000 | about what other people say? Will you not be deterred

00:07:00.000 | by the criticism of other people, but only look away

00:07:04.000 | to your Father and by His Word discern His approval

00:07:08.000 | before God? Finally,

00:07:12.000 | will you speak in Christ?

00:07:16.000 | That is, will you get your identity from being in Christ?

00:07:20.000 | Will you get your assurance before God from being in Christ? I promise

00:07:24.000 | you, if you're wired like John Piper, every day you will go to bed

00:07:28.000 | uncertain whether you lived your life the way you should. Every day.

00:07:32.000 | Because I have so many options.

00:07:36.000 | A constant, selective neglect

00:07:40.000 | of good things is what my life seems to be made up of.

00:07:44.000 | Have I made good choices? How can I sleep

00:07:48.000 | in Christ? Is my only hope for going to bed

00:07:52.000 | with any peace at all. How else can you live

00:07:56.000 | in Christ for your assurance, in Christ

00:08:00.000 | for your hope, in Christ for your confidence, in Christ for your courage,

00:08:04.000 | everything flowing from the union with Christ?

00:08:08.000 | There are no perfect missionaries.

00:08:12.000 | The answer to these questions, I hope, in all of your hearts

00:08:16.000 | was something like this. "Yes, in as much

00:08:20.000 | as I know my own heart, that's my longing, that's my

00:08:24.000 | commitment. There are folds and contours

00:08:28.000 | of my heart where hidden things lie. I know. Cleanse me

00:08:32.000 | from hidden faults, but in as much as I know my own heart, yes

00:08:36.000 | to those questions. Help me to love you more than money.

00:08:40.000 | Help me to be real and sincere. Help me to speak

00:08:44.000 | your word. Help me to fear no man. Help me to get

00:08:48.000 | all I need from being in Christ." Yes.

00:08:52.000 | I hope this ministry pushes you back onto the sufficiency of Christ.

00:08:56.000 | It's a sobering word here. I pulled this clip from a sermon on missions delivered

00:09:00.000 | on October 29th, 2006, titled "The Aroma of Christ

00:09:04.000 | Among the Nations." It's online on the site in both audio

00:09:08.000 | and video format. If you have a sermon clip to share with me,

00:09:12.000 | email me and give me your name, hometown, the sermon title, the time stamp of where the clip

00:09:16.000 | happens in the audio, and make a note of what stands out to you. Put the word "clip" in the subject line of an email

00:09:20.000 | and send it to me at askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org. That's an email

00:09:24.000 | address, askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org.

00:09:28.000 | Well, as you can imagine, when one spouse gets saved

00:09:32.000 | and the other spouse does not, it leads to new tensions

00:09:36.000 | inside of the home, and one of those tensions will be the topic on the table on Friday.

00:09:40.000 | I am your host, Tony Rehnke, and we are rejoined in studio with Pastor John

00:09:44.000 | to end the week on Friday. See you then.

00:09:48.000 | [Silence]

00:09:50.000 | [Silence]

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Am I Called to Ministry? Five Tests

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