How do you trust the Spirit of God's Word? Men who love God's Word, and they want to do a great job for the Lord, and they want to see the Lord use them in ministry, all of that is noble, and it's great. But a man must really come to grips with whether they trust the work of the Spirit of God through His Word.

If they do not trust that, but think that they do, they're going to be tested in it. Because in the end, ministry life is going to be coming at them as it always does with the challenges, the difficulties, the trials, the burdens, plus the weekly cycle of ministry. But what gets you through all that is this implicit trust in the work of the Word of God, in people's lives, both in private admonition and public proclamation.

And when the seats are empty or whether they're full, you're not putting your eyes on yourself. You're just saying, "Lord, you do your work. I don't want any more people here or souls here to care for than you want me to have in any season. I don't want any less because of something sinful in me.

I just want to trust the work of the Word of God in people's lives.