Acts: A Pastor’s Calling

If you have your Bible. Is I hope that you do,

if you'll turn with me to Acts, Acts chapter twenty.

Today we're turned back to our study in the Book

of Acts, Acts chapter twenty. It was starting verse seventeen.

This morning, Acts twenty first seventeen, God ever called you

to something. I was seventeen years old and God began

calling me. I remember when I was really young. Actually

I don't remember this. My mom has told me this

and other family members. But when I was really young,

the pastor of the church that I grew up in

came to my mom one day and says, I think

God's got a calling on him, that God's going to

call him to be a pastor one day. I don't

remember that. I just know she's told me that. When

I was seventeen, God began working in my heart and

become I'm going into the ministry as a sixteen year old,

seventeen year old, let's be honest, being in high school,

it wasn't cool to be a preacher one day, So

I ask you what you're going to be one day?

A preacher? You know, everybody's like, oh, that's really cool,

you know, And I was a little bit you know

it's being And I was in a public school and

being outspoken for your faith was hard enough. Nevertheless, to

say one day I'm going to be a preacher. And

so I didn't think it was popular. I didn't think

it was cool, but God was working on me. I

was a senior in high school. I remember it was

a Sunday night at First Batist Sydyantroil, which my home church,

and that night God spoke to me and God called

me in the ministry. I don't know what pastor Mike,

preacher Mike spoke on that night. I can just tell

you that that night, I can tell you where I

was sitting in the balcony of that sanctuary and God

called me to be a pastor. And it didn't matter

whether I felt like it was cool or not. God

called me, and I surrendered to what God was calling

me to do. Listen, over the last few months, we

as a church on every Thursday at one o'clock, we've

been praying together, and we've been praying together as a

church that God would raise up and set apart for

us men called by God that would go out and

be missionaries to be pastors. This is what we've been

praying for today as we come to acts, Paul's talking

about his calling. He's talking about what God's called him

to do, what God called him as a pastor, as

an apostle, and he's talking to other pastors. He's talking

to other elders. Over the next few weeks, we're going

to look at a series about a pastor's calling. And

I pray, I really believe this. I could tell you this,

God is calling some men in this church in the

leadership roles. I can tell you that I've seen the

hand of God on some of you. I've seen the

calling of God on some of you. And over these

next few weeks, I pray that just as God sought me,

and that on that Sunday night, that God would seek

some of you. And I pray you have been what

we've been praying for for months, for months as a church.

I pray that you would sense the surrender the call

of God. I pray that over the next few months

that we'll see men surrender to God's calling. Some God

may call to be a pastor. We need elders here

at our church. Let's say the way it is, we've

had the same elders, the same four elders for my

eight years here. That's not our intentions and it's not

our desires as elders. We want future elders that God

raise up among our church, and they're right here among us.

And it's going to take some of you saying, you

know what, God's calling me something, then it's time for

me to accept the calling. And so this morning, God,

I want to sit over the next few weeks, consider

God's calling on others and consider whether God's calling you

where God's calling you to serve. Maybe it's not a pastor,

Maybe it's not an elder. Maybe it's a deacon, Maybe

it's a missionary, maybe it's a growth group leader. Maybe

God's calling you to serve in some capacity here. I

ask you to pray over that. Would you commit to

meet with me over the next few weeks as we

go through this series, that you'll pray that God would

raise up leaders among us, that God would set apart

men and that we might raise them up, that we

might send them out. My prayer one of my long

term visions and goals, that God would call a pastor

here and under our ministry we'll be able to raise

them up. We'll be able to send them out. We'd

be able to send out missionaries all over this all

over this world, right from among us. Would so, would

you commit and pray over that for the next few weeks.

I remind you of the passage we've been praying, Acts thirteen.

This is where the church did this. At the Early

Church Acts Antioch, Syria. They as a church committed to

pray and fast that God would set apart men from

them leaders among them. This is what scripture says they did.

And while they were worshiping the Lord, just like we're

worshiping the Lord, the many of them fasted, and the

Holy Spirit said, set apart for me, Barnabas, and saw

for the work of which I called them. Then, after

fasting and praying, they laid their hands on them and

they sent them off. That's what I pray to as

we worship together, that we'll pray, God set set apart

men for us, set apart men for the calling that

You've placed upon them. Would you pray with me about

every eye close and right now, let's take a time

corporately as a church to pray. Just let that early

church pray. God set apart God, you're calling some people

right here among us watching online TV. God's calling some

people today, And would you say, today, Lord, set apart

those men. It may we as a church, since God,

you setting people apart, that we might one day send

them out right now, would you pray that Father? I

thank you Lord for this morning. I thank you Lord

that you allow us to come together as One of

our functions as a church is to pray together corporately.

And God we corporately. We come together God, and we

ask Lord, Father, Lord, call men from among here, call

missionaries from among here, call pastors, elders, deacons, teachers. God,

may you raise up leaders among us and God, as

you call, Lord, even though it may be not popular

and not be comfortable or maybe what we want to do. God,

I pray today that will lay aside our ambitions and

God will follow your calling. So Lord, set apart from

among us leaders that will serve you faithfully. Lord, We

love you God. I pray today that for the message

that you've put on my heart, Lord, I pray that

to be annoying on my lips would not be of me,

would be of you, and Lord. The words that I

would declare would not be my own, but yours and Lord,

I pray today that the people would hear not my word,

but God, may that hear yours. May they hear the

conviction of the spirit. May they hear the moving of

the Spirit. And Lord, I pray they be those who

would surrender Lord to you. Lord. We love you. We

thank you Lord for your word today and your name.

We pray Amen. Hacts Chapter twenty. This morning, as we

come to Acts Chapter twenty, Paul is the last time

we were gathering Acts, he was in He was in

Troas and he was there for a week and he

preached there, and there after Troas he leaves there. He's

got a travel companions of different leaders throughout the different

churches and the second missionary journey. He's got them with

them when they're headed to Jerusalem. But on their way

they stop in this city. It's a port city, a

coastal town is called Miletus, and they're in Mile Tess.

As we see this morning, Paul had been in Ephesus

for three years. Just above Mile TuS a is Ephesus.

He calls to the church in Ephesus and he tells

all the elders in Ephesus to come to Miletus, that

he wants to speak to them. And in as we

come to verse seventeen, this morning, we see a long

discourse or our message or sermon that Paul gives to

these elders of Ephesus. These are elders, church leaders to

the church in emphasis, and he gives them a challenge.

And over the next few sundays, we're going to study

his message to them. Today we're going to focus on

a pastor's calling and look at the pastor's calling us

Paul talks. The next week we're going to look at

how a pastor's surrender and how Paul surrendered to God's

leading of his life and leading of his ministry. And

finally we're going to look at a pastor's warning, Paul's

warning to these elders in the leaders of the church.

And so that's what we're going to look at the

next few weeks. But this morning, I want you to

see Paul understands what his calling is as an apostles,

his calling as a pastor, and he wants to remind

them of this calling. And I pray today as we

look at these few verses here, as Paul begins, may

we look to what is a pastor's calling, and look

at these different aspects of a pastor's calling. Were you

stay with me, Unlet's read God's word together. It's Acts

Chapter twenty. We'll start in verse seventeen a pastor's calling script.

This is the word of the Lord. Now from Miletus.

He's sent to Ephesus, and he called the elders of

the church to come to him. And when they came

to him, he said to them, you yourselves know how

I lived among you the whole time, from the first

day I set foot in Asia, serving the Lord with

all humility, with tears, and with trials that happened to

me through the plot of the Jews. How I did

not shrink from declaring to you anything that was probable,

in teaching you in public and from house to house,

testing fighting both to the Jews and the Greeks, of

repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord, Jesus Christ.

You may be seated, Paul, as it comes to this

passage you again, you see, as I just mentioned here,

he's in Miletus, He's in the coastal town. He doesn't

go all the way into Ephesus. He tells the leaders

to come down to where he is, and he just

wants a private moment, if you will, just with the leaders,

just with the elders. Now, I think it's important as

you come to this passage to understand Paul is describing

the leadership structure of the early Church here. And it's

evident that Paul has put elders to lead the churches

there in Ephesus. And we have elders here and that's

important part. We need pastors, we need pastors through staff,

but we need lay elders who will lead the church.

And that's the that's kind of our structure here as well.

And so he understands importance of these elders and understand

the portance of this pastor. By the word in the

by the way, in the Greek, the word elder is

another term Presbyterialists. We also see it in First Peter five.

It is the term that's many times uses. There's there's

different terms. They're all used in the English different ways,

but this is the same Greek word. It's used as overseer,

it's used as elder. Paul, I mean First Peter, and

First Peter five talks about elders, and he talked he

calls them shepherds. Do you know in the Latin the

word shepherd is the word pastor Paul, And we're gonna

look at that passage in a minute. But here you're

he sees I don't you understand? He sees pastors and

elders interchangeably, there's not a distinction. He sees them as

the same. These are the ones who are in charge

of leading the churches there. He reminds them he's writing

these words. He's speaking to them, not writing, he's speaking

to them, and he wants to encourage these elders. He

wants to encourage these pastors. He starts off by his

encouragement to them and verse eighteen, this is when they

came to him, he said to them. This is what

he says to them. You yourselves know how I lived

among you the whole time, from the first day that

I set foot in Asia. Paul brings these elders together

and he wants to encourage them. By the way we're

going to see later on and probably the weeks to come,

Paul understands that these are his last words. You know,

the last words are important, right, I mean, if you

have lost loved ones and you can remember there are

last words to you. Paul knows that these are the

very last time he will ever speak to these see

these elders face to face again. He's leading, He's headed

to Jerusalem. He knows God's called him there. He knows

he'll never being back in Ephesus again. He'll never see

these Ephesian elders again. And so these words are very

important to him and his first words, of his last

words to these elders. As you remember how I lived,

He goes back. He Al says, you remember how I lived,

but you remember how I lived from the very first

day I set foot in Ephesus. Paul spent three years

in Ephesus, and Paul says, hey, you remember from the

very first day I came to the very last day

when I left, You remember my lifestyle. And what he's

talking about is he's reminding them of the example of

how he lived for Jesus before them. I love the

imagery of this passage because he's saying from the first day,

he says, listen, it's been a consistent example. My life

and the way I've lived for Jesus has not changed

into three years. You've watched me. You remember my example.

Listening a pastor's calling. A pastor is called to be first,

He's called to be an example. Paul understood that. You know,

as I came there and as I ministered among the epheses,

one of my callings that's called by God is I'm

called to be an example. And I wanted you for

the last three years to examine my life, to look

over my life, to see my life as an example

of how you should live for the Lord. And my

life and how I've lived for the Lord hasn't changed in

three years. I'm the same man today as it was

three years ago. Paul understood that a calling of a

pastor is a calling to be an example. He wants

to remember his example. And I want you to understand this.

He not only wants to remember his example, he wants

them to follow it. Now that I'm going, now that

I'm leaving, I want you to follow my example. Can

I tell you? This was a consistent theme for Paul.

Paul says in First Cessonians. It's one of his first

letters he wrote to churches. Glatians is first. A second

letter that Paul I believe wrote was Thessalonians and to

the church at Thessalaikah, he writes in First Theessonians two eight.

He talks about his ministry to them when he was

in thessa Aikah. This is the way, he says. He says, so,

being affectionately desirous for you, we were ready to share

with you not only the gospel of God, but also

our own selves. He says, Listen, when we came to Thessalaikah,

I just didn't stand in a pull pit and just

preach to you. No. I not only shared the word

of God, but I shared my life with you. I've

lived before you, all walked before you. Paul understood that

it's important that people not only hear the word of

God from pastors and elders, but they see the Word

of God at work in their life, them living out

their faith. They don't just talk the talk, they walk

the walk. Paul understood that. He tells Timothy, this young

pastor who one day, by the way pastors the church

in Ephis He tells Timothy and one Timothy four, Timothy,

let no one despise you of your youth. But Timothy,

but set the believers an example, an example in your

speech in conduct, in love, in faith, and purity. Paul

understands that he was Aliby's life before people, not only

teach the word of God, but live it among them.

He told Timothy. Timothy, set an example to your flock.

He tells the Corinthians, another church. He writes to he says,

imitate me as I imitate Christ. Paul understood that if

a pastor is called by God, one of the callings

upon a pastor is a pastors to be an example.

I love Peter. One of my favorite passages about a

pastors is First Peter five. Peter also believed this was

Peter was an apostle. Peter says, it is to the

elders and the pastors. He says, so I exhort you,

the elders among you, as fellow elders and the witness

of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker

in the glory that's to be revealed, Shepherd the flock

of God that is among you. Exercise oversight, not under compulsion,

but willingly, as God would have you, not for shameful game,

but eagerly, not domineering over those are in charge. But

listen what he says here in verse three. But being

an example to flock. Listen. We need God calling pastors

among our among us here today, elders and the elders

who said, I feel like God's calling me a pastor.

And I know part of that calling is I need

to be an example. I need to be an example

of a godly man or what it means that lift

for the Lord. It's not just what I preach or

what I say. It's about how I live. And I

want to accept that calling. God's calling me to be

something special, set apart for God. You know, just this

week I had lost my truck keys and I had

a little keyfob, you know, key fob unlocks the door.

I lost that I didn't have but one. So got

on you know, like everybody does. I got Amazon and

order me one. And so I got that little key

fob in and it didn't have any it didn't really

have any good instructions of how to program it. So

what did I do what everybody does. I got on YouTube,

you know, put in the truck model it was, and

there was a guy who had a fob just like mine,

and he's got in his truck just like mine, and

he showed me by example how to do it and

I followed his example and it worked. And that's what

we do right. There's things in our life we're trying

to figure out how to do something and we look

for an example. Can I tell you the church needs

to be a place when people say, I want to

be a man of God, I want to be a

woman of God. I want to leave my family to

love God. I want to leave be a spiritual leader

of my home. How do I do that? I go

to church, and I go to the church and I

see the examples of the elders and the pastors of

that church and their example to me of how I

should love God and serve God. And we know we

need we need elders, we need pastors who says, you know,

I'm willing to accept that calling. God's calling me to

be that example. I know that's hard. I know that's difficult.

I know that means I'm going to live in a

glass house and everybody's gonna examine everything I say and do.

But God's calling me to it. You know, there's bad

examples online of how the wrong way to do things right.

And I hate to say it, but there's been some

bad examples by pastors through the years. I remember, and

I've told you this story before, but I remember of

pastor in South carol Line. One time his wife was

being promiscuous in the in the community. Everybody in the

community knew about her lifestyle. His children were having parties

at the parsonage. The deacons went to the pastors and said, Pastor,

you know there's concerns about your family. Your wife, things

that she's doing out in the community. Your children, they're

having parties while you're out of town at the parsonage,

and the church know about that. The pastor, I think,

you know this is a concern. This is not the example,

and this is what the pastors said to him. The

pastors said that the deacons, you know, what I do

in my personal life is separate from what I do

in the church. And as long as I preach, as

long as I do what I'm supposed to do on

Sunday morning, is what I do, and my personal life

is a different matter. Listen, that is not biblical, and

it's not biblical for our pastor, for an elder. But

listen to me here today. Church family is not biblical

for any of us. The pastors are the examples that

you are an example to follow. But many times, listen,

there's there's we. I feel like there's a hesitation by

many to say I want to surrender to God's calling.

Because reality is there's many that it's not willing to say.

You know what, I'm willing to walk the walk and

talk the talk. There's some things in my life. There's

some skeletons in my life right now, pastor, and I

feel like God's calling me, but there's some things in

my personal life that are not honoring God. And what's

holding you back from following God? To some things that

you don't want to let go? And there's some times

today listen, God's calling you, and it's time today to say,

you know what, I'm willing to I'm ready. God, You're

calling me to surrender, and that means surrendered my life

to you. And I'm willing to let go of some

things that are in my life that are not honoring

you today. So I ask you, I just plead with

you today Listen, we need godly men called by God

who says, you know what, I'm willing to be an example,

a godly example of speech and how you're to use

your mouth in a godly way. I want to be

a godly example and how I conduct my life. I

want to do that. I want to be that for

people in this church. I want to be a godly

example of how to love others, how to love a

wife well, how you love your children well, how to

love the church family well, how to love the loss.

I want to be a godly example of faith, a

man who loves God and lives by faith. I want

to be a godly example of purity. What it means

to be a man of God who lived holy, set

up heart for God. We need men who says I

don't want to give God a little bit on Sunday,

but I want to have my own personal stuff on

and well, we need men of God called by God.

It says God, I wanted the example in church and

outside of the church for you. He was called a pastor,

called to the example. He was called to serve. Paul says, boy,

if y'all borrow the brag lunch, I'm fired up today. Woo.

We may be here all day. God, God, wake up people,

wake up. Amen. Every once in a while would be

good help out in the freacher, all right, call to

the example. Secondly, called to serve, let's go. What Paul

says this is verse seventeen, says you verse eighteen, you

yourself to know how I lived among you the whole time,

the first day I set foot in Asia, serving the

Lord with all humility, with tears, with trials that happened

to me, through the plots of the Jews. Paul's calling

them to remember how he lived in those three years.

One of the ways he wants to remember how he served.

I love this passage because when we think about pastors,

we think about elders. We think, well, he's the pastor

of Bethesda. He's an elder at Bethesda, he's a deacon

Bethesda or whatever. He's a leader at Bethesda, and many

times we attach that role to the church in which

they are at. Paul identifies his service not to a church,

but to the Lord. But somebody says, serving what the

Lord listen to me today. I mean this with all

due respect. I may be the pastor at Bethesda Baptist Church,

and I may be in many eyes employed by Bethesda

Baptist Church. But the work that I do in preaching

the Word of God and doing all the things that

I do as a pastor of Bethesda, my service is

not to Bethesda. My service is to the Lord. And

I need to understand that as a pastor, my preaching,

everything that I do is not to punch a clock

or to do a job. What I do is to

be in service to the Lord. Everything that I do.

And can I tell you that, pastors and elders and deacons,

what everything you do at Bethesda should be done and

not service to an organization, should be in service and

to the Lord. And that's what Paul says. You remember

how I serve the Lord. He doesn't say you remember

how I served Ephesis or I serve No, I serve

the Lord. The preaching I did, in and out, everywhere

I did, the care that I did, all those different

things was in service to the Lord. And listen to

what he says here and how he served the Lord.

But listen how he served the Lord. He served the Lord.

He describes his service to the Lord, serving with all humility,

with tears, with trials. Listen to this, no matter how

much the fame of what God was doing in Ephesis.

And we saw that over the last few weeks, Paul

had become a name for himself. Even so, the Sons

of Skiva was calling out, maybe you do this in

the name of Jesus, and also Paul, so he had

become a name for himself in Ephesus. But Paul says, listen,

it was never about my name. It was all about

the name of the Lord. He served the Lord of humility.

But not only he's served in the Lord of humility,

but the scripture describes he served the Lord with tears

and with trials. He says, we understand, and just kind

of give you a quick overview of what's happened here.

We understand that in those three years in Ephesus, Paul

endured many trials, and we know that because he writes

about those in other letters. We understand he faced physical

trials and he faced emotional trials. Physical trials was in

Second Corinthians eight he talks about the physical trials. He says,

for we don't want you to be unaware, brothers, of

the affliction we experience in Asia, for we so utterly

burdened be beyond our strength, that we despaired life itself. Indeed,

we felt that we received the sentence of death. But

that was to make us not rely on ourselves but

on God, who raises from the dead. He delivered us

from listen to this, from such deadly peril that he

will deliver and he will deliver us. And on him

we've set our hope and he will deliver us again.

Paul described that the persecution that he faced in emphasis

that he felt like at times the persecution was so

strong from the Jews it felt like a death sentence.

He didn't know if he was gonna make it or not.

He faced physical trials, we also know he suffered emotional trials. Paul.

Why I was in Ephicoit had a ongoing relationship correspondence

as you will, with the church at Corinth. Corinth was

a very sexual moral area city and there was a

lot of sexual reality in the church, and particularly there

was a man in the church who had an sexual

in moral relationship. Paul writes a letter to Krinth and

he tells them that they need to practice church discipline

on this sexual moral brother this in the church. You

need to either he needs to repent or you need

to put him out of the church. The church struggled

with that. There was a leader in the church, a

very prominent leader in the church, that didn't like Paul's

view on church discipline and really stood up against Paul

in front of everybody. Paul writes a letter why he's

at Ephesus, telling them, is time for you as a

church to stand for the word of God. Don't stand

for a popular opinion. You need to stand for what

God's word says about sin. He writes this letter to them,

And as he writes this letter, he's internal, He's worried.

He's worried about whether this church is going to obey

the word of God or whether it's going to turn

the wrong way. And so Scripture describes that in his

turmil of this he had anxiety over this church. He

worried about them, He had fear over them. Paul describes

us in Second Corinthians as he writes another letter letter

on just but he describes his anxiousness. He says, and

second Corinthians two twelve, when I came to troll us

just to preach the Gospel of Christ, even though the

door was opened to me in the Lord, my spirit

was not at rest because I did not find my bird.

Is Titus there? He had sent Titus with the letter,

and Titus was after he gave the letter telling them

to put the practice church discipline. He would give a

report and come back to Paul and tell them, tell

Paul how the church was doing. He goes to trow

Us and Titus is not there, and Paul is anxious.

He's worried. He describes us again and Second Corinthians seven

five and six. He says, even when we came to

Macedonia's bodies had no rest. We were reflected to every

term fighting without, fighting without, and fear within. Paul talks

about the fear that he had. Can I tell you

sometimes it seems like, I know many think that pastors

have the easy road. What do you do, prass Are

you only work one day a week some days the

only day he works? Six other days a week? You

have you don't you get? What do you do? Just

hang out in the office and twitter your thumbs And

I mean, Paesssor's got a easy job. But I can

tell you you're calling a pastor. If you follow the

Lord and you follow God's calling, it's not easy calling.

I'll never forget as long as I live. Standing outside

of Langston Batish Church in Conways, South Carolina, and a

pastor talked to me and he pulled me aside, and

he said, Johnathan He said, you need to be prepared.

You're following God's calling. And he said, Satan's going to

come after you. Satan's going to come outter your family.

Satan's going to come after your church. Satan's going to

come after your children. And you need to be on

guard against Satan's attack because he is coming after you

if you follow God. And can I tell you he

is right. I can tell your story after story after

story of how Satan attack has has salt to attack me.

Following the Lord, There's going to be trials if you

follow God's calling, There'll be trials in your life. There

will be trials and your family and you will, as

a man of God, say I'm going to follow God

no matter how hard the trials get. I'm gonna follow

God's calling for me. Can I tell you there will

be a lot of tears, God, I tell you I

have can't tell you the times. I remember one time

I was praying, I've told you the story before. I

was praying that for lostness. I was praying that people

would get saved in our church. We hadn't seen a

lot of salvations. We were my first church in South Carolina.

I was praying, praying, praying, God lead people to our

church that would come to know you as Lord and Savior.

I had knocked on my door. I came to the

door and there's this man covered in camouflage and he said,

I need to see a preacher, and I said, well,

here I am, and so I started talking to him.

He had an alcohol in his breath. He was drunk, and

come to find out, I build a relationship with him.

His name was Sherwood, and he was alcoholic, and we

had a good relationship. He would come over the house

and I'll try to share the Gospel with him. He would,

you know, be half drunk half the time, and then

later on he would call and shoot me out. And

that was kind of our relationship. We have Bible study

and he choose me out later. And so we'd go

on vacation and I would be away and Sherwood would call, Oh,

and he'd be in a drunken fit and he would

call and just chew me out and cuss me out.

Ever this so it was just constantly, just on and on,

but I continue to continue to plead with him to

come to know the Lord. Over that course of time,

I'd build a relationship with him. And one day his

mom called me and said, Sherwood's in trouble. Would you

come to the house. I came to the house and

Sherwood had had the recess of the litter and liver

and it was killing his body and he was literally

he was so sick he had crawled from his bedroom

to the bathroom, could walk. He says, he won't call

that ambulance. The only person he'll talk to is you.

So I went in there and said, let's go. We're

going to the hospital. I got drugging and got him

in my car, took him to the hospital, and that

day at the hospital, he was dying. His body was

shutting down. And I remember going home, laying on my

bed and praying that God would save that ben give

him but just one more week that I could tell

him about Jesus, the tears that I've cried and prayed

that someone would come to know the Lord tears. I

beg God that people would turn away from their sin

and turn back to God and just beg God to

do a work. I'm telling you, being a pastor, you'll

follow God's call to be a example. But there's a

calling of God to serve the Lord through trials and tears,

love people and the difficult moments and the good moments,

and strive to serve the Lord through it all. Can

I tell you there's God's calling men to be elders,

to be pastors, to be missionaries. That says, I want

to be an example of God, but I want to

serve the Lord, and I don't no matter what trials

may come my way, no matter what tears may come

my way, I won't to serve the Lord. We need

men lastly called to preach. Paul says in this passage scripture,

I love this. By the way, let me just give

you my two cents worth. You notice he didn't start

with preaching. Preaching was the last thing he mentioned, not

the first thing. Most of the time, when you think

about a pastor, you think of a preacher. Preacher used

to be called that. That was my name. I actually

had a name, but they gave me my own name

preacher all through the community. Community that saw me. There's

the preacher. Right. We identify many times pastors just solely

that are they a good preacher, Whether there's something else,

no a pastor. Preaching is one aspect of being a pastor.

It's not the only thing a pastor. It's one aspect.

But listen what he says here. He says how I

verse nineteen, he says, serve the Lord with all humility, tears,

with trials that happened me through all the plots of

the Jews. How I did not shrink from declaring to

you anything that was profitable, teaching you a public house,

the house testifying to Jews and the Greeks of repentance

toward God and faith in Lord Jesus Christ. Paul talks

about the faithfulness of the Gospel, the faithfulness of him

preaching the faithfulness preached publicly and privately. That's the house,

the house or he describes their house to house or

in public. So there's a uh. He was faithful to

preach publicly and privately, also faithful to share the Gospel

with all people, Jews and Gentiles. He is a faithful

preacher declared the word of God. That was important for Paul,

important in his instructions to other future pastors like type

on Timothy. He says, to Timothy and second Timothy, one

I mean four one through five. By charging the presence

of God of Christ, Jesus who was a judge of

living and the dead by his appearing of his kingdom.

Preach the word be ready in season and out of seven. Reprove, rebuke,

exhort with complete patience and teaching. There's different parts of

a pastor's preaching. It's important that I preach faithfully here

on Sunday morning publicly, but it's also important that privately

I'm preaching in one on one relationships. Sometimes that's reproving,

Sometimes that's rebuking, Sometimes that's correcting. It's encouraging, supporting of

the pastor and elder is faithful in setting example, faithful

to serve the Lord, and it's faithful to preach the

word publicly and privately. It's not easy. You know, everybody

wants a good self help, encouraging message from the preacher.

Make me feel good as I leave the Sunday morning service.

Nobody likes the preacher to step on their toes, and

nobody likes the preacher to hold them accountable to what

God's word says. I remember one time we were at

was at a church and we had had a We

were trying to form a student student leadership team. We

didn't have a youth pastor, and so we have a

summer intern that summer for a youth pastor, but he

was going to leave after the summer. Were trying to

create some leadership for the student ministry, and so we

had some of the volunteers in the church that we're

helping with the students, and we decided to choose two

students from the youth group to be a part of

that leadership. Well, we chose two students. We felt like

we're godly and we're trying to live for the Lord.

And not long after we chose one of them, one

of them started posting inappropriate things on his Instagram, pictures,

lude pictures, cussing all kinds of stuff. So we went

to the young man. We went to his family and says, hey, listen,

you know this is not honoring God. You say you're

a believerable this and you're saying you want to lead

this youth group, but this is not This is not

honor in God. You we thought we took the youth

by about back and spanked him. I don't know that

you just thought we just just attacked the young man.

Parents just had a fit. We're so upset, but what

we're doing there were simply what teaching the word of God, correcting, reproving,

not in the community. The preachers they left the church,

got mad, got in the community, the preachers running off

people at that church down there. He's holding he's yeah,

running people out, running families out of the church. He

don't want them. He dreads the people of the church,

and he doesn't want in the church. That's not true.

But listen to a pastor comes to a standpoint of

whether I preach the word of God, or I stand

on the word of God, or whether I just give

them the messages that they want to hear publicly and privately.

We need pastors. We need elders that stand on the

word of God even when it's not popular, and even

when it's not comfortable, and even when people get mad

and not like it. We need people who will say,

I'm going to preach the word of God faithfully, publicly

and privately. I'll ask you today listen, God's calling. God's

calling men to be elders. God's calling men to be pastors.

God's calling some to be missionaries and to teach the

word of God in a world where it's not popular anymore.

You know, I remember as I closed just want to

ask the band if you will make your way up.

I remember I was seventeen. I was just called in

the ministry and I went to a We have some

youth leaders at our church, and we would go after

church many times and go hang out with one of

the youth leaders. He had a big house and he

had a volleyball court, and we would go out and

play volleyball there, hang out. And one day and I

remember the youth leader talking to me. He knew I

was serting in the ministry, and he said, you know,

he said, I remember when I was your age, felt

like God's calling in my life. I felt like God's

calling me to be a pastor. And then over the

next thirty minutes, he began giving me all the reasons

or excuses and why he didn't follow God. You know,

Spurgeon said about God's calling, he says, this the first

sign of a heavenly calling is an intense, all exorbing

desire for the calling for the work of ministry. That

youth leader had that what he missed was the surrender God.

This is not gonna be easy. It's gonna be hard

to be that example. God is not gonna be easy

to serve the Lord. There's gonna be trials, there's gonna

be tears. God is not gonna be easy to preach

the word. So people not gonna like it. They're gonna

get mad, gonna be uncomfortable. They are always gonna praise you.

But God, you're calling me and God, no matter what,

I will surrender. I'll follow you God. I want to

be what you want me to be. Lord, Lord, hear me.

I want to serve you. I don't want to serve

anyone else. God. This is my service to you. I

ask you today we answer the call of God leading you.

You say, pastors, you don't know today. I've got I've

got a job, I've got family, I've got all. I

don't know if I can do that. I don't know

if I'm listening. God's not calling to see if you're

equipped or if you have all the ability. God just

calling today and says today, I'll be available to God.

I'll be willing to follow you. God. I don't have

all the answers. I don't know how it's all will

work out. But God, I will surrender or I'll follow you. God.

I'll serve you. Will you pray with me. Lord, I

thank you Lord for this morning. Lord, Lord, I pray Lord,

at seventeen, I had no idea where you would take me.

I had no idea the tears. I had no idea

the trials. I had no idea how hard it would

be to preach your word publicly and privately. All I

know that day, Lord, is that you called Lord. I surrendered,

and I pray Lord that you would raise up men

today who won't have to have all the answers or

have all the blueprints and what's I had would just

say simply, God, I will obey you. God, I will

answer your call. Lord. I pray, Lord, may you work

in the hearts of men today. Lord, you know this

church and these elders. God, you know this church's pastors.

God you know there's a community around us, and there's

churches around us, all around us that are hurting that

need pastors. And God, you want to raise up pastors

from among us that we might send them into the

churches in our community. God, you know there's a loss

and dying world. People thousands of miles away hear the gospel,

and there's missionaries among us. The God you're raising up

that you might send them. God, I pray you would

set apart men. May you set apart people that follow

you God, to whatever you call them to do. Lord,

May they serve you and you alone? Or we love you.

We thank you Lord for this morning your name. We

pray a man you stand with us as God's leading.

I don't know how God leading you. Maybe God just

working on your heart today. Maybe somebody just come to

this altar and say, I just want to pray that

God would set apart some people in our church. Maybe

you got someone in your heart, you know, I see

God's calling on this person. I want to just pray.

They don't know that, they don't know who they are,

but you do. You believe God's calling them. Maybe you

just come and pray for them. However the Lord leads you,

would you respond to him? Heirs, painted all and all

to Him