The Privilege of Preaching

0:00 I have ten reasons for why persevering, keeping on going in Christian preaching is a great privilege. And by privilege, I mean the straightforward dictionary definition, namely, a benefit enjoyed by a person beyond the advantages of most. That's the dictionary definition of privilege, and that's what I mean. Now, don't want to overstate the privilege and come under the rebuke of Jesus, which he gave to the 72 when they returned from the extraordinary privilege of having Satan fall like lightning out of the sky when they did their ministry and cast out demons.

0:58 And Jesus said to them, Do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven. my first year at Bethlehem, 1980, brand new pastor, 34 years old, never pastored before.

1:27 I don't think I'd ever made a hospital call in my life. And now I'm pastoring a church of 700 members and 300 attenders, and they're all over 60. And I make my first, one of my first hospital calls. And the grand old man, Dr. Wyden, everybody told me this is the grand old man. He spent the last 20 years of his life caring for his invalid wife. And now she died and he's on his way to heaven. And I go to visit Dr. Wyden and I walked into his room. I know what you're supposed to do. And I walked up to his bed and he saw me and he knew who I was. and he reached out his hand, took my hand, and his scratchy voice, he said, Pastor, the greatest thing in the world is to be saved. I went to seminary all over again.

2:29 Pastor, the greatest thing in the world is to be saved. The note sounding from your people, the main note sounding from your pulpit should not be, I am thrilled to be your pastor. That's a good note. Let that be sounded. The main note is, I am thrilled to be saved. because then they can watch you. They don't want to learn how to be a pastor, but they want to learn what it's like to be thrilled to be saved. And they're watching you. What is it like to be thrilled to be saved? They're watching you. That's what it's like to be thrilled to be saved. Truly, truly, I say to you, this is Jesus, among those born of women, there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist.

3:35 Yet, the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. There's nobody greater than John that's ever been born. And the least person in your congregation who's born again is greater than John.

4:03 What an audience. They're watching. What's it like to be amazed to be a Christian? Now, the way I've approached this message is, and I'm going to tell you how I approached it because I'm sneaking in on Kevin's territory here and talking about how to prepare. So the way I prepare all my messages is I take a piece of paper. I never throw a piece of paper away that's got a blank side.

4:42 It goes in a folder and I take it out and do this. And I put it on my desk like that. And I take a .5 millimeter. Number two, mechanical Bic pencil, which I buy by the dozen from Amazon. Super cheap. And I write at the top, the privilege of preaching. Now, I've got to get ready.

5:13 I've got my pencil. Open up Logos. I use Logos. Don't have to use Logos, but ESV, original languages, search column, an information column. And I start, I pray, God, I need your help. What do they need? What have I learned? What are you going to show me from your word? And I just start oscillating between Bible, where is there a text about the privilege of preaching? I'll run through my mental concordance. and oscillation, where in my 50 years of practice have I experienced a privilege in preaching? You see the oscillation, Bible experience, Bible experience, which is why I'm talking about this, because I think sometimes we're taught in seminary something unrealistic.

6:14 I think it's unrealistic to say to a young preacher, do your exegesis without consulting your experience. And then when you've got your point and your meaning and your development, then turn to your experience or the experience of the world and figure out a way to apply that. I just think that's totally unrealistic. I think enormous heuristic events happen when I do my exegesis with all the 50 years of experience of being a Christian in there. I'm alive in Jesus. I've walked with Jesus. I've had lots of experience with Jesus, and I am bringing questions to bear on the meaning of words like love from my experience. And when I turn to my experience, I'm bringing all my Bible, test it, test it, test it. The question is not which comes first, Bible or experience. The question is which is in control. You know that. It's just so obvious.

7:35 But I don't want to lame you by thinking you somehow have to bracket your life while you're doing exegesis. It is impossible to do that. And it's, I think, damaging. I think it creates pedance out of us. It's just not realistic to take texts that are all about life and think you can just abstract meaning out of them without life. Okay, that's how I went about this. My piece of paper is here on my desk, and I'm reading my Bible, and I'm searching, and I'm looking, and I'm doodling on this half sheet of paper. I flip it over and doodle on the other side. And after an hour or two, it is just one big chaotic mess on this piece of paper. And the reason I'm using a pencil is so I can change things. And the reason it's half sheet, because that just seems more manageable than this. And I'm drawing circles from that up here to what I saw down here an hour later.

8:30 I draw a line. Oh, yeah, and that connects with this up here. I'm drawing another line. And after about three hours, guess what? There's emerging something like an outline. So there you go. That's my effort to do what you do. Ten of these. Number one, Christian preaching is a great privilege because it immerses us in the supremely valuable and supremely enjoyable word of God. It immerses us in the supremely valuable and supremely enjoyable word of God. We get the enormous privilege of making a living. by living in the inspired word of God.

9:33 All scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable. All of it. Even those amazing stories that I've never preached from, that Kevin just told you to preach from. It's all profitable. The ordinances of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold. Sweeter also than honey and drippings from the honeycomb. Nothing more valuable than gold. Nothing sweeter than honey. You get to live here. Are you kidding me?

10:13 I remember in 1974, finishing school, finally. after 28 years, getting a job at Bethel College to teach Bible. And I got my contract, and it said $10,500 for annual salary. I went home to Noel, and I said, they're going to pay me to look at the Bible and tell people what I see. And they've been paying me for 50 years.

10:59 I mean, that's the meaning of privilege. Good night. Six years later, I resigned at Bethel. the key night was October 13, 1980. Did I say that right? No, October 14, 1979. There we go. October 14, 1979 and the leaving of the college and becoming a preacher. And I was scared that I would be giving up a lot.

11:46 And I wrote in my journal, I'll be giving up this, I'll be giving up this, I'll be giving up this. And I was scared that the Lord wouldn't supply. I wouldn't have all that leisure. I wouldn't have three months in the summer just to study. I wouldn't have all that collegial stimulation. I'd be driven by phone calls and meetings and all kinds of things that would take me away from studying the Bible. And this really is number two instead of just number one. I was not persuaded that Jesus would feed the pastor as he fed. And that just was not true. It was not true. It is a great privilege because he feeds the shepherds who feed his people. So number one was, it is a great privilege because it immerses us in the supremely valuable and supremely sweet word.

12:58 And number two is it is a great privilege because God feeds those who feed his sheep. You remember this. I don't know if all pastors use this story this way, but I do. So I've got my little five loaves and two fish. Right. and the Lord says you give them something to eat and I said I've only got two fish and there's 300 people out there and five loaves that can't feed them and he says just give it to me and you give it to him and then he feeds 5,000 people with his five loaves and two fish and when he's done feeding them, there's 12 baskets left over. Why? You know why.

13:59 12 baskets, 12 apostles. That is the pastoral point. You can't out give him. You can't be drained. You'll never be drained. When you've spent what you don't even have, here's a whole basket for you, son. That's true. That's just true. I believe that God loves to give special exegetical insight. I think he loves to give emotional resonance. I think he loves to give creative expression to desperate pastors who are bent entirely on feeding their flock. I used to think as an academician for six years, I've got to have time to read journals. I've got to have time to go to society meetings.

14:56 I've got to have those three months in the summer because if I don't have that kind of leisure, I'll never see what I need to see. I'll never go deep in the Bible. And I think God just said, that's just a lot of baloney. I give insight. I open your eyes. I feed my sheep. I want my feet, my sheep to be fed more than your article to be written. And so, brothers, I don't read those journals anymore. I mean, there are a few pastors who can do that. I'm glad they exist. I can't. I'm a slow reader. I have to make very narrow choices about what I can do. And I'm just, academia is over for me. It's been over for 45 years or so. And he has not withheld insight. He has not.

15:52 I don't know whether I would have seen what I have seen had I stayed in the classroom. I don't know. But I have seen glory. Right? I have seen glory in the word, in the preaching of the word, in the transformation of God's people, in the give and take and life of the people I have seen what I don't think I could have ever seen of God had I been a teacher pretty much teaching the same classes to the same kind of students over and over again. I do not regret a minute of the path that I took and I think I was just dead wrong to think that I will miss out. I'm just going to miss out on deeper insight because I don't have the leisure that the academic life provides. I was just wrong about that.

16:51 Number three, Christian preaching is a great privilege because it compels us to be full of the Spirit and full of truth in season and out of season. Compels us to be full of the Spirit, full of truth, in season and out of season. You do not choose when you get to preach often. and that uncertainty keeps you off balance, which is a gift and a privilege, because it compels you to be full of the word all the time, which is a great blessing. Preach the word in season and out of season, 2 Timothy 4.2. So again, those early days were amazing. And since 1980, Roland Erickson, another great statesman in the church, was on the search committee that called me to Bethlehem in 1980.

17:52 And his wife has a heart attack. She is Dolores is being taken to Northamora Hospital. I get to call brand new pastor. I don't do I don't know how to do these things. I just have my Bible and I'm off to the hospital and I I'm forgot my little Bible. It's about this big. It's a great crossway ESV. And I forgot it used to fit in my back pocket. So I forgot my Bible. I have no Bible. All right. And I'm feeling really good as a young pastor. I'm going to get there so fast he's going to be amazed. And I get there and I walk into the waiting room. There's Rollin and about 12 family members. and Roland turns to me and he says, Pastor, give us a word.

18:48 That's what he should say, right? That's my job. Give us a word. my mind went totally blank. And what I remember is that I muddled through a prayer. Rollins, totally gracious. He never held that against me. I went home and I got down on my knees and I said to the Lord at my prayer bench, that'll never happen again. I'm sorry, that will never happen again. And before I got up, I memorized,

20:23 I memorized it and I've used it countless times. And I did the same thing with Romans 8, which I review every nine or 10 days. You ought to know Romans 8 by heart. There is no greater chapter in the history of the universe in literature. Why wouldn't you know it by heart? You should. It's ever useful. Always. Every situation has a Romans 8 moment. but it would take too long to recite that one.

21:00 So I got down. I said, that has never happened again. And it hasn't. It hasn't. Brothers, this is a great privilege. To have to be full of the word is a great privilege. Number four, Christian preaching is a great privilege because it demands that we gladly work for people's gladness in God. Carefully chosen words. It is a privilege because we are called to gladly work to make people glad in God. That's our job. It says so right here in 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians 1.24. Not that we lord it over your faith, but we work with you for your joy. I mean, what other, I mean, maybe comedians talk that way.

22:00 I don't think so. That's not joy. I like Nate Bergazzi. I think he's funny. But it's not that edifying. If I cause you pain, he's continuing now in 2 Corinthians. If I cause you pain, who is there to make me glad but the one whom I have pained? Who's there to make me glad but the one whom I have pained? And I wrote as I did so that when I came, I might not suffer pain from those who should make me rejoice. for I felt sure of you all that my joy would be the joy of you all. That's really complicated and wonderful.

22:54 Apostolic pastoral ministry is your joy, my people, is my joy. My joy is your joy. What a job. That's what it says. That's what it says. and it is true not only in spite of, but because of the manifold sufferings that pastors must embrace. Paul said, in all our affliction, I am overflowing with joy. You talk like that, or are you a whiner? in all our affliction, I am overflowing with joy because my joy is your joy. I mean, Hebrews 13, 17 has got to be one of the most amazing verses, right? Your leaders are keeping watch over your souls. Let them do this with joy and not groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.

24:01 If you're a groaner and not a rejoicer, you're being of no advantage to your people. Sick pastors make sick churches. Grumbling pastors make grumbling churches. But this is hard. It's a hard work. You get beat up. and Jesus told you you're going to get beat up that's what he said and he told you how to respond to it blessed are you and men persecute you and revile you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account rejoice in that day and be glad for great is your reward in heaven Oh. So privilege number four, we get to gladly work for people's gladness. The Bible says so.

25:05 Number five, Christian preaching is a great privilege because by it we become agents of God's eternal salvation. Even when we were dead in our trespasses, God made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved. So I know God saves sinners, not me. Yet, 1 Corinthians 9.22, I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I think what makes a theologian is finding passages that seem to say mutually exclusive things and dig down until they don't. That's what makes you a theologian.

26:03 Makes you useful for your people. You find texts like that. God saves. I save. You don't save. I save. And then you figure it out. You talk about how you are a means to salvation. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How will they call on him whom they've not believed? And how will they believe in him in whom they've not heard? And how will they hear without someone preaching? Faith comes by hearing and hearing through the word of Christ.

26:47 So God saves and he saves through your mouth. I planted, Apollos watered. God gave the growth. The teaching of the wise is a fountain of life. to turn aside from the snares of death.

27:08 The faithful preaching of the word of God saves sinners. Saves sinners eternally. There's no greater work than that. To be the agent of eternal salvation, escape from hell into everlasting joy. Jerry Halderson, in his mid-50s, an unbeliever, when I came to Bethlehem, you can see the things that are left in my memory from these early days. There was a wraparound balcony in the old sanctuary held about 400 people and smack dab that balcony right here in front of me, I could almost touch it. He and his wife, she's a believer, he's not a believer, she drug him to church, he willingly came every Sunday for years. And he'd sit right there in front of me, listen to me preach, and at every communion, once a month, I'd walk down, get behind the table, and I'd lock eyes with Jerry and say, this is for believers.

28:14 And those of you who are not yet believers should let the elements go by, and we will pray for you that God would cause you to see and believe. And that goes on now for three years. And then one day, on Sunday, after service, I'm at the door shaking hands, and he takes my hand, he says, we need to talk.

28:42 I say, anywhere, anytime. See you Wednesday night after prayer meeting, you can come to prayer meeting if you want. He came to prayer meeting and blessed providence that there were wonderful testimonies given at the prayer meeting as people were joining the church. Here you sit and listen to these people tell how they got saved. We go into my study afterwards and he is absolutely ripe. He had lots of questions and he wanted them answered so bad. Anything I said would have gone, I think. and about I don't know 10 or so Jerry believed and was saved and I baptized him about three weeks later and about a year later he died he just dropped dead of a heart attack Burl Halderson his wife to her dying day was thankful to God and to me me.

29:47 That God had chosen me to speak in such a way that he would come back and that he was willing to say, we need to talk. My father was an evangelist. I've always felt inferior to my father in that regard because my father crisscrossed America and preached in every state, kind of a mini Billy Graham. He'd preach to his 500. Billy Graham would preach to his 50,000. And my dad would bring home stories every time he came home. He'd be gone for two weeks, gone for three weeks, gone for four weeks, come home, talk about the triumphs of the gospel. And I loved it. I loved hearing the stories. And he was the happiest man I've ever known. And I asked him one time, Daddy, what's the key to being happy in Jesus. Without missing a beat, he said, leading people to Jesus. Lead people to Jesus.

30:49 You can't save them, but you can lead them. Lead them to Jesus, Johnny. So that's privilege number five. Christian preaching number six is a great privilege because by it we sustain the faith of saints through trauma and loss. Eternal security is a community project. those whom he predestined, he called, and those whom he called, he justified, and those whom he justified, he glorified. So we reformed folks, we know that none of the predestined will be lost. None of the called will be lost. None of the justified will be lost. They're all going to be glorified.

31:44 God keeps his own. He calls and he keeps. However, how many times did I preach? I don't know. Half a dozen times maybe when we were bolstering our small group ministry. Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, leading you to fall away from the living God. Now, when Kevin was holding forth this morning on not pulling that punch, boy, I believe in that. I mean, I'm looking, I've been accused of being an Arminian, believe it or not. Can you imagine preaching this sermon? Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart leading you to fall away from the living God. I preach that to my people.

32:37 You can fall away from the living God. no punches pulled of course if you're elect you won't but sitting there in this room right now, professing believer, you can fall away from the living God. John Piper can fall away from the living God. If I make shipwreck of my faith, I'm a goner. That's the way the new Testament sounds and it's right. And it's this overplay of justification and this overplay of security gives a tone to a church that is not quite right. Okay, here you go. Way to go, Kevin. But, I'm continuing to read now, Hebrews 3, 13, exhort one another every day, as long as it is called today, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come, listen to this, listen to this, the tense of these verbs. We have come to share in Christ.

33:46 if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. Perseverance is the evidence of regeneration. So, that's true of daily exhortation, and it's true of weekly preaching.

34:14 Somebody asked me at the beginning of my ministry, when are you going to preach a salvation sermon? And give an invitation at the end. I said, every sermon I preach is a salvation sermon. meaning I keep people saved every Sunday. Nobody's getting to heaven without the word of God. I'm a means of getting people to heaven. They get to heaven by hearing the word of God and believing it week after week after week. They have to be stirred up not to make shipwreck of their faith, not to have an evil heart of unbelief. Every Sunday is a salvation sermon if it's a faithful sermon. The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are taught that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary. Isaiah 50 verse 4.

35:10 Receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls. What does that mean? You say to your people, receive with meekness the word that's already in you planted deep. Receive the word which is able to save your souls. That's the way it works. You save sinners every Sunday by keeping them saved. God uses preaching as a means of eternal security, which is as secure as it can get because the predestined will be glorified. I endure everything, Paul said. People really stumble over this. They look like, whoa. I endure everything for the sake of the elect that they may obtain salvation, which is in Jesus Christ.

36:08 My enduring everything as a pastor gets the elect home. What a calling. Every week is meaningful. rich with sustaining grace. The elect are kept for eternal glory through the ministry of the word.

36:32 And you taste this especially, this is my experience anyway, when a young mom has been sitting on your ministry for 10 years. You get to tell these stories if you stay someplace for 33 years. She's been sitting there for 10 years And she gives birth to a baby who will never walk and will never think beyond the level of three years old.

36:59 And a year later, she comes to you, takes your hand, says, Pastor, I would have gone insane. if I had not sat under the ministry of the sovereign goodness of God, who has purposes in everything he does. I mean, I don't know how many stories like that have come my way. I would have gone insane without what you've taught. That's rewarding. That's a privilege. What a privilege to preach that kind of God. Now, along the way, you lose people. They don't like this God. and sad, it's very sad, when you preach the week after 9-11. And you say, you do know, don't you, that God could have blown that plane 60 yards to the right and saved 2,500 people and he didn't?

38:11 Or don't you believe that the winds and the waves obey his voice? You confront people with the reality of God. They don't even know they don't believe in God. Because the God they've been presented is not God. And then they suddenly discover, yeah, I don't even know if I believe in that God. And they're gone. But oh, the people that come, they're so hungry. Preach God to me. Show me God. I want a real God.

38:41 So that's number six. We sustain the faith of saints through trauma and loss. Number seven, Christian preaching is a great privilege because the suffering it brings is a tribute of faithfulness, a badge of authenticity, and a path deeper into God. the suffering that comes to the pastor, and it is inevitable, is a tribute of faithfulness, a badge of authenticity, and a path deeper into God. Then the apostles left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name.

39:34 Rejoicing. We've been shamed. We've been shamed for the name. You really need to preach that to your church a lot because we live in a day of victimization where that's the last thing people are going to say when they've been shamed.

39:56 Blame, follow shame. That's the name of the game today. Not in the Bible. It's not there. It is not there. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed. that's Bible. Because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. You ever had that experience?

40:22 You are insulted for the name of Christ. You are blessed. The spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. What a privilege. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice in that. The Lucan version says, leap for joy, like a calf coming out of the stall. Like, Jesus, that's over the top. It hurts. Yes, it does.

41:00 I felt the sting of it recently. I made a fool of myself. playing a game because I didn't know cards. I've never played a game of cards in my life, except Rook, Uno. I don't know what the symbols are. Spade. Heart. Is that right? And in the game you were supposed to, I don't even know the word. You're supposed to say a suit or what? I'm sweating just thinking about it.

41:46 There's a dozen people, and they came to me, and I said, King? And they laughed. And I felt, I felt like I was eight years old again when they laughed at me. I'm 79 and I felt it again. I'm pretty, I'm pretty secure guy, right? I really don't care what you think. But. so I know, I know emotionally it hurts. And Jesus knew that. And when he said leap for joy, he was calling for a miracle.

42:41 Just a miracle. Okay, that's number seven. It's a tribute of faithfulness. It's a badge of authenticity. It's a path deeper into God. And now number eight, Christian preaching is a privilege because by it we impel people into Christian ministry and missions. The Lord of the harvest sends laborers into his harvest through prayer and through preaching. Matthew 9, 38 is prayer. Let me read you a text and see if you see what I see. This is Romans 15, 20. Paul says, I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else's foundation. But as it is written.

43:43 And then he quotes Isaiah 52, 15. Those who have never been told of him shall see. And those who have never heard will understand. And I asked Paul, Paul, when you are giving an account for why you want to go to where the gospel's never been preached, why don't you trace it back to Damascus?

44:13 That's where it happened, right? Jesus appeared to you. I will show him how much he must suffer. I will show him he's got to go among kings and Gentiles. And you don't mention it. You don't mention that. You trace it back to a Bible verse. Why? Maybe this, that that's the way God regularly calls people to missions and ministry.

44:51 Nobody can duplicate what happened to me in the hospital in 1966. but it can happen it can be duplicated if they hear this so I'm summer 66 I've got mono my tonsils the size of lemons and my spleen is jumping up and down and I'm in the hospital for three weeks and I'm having to drop organic chemistry and everything is unraveling and I hear Harold John Ockengay over the WETN radio preaching in chapel and unbidden, unplanned, unstoppable rises up in my heart. I want to handle the Bible like that. And brothers, that's never stopped for 60 years.

45:49 just like that no more pre-med on to seminary i want to handle the bible like i just heard everything in me it's just bible it's bible it's verses like isaiah 52 15 and harold john i can never knew that happened i don't think john piper has been preaching for 60 years or teaching and preaching for 60 years because he just did something in chapel that was very ordinary for him probably. And God just used it. So I'm saying the most common way for people to find their way into ministry and missions in your church is to hear you preach. You just stay faithful. You love God.

46:42 You love the word. You preach with all your heart. And God's going to touch back? Just people like this. That person will go. That person will go. I've got some stories. I'll just tell you one. I usually, I like to tell this story because I think it illustrates the meaning of New Testament prophecy. This is really controversial. You don't believe in prophecy today, but if you define it like I do, you can handle it probably. Like something God just spontaneously brings to mind that you toss into your sermon. That wasn't in the manuscript and it changes somebody's life. So here I am preaching from Hebrews and Tom Tebow over there is wrestling with called to missions and wants to go with his wife and kids to Far East and his somebody's parents, I can't remember if it was hers or his, didn't like this idea at all.

47:39 And that night before Sunday had said to him, you're crazy, take my grandkids to Thailand. So he walks into church and I'm preaching from chapter 11 and Abraham going out where he does not know where he's going and at a point in the sermon I'm preaching about taking risks and doing things and I look up and he said, I look right at him and I said, Abraham that's crazy. And he was like, it was like a bolt of lightning, he said. He's gone. They've been there for 20 years, 30 years, I think. God will do that. He'll just do that. And especially if you pray, pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers through your preaching. What a privilege to have people write to you 10 years later and say, we're on the field.

48:40 We've been here because of let the nations be glad or don't waste your life or risk is right or a sermon you preached on Hebrews 11. Wow, privilege to know. There's a downside. That's one more little story before I do number nine. There was another couple that I fired them up and sent them to, I won't tell you the country, because then you'll figure out who it is, in the Middle East. And his dad was furious with me. And I went to the airport to see him off, and his dad was there. And he looked at me and he said, if he doesn't come back, I will kill you.

49:30 So he said, He came back. He said, I'm still here. There is a downside to the glories and the privileges of ministry. Number nine, Christian preaching is a great privilege because it brings the unfading crown of glory. Shepherd the flock that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you. not for shameful gain, but eagerly, not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. Do you work for that? Is that real to you? those who are wise, this is Daniel 12, those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above. Those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever.

50:44 he's trying to motivate you to be encouraged those who turn many to righteousness which is what you do every sunday go this way not that way you will shine like the stars in the heavens if you serve up faithfully week after week a nourishing table for your people to have spiritual food. And if any of them prove to be thankless, and they will. Nice shoes, Pastor.

51:24 They'll be thankless. They're just, there are people like that. You will be blessed because they cannot repay you. You will be repaid at the resurrection of the just. I believe Luke 14, 14 applies. the text is about inviting people over for dinner who can't pay you back don't worry about it you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just there's so many people I mean I did my doctoral work on the motivation for the enemy love in the gospels and I was looking for motivation motivation for three years and I read so many crazy things about how it is wrong to be motivated by the promise of reward ah I'm so glad I grew up in a fundamentalist home. Like I just, that doesn't smell like Bible. That's not Bible.

52:17 Bible promises rewards all over the place. You read another book. You've been reading ethics, not Bible. You will be repaid at the resurrection of the just. He's going to give you a crown. He's going to give you a crown. Live for it. Be made glad by it when they're thankless. Don't take it out on them. You've got to return evil, good for evil to them. This light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. The greatest privilege of the preaching ministry does not come in this life. it comes when the crown is put on your head. Or that text doesn't mean anything.

53:17 When the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. Last, number 10. Christian preaching is a great privilege because we are unworthy of it. To me, though I am the very least of the saints, this grace was given to me to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. Now, Paul had very good reasons for feeling unworthy. He circled back to it repeatedly, persecutor of the church. You've got reasons to feel unworthy, and I've got reasons to feel unworthy. I look back on my teenage years, anxieties, loneliness, lust, deceit, self-absorption.

54:24 What can I say except that I believe in sovereign grace? What can we say? Grace upon grace has been poured out in my life. It has never ceased. Neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything but God who gives the growth. So I say with the Apostle Paul the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and the love that are in Christ Jesus. I received mercy for this reason that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. So, brothers, to the degree that you feel unworthy of this calling as a Christian preacher, let that feeling intensify your enjoyment of the privilege.

55:33 A great and gracious privilege of being a Christian preacher. Father, grant some measure, I pray, of encouragement that we, unworthy as we are, are called to unspeakably great privileges of being preachers in your church. Please, Father, preserve these men. Preserve them. Don't let them give up. Get them through whatever they're facing. Bring them out on the other side and grant them to, for the long haul, stay at it and go deeper.