FBC Morning Light – April 28, 2022

Faith Baptist Church

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Well, good

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Thursday morning to you. Here we are pretty much getting to the end of the month of April. Isn't it incredible?

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I don't know about where you live, but here in northwestern Illinois, it's hardly felt like spring very much, and we're about to roll into May.

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The thing about April showers bringing May flowers, we're not seeing too many of those things popping up yet.

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I think it has a lot to do with the cooler weather we've had. Nevertheless, I hope your day is going well regardless of the weather, whether it's sunny or rainy, warm or cold, doesn't matter.

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I hope you're walking with the Lord today. In 2 Corinthians chapter 3, there are a couple of different ideas that I want to bring out.

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One of them has to do with one of the things that every pastor worth his salt understands, and that is he's woefully inadequate.

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He is woefully inadequate. He is not sufficient for the task that God has put on his shoulders.

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I am painfully aware of that and regularly aware of that. Of course, our church family, honest church family, would tell you, yeah,

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I know our pastor is painfully insufficient for all the tasks that is placed on his shoulders.

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We're very well aware of that. I'm not alone, and I don't think any, again, as I said, any pastor who's really called of God to the task believes and feels that he's got it.

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He's got what it takes. Honestly, I have known some young men, maybe even felt that way a little bit myself when

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I was a young man, who thought, yeah, I can handle this.

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Give me a church, any kind of church, any size of church, I got this. But it doesn't take long before a pastor realizes,

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I'm not sufficient for this. I remember very well my first year of ministry, pastoral ministry, and it was a relatively small church in central, west -central

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Illinois. I went there thinking, I've got this, I'm pretty confident

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I can pastor this church and do well, and so forth. It didn't take long for me to realize,

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I am not up to this. I am not sufficient for this. In fact,

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I left that ministry after not quite a year, 11 months and three weeks, and left and determined that I need to go somewhere else as an assistant pastor, because I just need to learn how to pastor.

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Because I know, I am totally insufficient.

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Well, here I am, about 40 years after that almost, and still feel insufficient, and frankly, the pastor

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I served under for a few years, he reinforced that. I remember him talking many times about how he just didn't seem to have enough, didn't have all that he needed, to do everything that needed to be done.

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All of that echoes the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 3, because he says in verse 5, not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God.

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What Paul is acknowledging here is, if I'm going to accomplish anything meaningful for God, it's not going to be because of me.

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I don't have the sufficiency to accomplish anything meaningful and effectively for God.

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It's going to have to come from his power, from his strength, from the ability that he gives.

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He goes on to say, our sufficiency is from God, who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant.

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That's exactly the conclusion that every good pastor needs to come to.

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I'll never be able to do everything. I can't do it all to the degree of perfection that it needs, it deserves, it's worthy of, but I can do what

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I've been given to do, and God will make it sufficient. God will use it for his purposes and for his glory.

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The second thing I wanted to point out comes at the end of chapter 3, and this applies to everybody, whether you're in the pastoral ministry or not.

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Paul brings out, as he closes this chapter, the key to transformation in the life of the

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Christian, of becoming more and more like Christ. How do I become more like Christ? He says in verse 18, but we all with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the

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Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the

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Spirit of the Lord. How is it that you become more like Christ? By looking at Christ.

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Where do you go to look at Christ? Where do you go to see that glory of the

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Lord? Don't look at some picture on a wall, and don't look at some movie about Jesus.

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The only place you're going to see the glory of the Lord is in the revelation of the

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Lord that he has given to us in his Word. The principle is that we spend time in his

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Word, we get to know the Lord through his self -revelation from his

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Word, through his Word, and the Holy Spirit takes that and he gradually makes us more and more like Christ, transforming us into the same image from glory to glory, a little bit at a time, here a bit, there a bit, from glory to glory, transforming us.

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Be much in the Word. Take advantage of every opportunity to gather with God's people in the preaching, in this teaching, in the studying of God's Word.

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Be in God's Word yourself every day. Even just for a few minutes where you open the Scriptures and you read a few verses, then spend some time face -to -face with the

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Lord, and the Holy Spirit will use that to help transform you into the image of Christ.

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I hope that's an encouragement to you, to spend time looking at that glory of the

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Lord. Let's pray and ask God to give us a good day today.

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Our Father and our God, we thank you for your Word, and I pray that as we look into it and we see

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Christ, we see your glory, that you would transform us, you would change us, you would mold us and shape us into his image, and we pray this in Jesus' name, amen.