FBC Morning Light – April 28, 2022

Christian Ministry Sufficiency Comes From God

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

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

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. 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.

He is woefully inadequate. He is not sufficient for the task that God has put on his shoulders. I am painfully aware of that and regularly aware of that. Of course, our church family, honest church family, would tell you, I know our pastor is insufficient for all the tasks that is placed on his shoulders.

We're very well aware of that. I'm not alone. I don't think any pastor who's really called of God to the task believes and feels that he's got it. He's got what it takes. Honestly, I have known some young men, maybe even felt that way a little bit myself when I was a young man, who thought, yeah, I can handle this.

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, I'm not sufficient for this. I remember very well my first year of ministry, pastoral ministry.

It was a relatively small church in west-central Illinois. I went there thinking, I've got this. I'm pretty confident I can pastor this church and do well, and so forth. It didn't take long for me to realize, I am not up to this.

I am not sufficient for this. In fact, I left that ministry not quite a year 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.

Because I know I am totally insufficient. Well, here I am, about 40 years after that almost, and still feel insufficient. Frankly, the pastor I served under for a few years, he reinforced that. I remember 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.

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.

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

It's going to have to come from his power, from his strength, from the ability that he gives. He goes on to say, our sufficiency is from God, who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant.

That's exactly the way you have to, that's exactly the conclusion that every good pastor needs to come to. 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 I've been given to do, and God will make it sufficient.

God will use it for his purposes and for his glory. 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.

Transformation by Beholding the Glory of the Lord

Paul brings out, as he closes this chapter, the key to transformation in the life of the 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 Lord, are being transformed into the same image, from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

How is it that you become more like Christ? By looking at Christ. Where do you go to look at Christ? Where do you go to see that glory of the Lord? Don't look at some picture on a wall, and don't look at some movie about Jesus.

The only place you're going to see the glory of the Lord is in the revelation of the Lord that he has given to us in his Word. The principle is that we spend time in his Word, we get to know the Lord through his self-revelation from his 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.

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

I hope that's an encouragement to you, to spend time looking at that glory of the Lord. Let's pray and ask God to give us a good day today. Our Father and our God, we thank you for your Word, and I pray that as we look into it and we see 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. We'll have a good rest of your Thursday, and I hope the Lord will bless you in it. Good day.