One Thing Remains the Same…

As I mentioned in my last post several weeks ago, I’m an assistant pastor whose senior pastor just retired. (And, yes, I miss you already, Pastor John. As soon I get the time – a scarce commodity at the moment – we’ll have that cup of coffee.) That has led to a lot of transition for our church and for me. One of the duties I inherited recently is the monthly Pastor’s Post in our newsletter. Below I’m going to post my 1st article, for February’s newsletter. It’s shorter than most of my posts because I have a limit of 150 words for the newsletter, but blogging is another thing for which I’ve struggled to find time, and this is one way to prevent total radio silence. PPC members, the actual newsletter gets printed and mailed out in a few days, but there will be plenty of content in there besides this post. Enjoy. 

Providence Presbyterian has dealt with a lot of change in a short time. We have seen our long-time senior pastor retire and our youth director of 4+ years be called to another field of ministry. And it appears that this column will have a new author for the time being, as well. Change is not easy, even if it is inevitable.

Perhaps you would be encouraged to know that we are not the only congregation dealing with change and uncertainty. On Jan. 5, 2014, Dr. Guy Waters preached to the congregation of First Presbyterian-Jackson who had just said goodbye to their Senior Pastor of 17 years, Dr. Ligon Duncan. Dr. Waters said to those who were facing an uncertain future, “What can we be certain of in 2014? God reigns, and Jesus is a humble, compassionate, and all-sufficient king.”

Amen. God reigned in 2013, and that is one thing that hasn’t changed for 2014.

Reality Sets In

I get the honor, privilege and responsibility of preaching the first sermon at Providence Presbyterian Church following the retirement of our Senior Pastor John K. Reeves, God’s faithful servant to us for the past 32 years (and change). I’ve been the assistant pastor for the past three of those years.

Honor, privilege, responsibility – I chose all three of those words intentionally. But today, having finished my sermon notes, I’d say that the “responsibility” part of that weighs heaviest upon me.

What do I possibly say in an hour like this? How do I comfort those who are coping with change, when I myself am still wrapping my head around the change? How SHOULD I deal with those questions? I don’t know that I can confidently answer the “how I should” question, but I know what’s swirling around my head, two good words from two good preachers, one a little more well-known nationally and one a little more well-known to me personally.

1. From Alistair Begg, by way of Kevin DeYoung – “Read yourself full. Write yourself clear. Pray yourself hot. Preach yourself empty.” DeYoung quoted this Begg-ism at the John Reed Miller Lectures on preaching at Reformed Theological Seminary (RTS) in Jackson last October. It’s now on a sticky note hanging from the bottom left corner of my monitor. It has been a great encouragement and guide to me during the weekly task of preaching. Sometimes, I remind myself, it is just this simple. Read. Write. Pray. Preach. Hunger and thirst for righteousness and knowledge. Pray for clarity. Pray that I might be a man on fire for Christ. Then preach as a dying man to dying men. And enjoy that glorious exhaustion of Sunday night. (The great football coach Vince Lombardi once said: “I firmly believe that any man’s finest hour, the greatest fulfillment of all that he holds dear, is that moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle – victorious.” Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/v/vincelomba151240.html#efEdL7kmYzV4UJhI.99 Also, hat tips to Jesus, Lloyd-Jones, and McCheyne for allusions/quotes in the previous paragraph.)

Yet I confess on days like today when melancholy and excessive introspection knock at my door, even this encouragement can feel like a laborious Law instead of a grace-imparting Gospel. How do I know that I read and pondered the Scriptures enough? How do I know that wrote myself clearly enough? Clear enough to be understood but not so finely detailed that my sermon sounds like a lecture and ceases to be “personal, passionate pleading” (John Murray)? How do I know that I’ve prayed myself hot enough? And did I really preach myself empty? Or did I leave something in the tank? Did I hold back?

To ask these questions is to care, about God’s people and one’s task as a preacher. But to dwell on them is a danger. Because I am preaching as a dying man to dying men. I am preaching so that the Holy Spirit working through the Word might save them, but I am NOT preaching to save myself. My soul is anchored in Christ, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb.

Woe unto me if I don’t preach the gospel? Yes, woe unto my sense of joy in serving Christ, because I’ve been called to this ministry, and I don’t know what else I would do. When I preach, I feel His pleasure, as surely as Eric Liddell felt it when he ran.

But woe unto my soul’s eternal destiny if I don’t preach well? God forbid. I am justified by faith, not by my works, not by my preaching, and certainly not by my preaching well.

So I will read. I will write. I will pray. I will preach. Full. Clear. Hot. Empty. Come what may. Because whether I sound like Spurgeon, Graham or Rev. Joe Schmoe, I know something else…

2. “You are God’s man at God’s time to bring God’s Word to God’s people.” Charley Chase, via Brad Williams.

You might know DeYoung, Begg, and some of the other big names I dropped above. You might not know Chase or Williams, but you’re a poorer man for it. Simply put, Charley’s one of the best preachers I know. (The last time I remember hearing him was at a Wednesday night prayer service at First Pres-Dothan (AL), at least 6 years ago. Wednesday night – his 3^rd sermon of the week, most likely. Time for a pastor’s B-sides, a cynic might say. Charley preached a 5-point gem on reconciliation.) Brad Williams is a dear friend whom I’ve mentioned before. His first job in ministry was working under Charley at FPC-Dothan. But Brad said Charley was generous and gracious to give Brad opportunities to preach, despite Brad’s lack of experience and Charley’s wealth of it. You can understand how filling those shoes (and that pulpit) might be a bit intimidating for a young, inexperienced guy, as Brad was. And while the details of the story are fuzzy, I can distinctly remember Brad telling me how a word from Charley gave him confidence during one of those opportunities to preach to God’s people. I wasn’t there to hear it, but I’ve heard Brad tell it, and in my mind, I see Brad expressing some apprehension at the task at hand. Then I see Charley telling him with a loving firmness, “Brad, you remember this: You’re God’s man at God’s time to bring God’s Word to God’s people.”

The doubt Brad felt is a doubt that inhabits every faithful preacher. It’s a Biblical doubt. “Who is sufficient for these things?” (2 Cor. 2:16b) It’s a humble doubt. It’s a dependent doubt. But it is dependent upon the right thing. As Paul says when he answers the question of 2 Cor. 2:16, “Such is the confidence we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us competent [my ESV has a footnote: “or sufficient.” It’s the same Greek word.] to be ministers of a new covenant.” (2 Cor. 3:4-6a)

Honor, privilege, responsibility. What’s a man to do? Remember that I (for reasons of God’s choosing, too lofty for me to understand) am God’s man at God’s time to bring God’s Word to God’s people. Time to read. Time to write. Time to pray. Time to preach. Until the time comes to do it all again.

Who is sufficient for these things?