WEBVTT 1 00:00:01.125 --> 00:00:03.225 Grace, mercy, and peace. 2 00:00:03.525 --> 00:00:07.125 Be unto you from God, our Father and our Lord and Savior. 3 00:00:07.125 --> 00:00:08.525 Jesus, the Christ. 4 00:00:09.425 --> 00:00:09.925 Amen. 5 00:00:11.225 --> 00:00:17.625 The text for today, sermon is primarily from 1st Timothy chapter 3 6 00:00:17.625 --> 00:00:19.825 verses 1 and 2 a. 7 00:00:21.125 --> 00:00:28.025 If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task, 8 00:00:28.125 --> 00:00:35.025 therefore an overseer must be above reproach as far the text. 9 00:00:36.425 --> 00:00:39.325 When was the last time you can remember facing 10 00:00:40.425 --> 00:00:46.325 an impossible task? Something that you just didn't feel like you were 11 00:00:46.325 --> 00:00:51.525 up to handling that you could measure up to what was being expected of 12 00:00:51.525 --> 00:00:52.025 you. 13 00:00:53.225 --> 00:00:55.025 As I think back over my life 14 00:00:55.025 --> 00:00:59.625 I have a lot of examples of this, but one stood out in particular, as 15 00:00:59.625 --> 00:01:03.525 I considered this theme today. And that was back in college 16 00:01:03.525 --> 00:01:04.725 I had a test 17 00:01:05.125 --> 00:01:10.125 It was a final, it was an essay test in an ancient near Eastern class. 18 00:01:10.925 --> 00:01:13.725 And at that time, I was working a lot. 19 00:01:13.725 --> 00:01:14.825 I had just gotten married. 20 00:01:14.825 --> 00:01:17.925 I was very active in a campus ministry, and frankly 21 00:01:17.925 --> 00:01:22.725 I really didn't have enough time to read the volumes of work 22 00:01:22.725 --> 00:01:22.825 I 23 00:01:23.025 --> 00:01:26.525 should have for that test. But I thought, you know, well, I'm pretty 24 00:01:26.525 --> 00:01:30.425 good at kind of working my way through writing stuff, but I got to the 25 00:01:30.425 --> 00:01:35.325 test and saw the three questions that were on there that Dr. 26 00:01:35.325 --> 00:01:41.725 Moyer had put on their required two pages, each of essay writing and 27 00:01:41.725 --> 00:01:46.025 these were the things I knew the least about, I was toast. 28 00:01:46.025 --> 00:01:46.825 I knew it. 29 00:01:47.525 --> 00:01:51.425 I did my best, but afterwards, I just recall going out and wandering 30 00:01:51.425 --> 00:01:52.825 around the Missouri State 31 00:01:52.925 --> 00:01:56.425 University campus thinking I don't know what I'm going to do. 32 00:01:56.425 --> 00:01:57.625 I just blew this. 33 00:01:57.625 --> 00:02:01.225 It's going to sink my grade in this class its core and my degree 34 00:02:01.225 --> 00:02:03.325 program didn't know what to do. 35 00:02:03.425 --> 00:02:06.025 It was an impossible task for me and I failed. 36 00:02:07.525 --> 00:02:08.525 Over the years 37 00:02:08.725 --> 00:02:13.325 there are other tasks like that for me. And then there's the matter of 38 00:02:13.325 --> 00:02:16.625 a vocation itself. Sometimes vocations 39 00:02:16.625 --> 00:02:17.825 once you get into them 40 00:02:17.825 --> 00:02:19.125 you answer that calling. 41 00:02:19.125 --> 00:02:24.725 Maybe it's that of a husband or a father, or wife or mother, or, or a 42 00:02:24.725 --> 00:02:27.325 pastor, or whatever it is. 43 00:02:27.725 --> 00:02:30.525 And you think, wow, this is more than I can handle. 44 00:02:30.525 --> 00:02:32.025 I don't know what I'm gonna do. 45 00:02:34.125 --> 00:02:37.325 That is what today's sermon is about. 46 00:02:37.525 --> 00:02:43.325 How do you face those? What's the way you approach this noble task of 47 00:02:43.325 --> 00:02:48.525 ministry that may at times will at times be full of impossible task 48 00:02:48.525 --> 00:02:50.925 for you to handle yourself. 49 00:02:52.825 --> 00:02:59.625 Well after that and many other trials and tribulations, you might say 50 00:02:59.625 --> 00:03:04.525 I kind of came to recognize that the best way to respond is to start 51 00:03:04.525 --> 00:03:06.025 off by thanking God. 52 00:03:07.025 --> 00:03:08.325 Why? Is it 53 00:03:08.325 --> 00:03:11.325 because you enjoy suffering or enjoying up measuring up? 54 00:03:11.325 --> 00:03:11.825 No? 55 00:03:13.425 --> 00:03:17.625 It's because it is through that kind of suffering like Paul talks 56 00:03:17.625 --> 00:03:20.625 about in in in Romans 8. 57 00:03:20.825 --> 00:03:25.025 He says in all these things, and he's talking about things a lot worse 58 00:03:25.025 --> 00:03:26.225 than what I'm describing. 59 00:03:26.625 --> 00:03:29.625 We are more than conquerors through him, who loved us. 60 00:03:30.625 --> 00:03:31.525 In all these things. 61 00:03:31.525 --> 00:03:35.125 It's a matter of kind of reframing, the experience, if you will. 62 00:03:36.225 --> 00:03:40.925 Well today as we celebrate your calls into the ministry, some of you 63 00:03:40.925 --> 00:03:43.625 have already received those, some of those are coming in the near 64 00:03:43.625 --> 00:03:44.025 future. 65 00:03:44.025 --> 00:03:45.825 You've all been certified though 66 00:03:45.825 --> 00:03:50.125 and in the calls are coming if they're not here yet. Today as we 67 00:03:50.125 --> 00:03:51.725 celebrate, those calls. 68 00:03:52.825 --> 00:03:57.325 We will think about how you are gifts to the church because indeed 69 00:03:57.325 --> 00:04:00.425 pastors are gifts to the church through the Holy Spirit. 70 00:04:01.525 --> 00:04:05.325 But also I would like to focus your attention right now on how 71 00:04:05.825 --> 00:04:13.025 ironically the call into the holy Ministry can be a blessing and gift 72 00:04:13.025 --> 00:04:14.525 to pastors. 73 00:04:16.125 --> 00:04:20.125 Because you're being called to do something that on your own is an 74 00:04:20.125 --> 00:04:21.925 impossible task. 75 00:04:23.425 --> 00:04:27.025 I want you to think of it in that way as you go forward. 76 00:04:28.725 --> 00:04:32.225 Well, the text that I referred to from 1st Timothy 3. 77 00:04:32.825 --> 00:04:37.625 It says, you know, if you desire the office of overseer, you're 78 00:04:37.625 --> 00:04:43.125 Desiring a noble task, therefore, an overseer must be above reproach. 79 00:04:44.025 --> 00:04:48.825 When I teach this to students in intro to the Pastoral Ministry are 80 00:04:48.825 --> 00:04:51.425 when we reflect on it and pastoral leadership 81 00:04:51.425 --> 00:04:57.425 and theology people kind of just focus in on that above reproach requirement. 82 00:04:58.625 --> 00:05:00.125 You know, I think 83 00:05:00.125 --> 00:05:02.225 am I measuring up to that? 84 00:05:02.225 --> 00:05:04.725 Well, it's an important qualification. 85 00:05:04.725 --> 00:05:07.625 Just like all of the ones Paul lists there. 86 00:05:07.625 --> 00:05:13.925 It's very important because the message that you bring needs to have a 87 00:05:13.925 --> 00:05:14.425 messenger 88 00:05:14.425 --> 00:05:17.825 bringing at that doesn't disqualify the message. 89 00:05:17.825 --> 00:05:21.925 That's why Paul is concerned about that. That you're above reproach 90 00:05:21.925 --> 00:05:27.325 that you manage your, your life, your household, your relationships 91 00:05:27.325 --> 00:05:28.525 with others in the church 92 00:05:28.625 --> 00:05:33.125 and outside the church in holy and godly ways. 93 00:05:33.525 --> 00:05:38.025 It's very important and you've heard that before here and you'll 94 00:05:38.025 --> 00:05:39.225 continue to hear it. 95 00:05:40.925 --> 00:05:46.325 But what also is true is that if you were to put those requirements up 96 00:05:46.325 --> 00:05:51.425 there as kind of a true-false tests and so is my life above reproach. 97 00:05:52.725 --> 00:05:57.725 I think if you're being honest with yourself, like I am at times with 98 00:05:57.725 --> 00:06:03.425 my own thing, no false failed impossible 99 00:06:03.425 --> 00:06:05.425 task. Noble task, 100 00:06:05.425 --> 00:06:07.425 Yes, but for me, yeah 101 00:06:07.725 --> 00:06:13.025 impossible at least in a number of circumstances. Fact, I can think of 102 00:06:13.025 --> 00:06:13.825 a lot of those 103 00:06:13.825 --> 00:06:17.325 but one in particular stands out, when I was a young, Pastor 104 00:06:17.725 --> 00:06:21.325 inexperienced and congregational leadership dynamics. 105 00:06:22.125 --> 00:06:26.525 And we had a challenge that we needed to address, and I thought I had 106 00:06:26.525 --> 00:06:28.325 come up with the perfect solution. 107 00:06:28.825 --> 00:06:33.025 I brought it to these folks out in rural Minnesota people who I 108 00:06:33.025 --> 00:06:37.025 thought loved me and I maybe later realized they still did 109 00:06:37.025 --> 00:06:42.525 but. When I brought that to them, the response was, no, we're not going 110 00:06:42.525 --> 00:06:43.325 to do that. 111 00:06:44.725 --> 00:06:49.225 And because it had not only consequences for them, but for my family 112 00:06:49.225 --> 00:06:52.925 and our life and well-being, I was angry. 113 00:06:53.225 --> 00:06:55.025 I was angry, I didn't show it to them. 114 00:06:55.125 --> 00:06:57.425 But when I got home, I probably slam doors. 115 00:06:57.425 --> 00:07:01.125 I don't know what I did, but I was angry and I remember very 116 00:07:01.125 --> 00:07:03.125 distinctly thinking, to myself. 117 00:07:04.625 --> 00:07:07.825 I'm out of here, you know, at some point in the future 118 00:07:07.825 --> 00:07:09.825 there's going to be a call coming and I'm gone. 119 00:07:10.825 --> 00:07:14.725 And as I look back on that, I think we're you above reproach there. 120 00:07:15.025 --> 00:07:18.725 Were you providing good pastoral leadership in the Holy Ministry? 121 00:07:19.325 --> 00:07:22.625 No, no voters 122 00:07:22.625 --> 00:07:23.825 meetings can do that. 123 00:07:25.225 --> 00:07:29.125 There are ways to learn to lead in those context as you learn over 124 00:07:29.125 --> 00:07:30.925 time and I did, but. 125 00:07:31.825 --> 00:07:35.325 But just the day-to-day challenges of the ministry when measured 126 00:07:35.325 --> 00:07:40.325 against that high standard, it exposes the fact that we're just like 127 00:07:40.325 --> 00:07:45.225 our people when we offer that confession of sins, we're self-centered, 128 00:07:45.625 --> 00:07:49.125 you know. We're thinking of ourselves and our reputation more than 129 00:07:49.125 --> 00:07:50.625 them and their well-being. 130 00:07:51.725 --> 00:07:53.025 It is humbling. 131 00:07:53.025 --> 00:07:55.725 It is a recognition that on my own 132 00:07:55.725 --> 00:07:58.625 it's an impossible. Impossible task. 133 00:07:59.825 --> 00:08:05.325 The reason I point this out is to help us reframe this and recognize 134 00:08:05.425 --> 00:08:12.025 the blessed irony of how this can be a super great blessing to a 135 00:08:12.025 --> 00:08:17.725 pastor because it helps him in that daily dying to himself and living 136 00:08:17.725 --> 00:08:18.625 in Christ. 137 00:08:19.825 --> 00:08:24.325 As we just sang that old testament canticle from Isaiah. 138 00:08:25.425 --> 00:08:29.125 If you're thinking about how okay, I'm not measuring up and I need 139 00:08:29.125 --> 00:08:32.025 hope in Christ. When you looked at that you're thinking 140 00:08:32.025 --> 00:08:32.325 Wow, 141 00:08:32.325 --> 00:08:36.225 I have hope in the Lord God in Yahweh in Christ 142 00:08:36.225 --> 00:08:37.125 my savior. 143 00:08:37.525 --> 00:08:38.725 Thanks be to God. 144 00:08:40.225 --> 00:08:44.625 And without those kinds of crosses in our vocations, without those 145 00:08:44.625 --> 00:08:49.425 impossible tasks, I'll speak for myself, but I think it's true for all 146 00:08:49.425 --> 00:08:50.025 sinners. 147 00:08:51.125 --> 00:08:55.825 We're not able to move ourselves into that position of receiving the 148 00:08:55.825 --> 00:08:57.625 gifts of Christ. 149 00:08:58.325 --> 00:09:04.725 The Holy Spirit uses those to cut us to the heart. Uses the suffering 150 00:09:04.725 --> 00:09:08.625 to produce perseverance and character so that we can find hope in 151 00:09:08.625 --> 00:09:10.825 Christ writes Paul. 152 00:09:12.125 --> 00:09:15.625 No, that's true for all Christians in any vocation. 153 00:09:16.125 --> 00:09:17.325 Just think about it as a Christian 154 00:09:17.325 --> 00:09:19.825 you're called to love your enemy, right? 155 00:09:20.925 --> 00:09:22.325 And that's nice in theory 156 00:09:22.325 --> 00:09:26.025 but then when it gets, you know, in a concrete situation, you 157 00:09:26.025 --> 00:09:30.525 recognize oh, wait a minute, you know. And we're to forgive 158 00:09:30.525 --> 00:09:30.925 others 159 00:09:30.925 --> 00:09:32.925 Iif God is going to forgive us. 160 00:09:33.525 --> 00:09:41.225 Whoa, wait a minute, but for pastors who are often put on a pedestal. 161 00:09:41.225 --> 00:09:41.425 Who are 162 00:09:41.625 --> 00:09:43.825 often treated better than they deserve. 163 00:09:44.525 --> 00:09:47.625 It's really helpful to remember that 164 00:09:47.625 --> 00:09:53.925 God uses this cross in your vocation to, ironically, teach you to find 165 00:09:53.925 --> 00:09:56.325 hope in Christ alone. 166 00:09:57.525 --> 00:09:58.925 So here's the takeaway. 167 00:10:00.125 --> 00:10:06.625 Habits, I'm big on habits is being formative. Develop a habit, to when 168 00:10:06.625 --> 00:10:10.025 you face an impossible task, whether it's in the ministry or some 169 00:10:10.025 --> 00:10:17.325 other vocation to thank God for that for the impossibility of it. 170 00:10:19.225 --> 00:10:24.725 So that you can let it become God's alien work that tentatio that 171 00:10:24.725 --> 00:10:26.125 Luther talks about. 172 00:10:27.525 --> 00:10:33.525 And then secondly, the habit of receiving the ministry of Christ for 173 00:10:33.525 --> 00:10:34.025 you. 174 00:10:36.325 --> 00:10:41.125 Having a father Confessor, stick the holy Absolution in your ears in 175 00:10:41.125 --> 00:10:46.925 response to your confession regularly, as a normal habit and course of 176 00:10:46.925 --> 00:10:48.225 daily life. 177 00:10:48.225 --> 00:10:52.625 Well, monthly life for a lot of us, daily prayer. 178 00:10:53.025 --> 00:10:57.725 And then when you're leading the service, pay attention to the words, 179 00:10:58.625 --> 00:11:02.425 There for you as well as for your people. 180 00:11:02.825 --> 00:11:04.225 So impossible tasks. 181 00:11:04.925 --> 00:11:08.325 Well, thanks be to God through Jesus Christ Our Lord. 182 00:11:08.725 --> 00:11:09.225 Amen. 183 00:11:10.225 --> 00:11:13.125 And May the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding. 184 00:11:13.125 --> 00:11:16.125 Keep your hearts and minds in Christ 185 00:11:16.125 --> 00:11:18.825 Jesus unto life Everlasting. 186 00:11:19.825 --> 00:11:20.225 Amen.