Transcript
If you're in a situation where you're bi-vocational, that you have to work outside of your ministry of the church, that's a very significant situation. I want to address that in terms of preaching. Let me frame the conversation this way. There is no more lovely thing that you can ever do in life than to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, to be God's chosen spokesman to feed a group of people with the nutrients of the gospel is such an awesome privilege, and you need to see it that way. You don't want to view it as a duty or a heavy responsibility or a burden. This is a privilege to be able to share truths that have the power to radically transform people's lives is a beautiful thing.
God Never Puts His Commands in Contradiction
So let me frame it this way. Here's the first thing you need to understand. God never, ever puts us in a situation where His commands to us contradict one another. He never puts you in a situation where you have to break one of His commands in order to keep another one of His commands.
And so, it's got to be that if God has put you in a situation where you have work as a responsibility, you have family responsibility and you have preaching as a responsibility, there's got to be a way that God will provide the grace, the strength, the wisdom to do all of those things for your good, for the good of your people, and for His glory. You can never buy into the discouraging perspective that God has called you to something that's just not morally possible.
Second thing is you have to still hold on to the fact that you're called to be a guardian of the pulpit. You can't allow other pressures to so command your schedule that you are consistently, regularly not able to prepare. And if that's where you find yourself, where you're consistently, regularly not able to prepare, either there are significant changes that need to be made in your lifestyle or you're not ready for this responsibility at this time.
Do Not Leave Preaching to Leftover Moments
Now, here's what I would suggest. I would suggest that with so much happening in your schedule that you not trying to leave preaching to whatever available moments are left, that will never work. And you'll find yourself without the time and feeling guilty and unprepared as you enter the pulpit.
What you need to do is you need to carve into your schedule regular preaching preparation time that's like the law of the Medes and Persians that cannot be broken. Nothing will interrupt this time and then you need to say your family, "I need this time." It's outside of work. It's going to interrupt with family schedule, but if you don't carve out that time, you'll never, ever feel prepared for the thing that God has called you to do.
Third thing I would say is rest in God's grace. Listen, the limits you're facing are limits that your Savior has ordained for your schedule. They're not a divine mistake and He will meet you in those limits. There's some way where everybody faces weaknesses, everybody faces limits. The question is which limits am I facing at this time? God never will judge you for doing what you're unable to do. Your job is to be faithful and to rest in the wisdom of His grace.
