Eroded Devotions

The point: Count it a privilege to spend and be spent for the well-being of others, choosing the more difficult path if it leads to optimum edification.

Martin uses the metaphor of 'musty classroom odors' to explain why he rejected simply reproducing academy lectures, implying it would lack freshness and practical edification for the conference attendees.

And I simply could have had that reproduced, put in your hands, and have you follow. But I do not believe that that would have been unto optimum edification. I believe it would have smelled musty with classroom odors. And you didn't come all the way from wherever you've come and paid the price for your air ticket just to go home smelling musty.

5:42 - 6:09 Read in full sermon

Driving home: When the appointed hour in the schedule comes to do the labor of exegetical spade work, instead of coming to it with mental alacrity and spiritual excitement, we have, as it were, to whip ourselves to the desk to perform…

He describes ministerial burnout in study as having to 'whip ourselves to the desk' and feeling 'whipped by our consciences,' illustrating the crushing burden study becomes when mental resiliency is lost.

In which study is primarily a crushing and a galling burden. When the appointed hour in the schedule comes to do the labor of exegetical spade work, instead of coming to it with mental alacrity and spiritual excitement, we have, as it were, to whip ourselves to the desk to perform the task, to whip ourselves while at the task, and we leave whipped by our consciences when we finish the task, because we feel what miserable wretches we are, that such a privilege of rooting around in the Word of God, and even getting paid for it, should be such a gruesome burden to our minds. That's what I'm talki...

16:29 - 17:57 Read in full sermon

Driving home: When the appointed hour in the schedule comes to do the labor of exegetical spade work, instead of coming to it with mental alacrity and spiritual excitement, we have, as it were, to whip ourselves to the desk to perform…

This metaphor illustrates the mental paralysis of burnout, where a minister cannot organize sermon material, seeing only a 'mass of material' without discerning how to build it into a sermon.

In which study is primarily a crushing and a galling burden. When the appointed hour in the schedule comes to do the labor of exegetical spade work, instead of coming to it with mental alacrity and spiritual excitement, we have, as it were, to whip ourselves to the desk to perform the task, to whip ourselves while at the task, and we leave whipped by our consciences when we finish the task, because we feel what miserable wretches we are, that such a privilege of rooting around in the Word of God, and even getting paid for it, should be such a gruesome burden to our minds. That's what I'm talki...

16:29 - 17:57 Read in full sermon

Driving home: When the appointed hour in the schedule comes to do the labor of exegetical spade work, instead of coming to it with mental alacrity and spiritual excitement, we have, as it were, to whip ourselves to the desk to perform…

Martin shares a personal anecdote of feeling so overwhelmed by burnout that he's tempted to 'sweep all the fruit of our labors' off the desk, revealing the deep frustration and desire for an 'easier way to make a living'.

until, at times, we come perilously close to taking our hand, and taking all the fruit of our labors, and sweeping it off our decks, and say, there must be an easier way to make a living. Brethren, I didn't read that in books. There's an awful lot of biography in these descriptions. When I speak of ministerial burnout, I'm referring to that condition in which we seem to have lost most of our ability to feel deeply concerning the great reality and the great realities in which we constantly traffic.

17:57 - 18:36 Read in full sermon

Driving home: When the appointed hour in the schedule comes to do the labor of exegetical spade work, instead of coming to it with mental alacrity and spiritual excitement, we have, as it were, to whip ourselves to the desk to perform…

He uses the metaphor of emotions being 'neutered' to describe the loss of deep feeling and spiritual delight in the realities of God, which is a symptom of ministerial burnout.

The emotions which ought naturally to accompany us in the secret place and in our public and private ministries seem almost to have been neutered. We can't remember when we have felt the thrill of the contemplation of the being of God. We can't remember that a conscious sense of delight and exaltation of spirit in the contemplation of God's free, sovereign, electing love to us. The ability to have felt emotional pressure brought to bear upon our own emotional fabric by the things in which we traffic seems to have been neutered. That's what I mean by ministerial burnout. I'm speaking of that co...

18:36 - 20:05 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not accept ministerial backsliding and burnout as the norm, but rather plead Psalm 92:12-15 before God for sustained spiritual vitality.

Martin contrasts the Psalm 92 ideal with the reality of many older ministers becoming 'brittle and sapless' like 'dried trees half dead,' illustrating the decline in spiritual vigor and fruitfulness.

He is my rock and there is no unrighteousness in Him. Once you hit your 50th birthday, this will become one of your most precious passages that you'll plead before God. If you have any knowledge of the ordinary course of what happens to so many men with advancing years, they become brittle and sapless and rather than being the epitome of ripened godliness and of spiritual vigor and ministerial energy, they become like dried trees half dead and autumn leaves hanging upon them but very little fruitfulness. Brethren, with a promise like this to encourage us, why should we accept that as the norm?...

22:24 - 23:52 Read in full sermon

The point: Constantly expose your mind and heart to the masters of the inner life (e.g., Owen) as a means of devotional nurture, prayerfully assimilating their insights.

He quotes Alexander's 'Thoughts on Preaching' (paragraph 161) and his father's advice to read Owen's 'Spiritual Mindedness' annually, advocating for constant exposure to 'masters of the inner life' as a means of devotional nurture.

but I would urge upon you, though I cannot bind your conscience to it from the scriptures, the constant exposure of your mind and heart to the masters of the inner life. If you would have the devotional nurture of your own soul, soul kept fresh one of the means that god has used in the lives of his most eminent servants and to which they point whenever the legacy of their biographies have been left to us is that they found constant help by drawing near to the masters of the inner life listen to the words of alexander in his book thoughts on preaching paragraph 161 writing to those who would be...

34:59 - 36:21 Read in full sermon

The point: Periodically engage in protracted seasons of waiting upon God, intense self-examination, and if necessary, fasting joined to prayer, to scrape off 'barnacles' of sin and worldliness.

The analogy of a ship picking up barnacles, slowing down despite no leaks or torn sails, illustrates how indwelling sin, worldly seductions, and the devil's machinations can subtly impede a minister's spiritual progress, necessitating 'spiritual dry dock'.

And so insidious are the machinations of the devil. That unless we give ourselves periodically to protracted seasons of waiting upon God. We can like a ship that has no leak in its hull. Pick up a barnacle here and a barnacle there.

38:33 - 38:53 Read in full sermon

The point: Spend dedicated time in prayer for the needs of your own soul, asking God to search you and make Christ more precious.

Martin suggests using a clock to measure prayer time, not for legalism, but as a 'shock' to reveal how atrophied one's spiritual muscles for concentrated prayer might be, bringing reality to self-deception.

That you're all done after 17 minutes. And it'll shock you. But God can use the clock to bring you into reality. Now I know in saying that.

42:10 - 42:20 Read in full sermon