His Heart

The point: The greatest struggles in ministry will be internal, in the heart, and will persist even in blessed seasons.

The heart is compared to a garden that, without constant guarding and weeding, will become overgrown with pride, secret sin, lust, envy, covetousness, bitterness, and unforgiveness, especially for a man in ministry.

And if that is true for every single Christian, regardless of his station in life, how much more is it true of the man of God, when he believes all the final temptations however the primary steps, which are all part of the generation's mission, and those beans need to suffer as a servant each one of himself? Well then Israel, overwhelmed and in monster walking, do wy Across all his rest 정sed we draws upon him 부�uching look upon his heart as a garden that like the garden in his backyard will of itself without any effort on his part become nothing but a weed bed unless it is constant carefully g...

20:27 - 21:44 Read in full sermon

The point: The greatest struggles in ministry will be internal, in the heart, and will persist even in blessed seasons.

Martin recounts preaching on Proverbs 4:23 as a 21-year-old senior in Bible college, reflecting on how his early conviction about a constantly guarded heart was confirmed over 32 years of ministry.

qualification ministry reflecting upon this text in proverbs four twenty-three and looking backwards of ministry my mind went back to the spring of nineteen fifty-six when a twenty-one year old senior at a bible college in the southern part of our country had to preach his senior chapel sermon sermon. One of the requirements of the Bible college that I attended and from which I graduated was that every senior student somewhere in the course of his last year would preach at one of the chapel services. And as I prayed and sought the face of God, Lord, what shall I say first of all to myself and ...

25:21 - 26:23 Read in full sermon

The point: Read 1 Corinthians 13 periodically; without love, all gifts and ministry are nothing.

A preacher with the combined gifts of Whitfield, Spurgeon, Edwards, and Chalmers, but without love, is likened to 'clanging on a top of a garbage can,' emphasizing the absolute necessity of love in ministry.

And have not love. I'm nothing. If God were to combine in you. All of the passion of a Whitfield.

63:11 - 63:19 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The third characteristic is an increasingly loving, responsive, and vulnerable heart, drawing from 1 Corinthians 13 and 1 John 3:17. Pastoral love, he explains, is inherently…

Martin describes the vulnerability of pastoral love, where a pastor pours out his life for his people, sacrificing worldly success, only to have them 'snap at your fingers' or 'cut off your hand' when he seeks to address their sin.

And I tell you. Pastoral love is a very vulnerable thing. When you can say in the secret place. Before God.

65:19 - 65:27 Read in full sermon

The point: Cry to God to give you a well-guarded, constantly kept, continually sensitive, and love-suffused, vulnerable, and self-giving heart.

The story of Gideon's army being thinned out by God is used to illustrate that God's problem is never the number of His servants, but their quality and dependence on Him.

God's problem has never been the number. Just the opposite. When he would conquer through his servant Gideon, he says, you've got too many. Tell all the sissies to go home.

67:03 - 67:14 Read in full sermon