Accepting One's Own Identity

Introduction: The Man of God in Relationship to Himself

0:06 I trust, brethren, that at this stage in the development of the overarching theme of our lectures this semester, that you are coming to an unshakable conviction that sustained usefulness as a pastor-preacher involves a vast and a varied combination of factors. And thus far we've examined the essential elements of effective pastoral preaching as they relate to the man himself, considered as a man before God spiritually, intellectually, physically, and emotionally, and then as a man before his people. We considered the principle that there must be in each one of us a growing in unfeigned love to our people, and then an increasing liberation of fear of men, or an increasing liberation from the fear of men. And then last week, that there must be, by God's grace, an increasing measure of earned respect and confidence from our people. Now we move to consider today another aspect of this large theme, namely the man of God in relationship to himself. The man of God in relationship to himself. And this is large letter

1:30 C. We've considered the man as a man before God, large letter A, large letter B, a man before his people, and now large letter C, the man of God in relationship to himself. Now, as with each of the other aspects, I will make an assertion in the form of an axiom and then seek to validate it from Scripture, qualify it, apply it, and treat it in a way that I trust will be helpful. Now, the axiom is this.

2:06 The man of God must seek to gain an increasingly realistic understanding and acceptance of his own unique identity as a man and as a preacher. The man of God must seek to gain an increasingly realistic understanding and acceptance of his own unique identity as a man and as a preacher. Now, as far as any explanation of the words in the axiom, I don't think it's necessary except to underscore what I mean by the word realistic, and I simply mean realistic as opposed to merely realistic. Now, as far as any explanation of the words in the axiom, I don't think it's necessary except to underscore what I mean by the word realistic, and I simply mean realistic as opposed

3:18 to merely visionary or idealistic. I'm asserting that the man of God must seek to gain an increasingly realistic understanding, that is, an understanding that accords with reality. Now, as I attempt to set this matter before you, we shall first of all look at the biblical basis for the axiom. Then, having done that, we'll look at some major qualifications.

Biblical Basis for the Axiom: Romans 12 and Other Passages

3:51 First of all, the biblical basis for the axiom. And the pivotal text is Romans chapter 12, verses 1 to 8.

4:10 Romans chapter 12, verses 1 through 8. Now, you're all familiar with the emphasis of the first two verses. It is a general call to progress in sanctification, the motive, the mercy of God, the means, progressive renewal, and the end, the experiential proving of the will of God. Then, in verse 3, this general call to progressive sanctification is followed up by a call to sober, realistic self-assessment with a view to optimum usefulness in the body of Christ. Verse 3 begins this call to sober, realistic self-assessment with a view to optimum usefulness in the body of Christ. For I say through the grace that was given me to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but so to think as to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to each man a measure of faith. Now, that this is not a general call to the general grace of humility is evident in the fact that it is not a general call to the

5:31 from what follows for even as we have many members in one body and all the members have not the same office so we who are many are one body in christ and severally members one of another and having gifts differing according to the grace that was given to us whether prophecy let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith or ministry let us give ourselves to our ministry he that teaches to his teaching he that exhorts to his exhortation he that gives let him do it with liberality he that rules with diligence he that shows mercy with cheerfulness so here is a call to sober realistic self-assessment with a view to optimum usefulness in the body of christ the accurate self-assessment is to lead to a conscious abandonment to one's strength in ministry with a view to serving the body of christ now in attempting to comply with this directive what is to be avoided well explicitly we are told to avoid too high an estimate of ourselves for i say verse 3 through the grace that was given me not to think more highly than

6:58 he ought to think so having an overly inflated estimate of the nature and measure of our gifts is the danger explicitly warned against but then implicit in the terminology that is given as the contrast to that but to think soberly implies that we are not to come in with a false modesty with too low an estimate of the measure and nature of our gifts to think soberly is to think in terms of reality sober thinking is accurate thinking to the degree that a man is not sober he is out of touch with reality professor murray in his excellent commentary on the book of romans in the international commentary of the new testament series writes in commenting on this very phrase of the apostle thinking soberly, we are to think as to think soberly. Thus, humble and sober assessment of what each person is by the grace of God is enjoined. If we consider ourselves to possess

8:19 gifts we do not have, then we have an inflated notion of our place and function. We sin by esteeming ourselves beyond what we are. But if we underestimate, then we are refusing to acknowledge God's grace, and we fail to exercise that which God has dispensed for our own sanctification and that of others. The positive injunction is the reproof of a false humility which equally with over self-esteem fails to assess the grace of God and the grace of God.

8:57 The positive injunction is the reproof of a false humility which equally with over self-esteem fails to assess the grace of God and the grace of God. And the vocation which distinguishing distribution of grace assigns to each. And as far as I'm concerned, that says it all. And therefore, we are commanded by the word of God to seek to gain a realistic assessment and acceptance of our God-given identity in terms of not only our gifts, but in terms of our humanity and all that makes up that humanity, which in no little measure forms an integral part of our gifts.

9:37 Now, we can add to this passage, as forming biblical data or as constituting biblical data for this axiom, the parable of the talents as recorded in Matthew 25, verse 14 and following. And in that particular parable, you have the distribution of five, two, and one. Matthew chapter 25 and verse 15. And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his several ability.

10:22 Whatever the talents are, whether gifts or opportunities, you will notice that the measure of the talents was the several abilities of the three stewards to whom these talents were entrusted.

10:42 Then surely it is the part of spiritual wisdom for us to have an accurate assessment of what our God-given abilities are. And therefore, whatever the talents may be, they will find a channel of usage and investment in conjunction with this accurate assessment of our individual ability. Or we might take Psalm 139 as another strand of biblical teaching with reference to the necessity of having a sober and accurate assessment of what we are as men and as servants of Christ in this wonderful psalm in which David celebrates the omniscience of God the omnipresence of God. He brings into play this beautiful imagery in verse 13 for you did form my inward parts you did cover me or as the marginal reading renders it you did knit me together in my mother's womb. Those of you who were at the Bluffton conference last summer will remember that when Pastor Hufstetter was expounding this portion of the psalm in conjunction with an excellent message that I recommend

12:09 that you obtain on the Christian self-image he made the point that here there is the imagery of the mother's womb being a loom on which God is weaving the tapestry of our humanity and what makes us what we are as men in terms of that mysterious combination of all of the things that come by way of the strains of inheritance God was there putting the particular strands upon the loom when you were being made what you are as a man. To put it very bluntly such things as your basic lung capacity, the thickness or thinness of your vocal cords that would give you a rather thin voice or a very strident stentorian voice the things that would give you a relatively modest or an imposing physical appearance that would give you brain power and all of those things God was there knitting you together and it is essential that you seek to have a realistic understanding of and a relaxed acceptance of what God made when he knit you and no one else knit you together in the loom that was your mother's

Application: The Importance of Realistic Self-Assessment

13:37 womb. Now by way of application let me say that few things are of greater importance in this whole matter of sustained usefulness as a pastor preacher than your determination to gain an accurate and realistic understanding of who you are as a man and as a preacher. If a man fails to do what Romans 12 commands him to do, either coming in too high or too low in his understanding and estimate of himself then to some degree he's going to be a ministerial misfit or just a plain pain in the neck. Always wondering if he assesses himself on the high end why in the world the people of God and the church of Christ doesn't recognize all that he is as a man and a preacher. When or when will they wake up and see who I really am? And alas I've lived long enough to see the church plagued with such characters.

14:51 Always waiting. Always hoping. Always longing that somewhere around the corner something will happen. Something will develop.

15:01 A door will open where finally at last there will be full range for the full usefulness of this marvelous display of gifts and capacities for a large ministry. What's his problem? He never came to grips with Romans 12. Never had a sober assessment of who he was.

15:26 On the other hand there are some who through a false modesty, through other unbiblical things at work in his own mind and psyche do not come to an accurate assessment of what grace has deposited and to some degree, though they could not be called the wicked servant who utterly buried the talent, to some degree they are guilty of that spirit in that they do not strike out and accomplish what their gifts warrant that they should attempt to accomplish. Now I am aware that the Bible commands us to covet earnestly the better gifts, but to covet and to pray and to obtain is quite another thing. Some of you can remember you had little playmates who were going to play Superman and putting a cape around the neck and a big red letter S on their sweater didn't give them the ability to jump off the roof. If they tried it they found alas that a cape and a big red S on their sweater did not make them Superman. And I'm afraid there are all kinds of wreckages strewn along the ecclesiastical countryside of people who fought if they put a cape on and in their minds put a big red S on their chest they could do anything.

16:54 So in this whole area brethren I urge you I solemnly entreat you to be concerned to discover who you are as a man and a preacher and to do this with true biblical sobriety. Furthermore, by way of application let me remind you that this assessment is not once for all or static. As we grow as men and as preachers hopefully we are developing and certain areas of strength will emerge at age 40 that weren't there at age 30. However, at the same time that certain powers are increasing and developing others are lessening and weakening with the passing of time. And you better face up to that as well. You see a marvelous example of that in the history of David in 2 Samuel chapter 21 verses 15 and following. The time came when David's greatest usefulness was not to be found leading the troops on the battlefield but staying back in Jerusalem as the stable center of the government because when he went out to that battle they noticed that his hand began to weaken in battle and they were fearful that this was one who was worth more than 10,000 foot soldiers might fall in battle and David had to face the fact and one can only imagine the

18:21 tremendous emotional and psychological trauma when for the first time he had to see his troops go forth to battle and he stayed behind not in a backslidden state as we read in 2 Samuel chapter 11 but recognizing that the cause of God is better served by some young bucks going out and slinging swords than by this aging warrior attempting to do now what he could do 20 years ago. I've always been amazed at this in terms of some of those who've had sustained prominence in the operatic field. A man like Richard Tucker who was sort of king of the hill among dramatic tenors particularly singing the Verdi and Puccini roles and his voice was still developing when he died at age 67. He was just about to take on for the first time a role he had coveted for 30 years of his professional life and two weeks from the time that he died he was to have sung for the first time though he sang it for a recording. He never sang it in a live performance. The role of the old patriarch in one of the lesser known operas but he felt that in terms of his ability vocally and psychologically and in every way he had matured finally to take on that role and do it justice.

19:49 Well you see if an opera singer goes to his grave realistically and not statically but dynamically continually evaluating where he is in his development then how much more those of us called upon to traffic in the truth of the living God. And it's not an easy thing brethren. Some of us can remember when we could go out in media meetings and play like Superman. Preach 3-4 times during the day, counsel in between and then preach at night and do that 3-4 times days in a row, come back home, run into the study prepare to teach 2 or 3 times on the Lord's day. It was nothing to preach 10-15 times a week. Well for me to do that now would be tempting God. But some people remember when they got that kind of miles out of me and they think they can still do it and I just tell them look I ain't 35 no more. And though I'm in reasonably good shape for a 52 year old man I'm not 35 and no amount of running 10 or 20 miles a week and watching your weight and all the rest makes any difference.

20:55 There are certain things a man cannot do in terms of the sheer output of energy at age 52 that he could do at age 32. But hopefully there are some things he can do with his head and with his experience and with the backlog of just sheer slogging it out in terms of what he can say that he would have been foolish to attempt to say when he was 32. So you see it's not a static thing brethren and you must continually seek before God to have a realistic assessment of who and what you are both as a man and as a preacher. There's some things you wouldn't dare attack from a homiletical standpoint at age 30 that you'd be a coward not to attack at age 50. One of the reasons I've never preached through a gospel, attempted to, I did not feel I had developed homiletically enough to do it in any other way than a way that would have put our people to sleep after the first year. I just didn't know how in the world I would be able to work in enough variety in the manner of handling the passages. And I felt I needed to develop more in terms of homiletical sensitivity. Now I'm not

22:08 saying if a man preaches through a gospel before he's 50 he's sinning. No. There may be some men that that's the right thing for them to do. I'm talking about me.

22:18 Let every man soberly assess himself. Some have asked me why have you never preached through Hebrews? I said I wouldn't have a clue how to do it. I'm thoroughly enjoying sitting under Pastor Bob teaching through Hebrews but I wouldn't have a clue as to how to preach through Hebrews.

22:35 Not a clue and I still don't. I hope I live long enough to get courage enough to attempt it. But there may be someone who does a good job of it. But you see the kinds of things that go into making one feel comfortable in the homiletical as well as the exegetical and theological dimensions of preaching. Those combinations are different in every single man. And therefore each one of us in the light of that kind of biblical realism must not in a static way but in an ongoing continuous dynamic way seek to gain an increasingly realistic understanding and acceptance of his own unique identity as a man and as a preacher. There's a great text in Proverbs and I'll close this section with this text. Proverbs 28, 27 and verse 8. And this has been a

23:32 great help to me over the years. Proverbs 27 and verse 8. As a bird that wanders from her nest so is a man that wanders from his place. Now when a little bird who still belongs in the nest wanders away from the nest what happens? Well that little bird gets out of the place of provision, out of the place of protection and is vulnerable. So likewise when you wander from your place, the place that is consistent with your present state and development as a man and as a preacher. Your development in terms of divine gift, cultivation of that gift, measure of grace, all of those variables you wander from your nest. The nest that is formed out of the stuff of a realistic assessment of what grace has made you at this point.

Perspective 1: Diversity of Preaching Styles and Effectiveness

24:30 And you are like the bird that wanders from its nest. Alright? Now then, having sought to state and demonstrate some of the scriptural materials that lie at the heart of that axiom, now secondly let me set before you some major perspectives conditioning our understanding and application of this axiom. Some major perspectives conditioning our understanding and application of this axiom. And here I have three major perspectives with a number of sub-points under some of them. I'll try to mark them out clearly as we go. Here's the first.

25:28 There exists in the wisdom and sovereignty of God, there exists in the wisdom and sovereignty of God a great diversity of legitimate preaching styles a great diversity of legitimate preaching styles and effectiveness. There exists in the wisdom and sovereignty of God a great diversity of legitimate preaching styles and effectiveness. Now in 1 Corinthians 12, though Paul is dealing with certain gifts which based on a complex but we believe valid biblical theological argument are not presently operative in the church, yet there are some very helpful principles in this section of 1 Corinthians 12 verses 4 to 7. Now there are diversities of gifts of the same spirit. There are diversities of ministrations and the same Lord.

26:50 And there are diversities of workings but the same God who works all things in all. But to each one is given the manifestation of the spirit to profit with all. Diversities of gifts, diversities of ministrations, diversities of workings and over this whole emphasis on diversity is the sovereign prerogatives of God the Holy Spirit. So the apostle would have the Corinthians and have us to know that where the spirit of God is superintending in the operation of a congregation, he superintends granting diversities of gifts as to the identity of gift, diversities of ministrations in those various gifts and diversities of workings. And if anything is patent in the passage it is that we dare not place a wooden limited perspective on this matter of spiritual gifts both in their endowment and in their operations. Now this emphasis comes through very clearly in a passage such as 1 Corinthians chapter 3. When Paul is seeking to open up the folly of

28:19 this divisiveness and charismatic spirit occasioned by the privilege these people had of being subjected to various ministries he follows many lines of argument but in this particular section 1 Corinthians 3, 4 to 7 notice his emphasis. For when one says I am of Paul and another I am of Paulus are you not men? What then is a Paulus and what is Paul? Ministers through whom you believe and each as the Lord gave to him.

28:58 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither is he who plants anything neither he that waters but God who gives the increase. Now he who plants and he that waters are one, that is one in purpose goal and aim but each shall receive his own reward according to his own labor for we are God's fellow workers you are God's husbandry or God's tilled land and then he changes the image you are God's building. Now you see the emphasis again. Here he says among these different ones who have ministered among you by divine choice and by divine prerogative as to the effect of that ministry God is utterly sovereign each as the Lord gave God gave the increase neither is he that watereth anything neither he that planteth but God who gives the increase you are God's tilled land you are God's building. So in this whole matter we must recognize that there is a great diversity of legitimate

30:21 preaching style and great diversity of effectiveness from our preaching all of which is locked up in the inscrutable wisdom and unrivaled sovereignty of God so we may ask the question who was the ideal preacher Peter or Paul who was the ideal prophet Amos or Isaiah well the answer is none of them and all of them is the ideal if you mean that in Peter everything that constitutes true God honoring preaching has its fullest most balanced expression no Peter was not the ideal preacher nor was Paul nor was Amos nor was Isaiah but if you mean by an ideal preacher one who embodied the principles of effective spirit owned communication consistent with the deposit of sovereign will and purpose then each was ideal because each was true to himself and to his unique identity and function in the purpose of God each was called and each was equipped as God gave and each as

31:48 the Lord gave to him who was more effective well it all depends some who did the work of watering were more effective waterers than those who planted but a planter ain't supposed to water he's supposed to plant so you see who was more effective well it all depends what do you mean more effective in planting well the man who planted more effective in watering well the one who watered well is planting or watering a more effective ministry than the other no you see that mentality is totally foreign to scripture who was more successful Jeremiah who preached the nation into captivity or Haggai who preached them out of captivity for it says they prospered under the ministry of Haggai the prophet well are you going to say that Haggai was successful because he preached them out of captivity and Jeremiah wasn't because he preached them in no in the purpose of God Jeremiah preached the nation into captivity and in the purpose of God Haggai preached them out of captivity as the Lord gave to him so we must think in those biblical categories if we don't then somewhere along the line we're going to miss finding and being

33:16 content with our own God given identity both as men and as preachers so that's the first major perspective conditioning our understanding and application of this axiom there exists in the wisdom of God a great diversity of legitimate preaching style and effectiveness now I hope I've demonstrated that from the biblical principles or biblical examples now let me say by way of application two things number one be careful when encountering preachers of the past in Christian biography and in church history be careful in your encounter with preachers of the past as you read biographies and as you study church history one has said our faithfulness to the fathers of our faith is not in copying them but in comprehending them our faithfulness to the fathers of our faith is not in copying them but in comprehending them that is not seeking to imitate what might

34:45 be an expression of their own unique identity as men and their own unique deposit of gift as preachers but comprehending the spiritual dynamics that were at work at the root system of their walk before God as men and their usefulness as the servants of God as preachers and the sub structure do not imitate the superstructure which has too many variables let oaks be oaks and cedars be cedars and weeping willows be weeping willows let larks sing as larks and nightingales as nightingales and let crows crow like crows because the God of the oak and the cedar and the weeping willow and the God of the lark and the nightingale and the crow is the God who has richly endowed his church with great diversity and then a second area of application is this it has a word to say with regard to our interaction with living preachers not only a word to say about our encounter with preachers of the past in biography and church history

36:12 but in our interaction with living preachers that we have a great deal of influence from one source don't get all your formative influence from one source the word says all things are yours Apollos Cephas Paul all things are yours it's been a text that has been a great help to me over the years 1 Corinthians 3 21-23 let no one glory in men for all things are yours don't glory in men but use men or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death things present things to come all are yours and you are Christ's and Christ is God's so what do you do you deliberately force yourself to expose your thinking and your impressions of ministry to more than one model it's one of the benefits of the situation here you have before you consistently various models and some of you come out of churches where you have even a plurality of models of what could not be called anything other than biblical and useful ministries but there is great diversity in the form and in what we might call the

37:39 negotiable aspects of what constitutes a biblical and an effective ministry so beware of setting up in your mind something that you regard as the standard of what preaching ought to be don't do that particularly when you've not yet fully found out who you are Christ is the only perfect model of humanity and of ministry all human models reflect only some dimensions of Christ and usually they are pitifully and sadly lacking certain aspects of character traits and ministerial traits that are seen to perfection in the Lord Jesus emulate the areas of strength in any man have grace to overlook the weaknesses and maturity to reject those weaknesses as a model alright those two words of caution growing out of that first major perspective conditioning the axiom based in the wisdom of God great diversity of legitimate preaching style and effectiveness

Perspective 2: The Holy Spirit and Naturalness

39:06 and the two words of application about our encounter with preachers of the past preachers of the present now the second major perspective conditioning our understanding of the axiom is this the Holy Spirit is not the author or the owner of the unnatural and the affected the Holy Spirit is not the author or owner of the unnatural and the affected he is called in scripture the spirit of truth he works by and with the truth in accomplishing his ends and he works in a context of truth John 8 36 whom the Son sets free is free indeed free to be and to do what? free to be myself and free from the bondage and tyranny of sin to do the will of God in a way consistent with my own redeemed humanity much of what God intends I should be as a man was settled in my mother's womb

40:33 and I spend the rest of my days developing and cultivating certain aspects of that and recognizing that I am the fruit of the womb and the resource of the soul I am burning and thereof is there nothing more kept in my heart but I am the suited to the principles of our nature as human beings, and it makes war with nothing in human nature but its depravity. Grace does not war against nature. It wars against sin, not against nature. And perhaps nowhere is this more patently clear than in the highest work of the Holy Spirit apart from the mystery of giving life to Mary's womb. The greatest work of the Holy Spirit was

41:49 the inscripturation of the Word of God in this book we call the Bible. And where He was so present, regulating, directing, superintending the processes of thought, the choice of words, that what we have is the Word of God, we confess that Scripture, warrants no view as to its nature short of plenary verbal inspiration. Yet, yet, the humanity, the distinct humanity of the instrument through which God does that, oozes from every single author. Matthew's writing is smothered with Matthew's fingerprints. John's writing is smothered with John's fingerprints. Pauline literature is smothered with Pauline literature. Pauline literature is smothered with Pauline literature. Pauline

42:45 literature is smothered with Pauline literature. Pauline literature is smothered with Pauline Pauline personality, and Petrine literature is smothered with Petrine personality. Now, brethren, if that is true, when the Holy Spirit is most powerfully, and may I say it reverently, most jealously regulating the processes by which thought becomes words, if when He is giving us that which can be called His very word, it comes smothered with the fingerprints of the human personality through which it came, how much more should we expect this when claiming no direct inspiration, but a general superintendence of the Spirit, a general help of the Spirit in expounding and applying the word, how much more should we expect it to be smothered with our fingerprints? Your preaching should be smothered with your fingerprints. Your style of pastoral leadership should be smothered with the fingerprints. The fingerprints of your distinct humanity.

43:50 No one else's, but yours. Wherever sin has embedded itself in certain aspects of your humanity, the Holy Spirit will go to work refining that by prayer, mortification, by that beautiful process of beholding Christ and being transformed into His likeness, 2 Corinthians 3.18. Those things will more and more be subdued.

44:17 But when you reach, your highest state of conformity to Christ when you are glorified, may I say it reverently, your glorified body will still have your fingerprints.

44:30 And if anyone were to go around the streets of the new heavens and the new earth fingerprinting people, no two would be the same in the glorified state any more than they are here.

44:41 Individuality is not a product of the fall.

44:47 And grace does not war against nature. Therefore, where the Holy, Holy Spirit is most powerfully present in a man's preaching and pastoral ministry, he will be most wonderfully liberatingly himself.

45:07 You get what I'm driving at? So there'd be no cookie cutter Trinity Ministerial Academy preachers. And thank God there aren't any up till now. I hope you don't become the first batch.

45:20 I have no reason to believe you will be, but it's one of the most encouraging things to some of us who've been in this work for a while, to see how each man has developed his own style of preaching, his own style of leadership, his own style of pastoral involvement with his people. And that gives us reason to believe the Holy Spirit is indeed in great measure present, because he is not present to own that which is unnatural and affected, because he's not the spirit of sham. He's the spirit of truth.

45:58 McPherson, in a book that has so much to commend it, it's long since out of print called The Burden of the Lord.

46:06 He expressed expressed this in a way that to me would be a purple passage if I were to say it. But I don't think it was when he wrote it. So since it's easier for me to put a good construction on another man's efforts rather than put a bad on my own, which I'd be forced to let me read what McPherson says. The preacher's personality is not to be thought of.

46:32 There's no. More than a kind of conduit by means of which the word is conveyed like water through a pipe. Rather, may he be likened to the trunk of a living tree with the sap seeping through every fiber. When the word was born of Mary, he did not, so to speak, transmit himself magically without partaking of her nature or assimilating her substance.

46:58 On the contrary, he laid hold of her very flesh, and blood brought into vital concentrated action. Every part of her dedicated being so with the minister and his message. When in true preaching, the word is livingly communicated. The personality of the preacher is not dormant or passive far from it.

47:24 Only when his every power and faculty are brought into full, harmonious and vigorous display, can the word be properly conveyed at all. Now you see how liberating that is. I need not be strapped with some notion that if the Spirit of God is attending my labors with power in the pulpit, in the parlor, in the counseling room, wherever I am, I will somehow be conformed to some artificial abstraction of the ideal minister. I will be most fully me, when most fully possessed and filled and controlled by the Holy Spirit. Now you see, in this matter of making a sober self-assessment, that's vital. So you ask yourself, before I ever became a Christian, when I'd be sitting around with the guys in the dorm, or with the guys at the lunch break in the shop, and we got discussing a matter, how did I express myself when I got excited? Well, my hands started going, my eyeballs bulged.

48:34 All right, that's me. All right, then if I'm handling divine truth, am I suddenly to become someone totally different from that? Because I have conjured up in my mind that the ideal preacher is the essence and the epitome of non-ruffled, non-excitable calmness. You see how stupid that is?

48:58 How absolutely contrary to truth? If God wanted you to be that kind of person, you'd be that way in the discussion, in the dorm, when everyone else is expressing how he is, you'd be the one who'd be laid back and just quietly say a word that would just put everything into...

49:16 Well, then that would be carried over into your ministry, and that'd be perfectly natural. But if God made you one of these people, that when he sorted you out in your mother's womb, some of the cells that were supposed to go to your tongue ended up in your fingers, you can't talk without wagging your hands. It's not you! Then be you!

49:35 And if someone doesn't like it, let them go. Find someone else whom God made differently. But you're not going to put yourself into bondage. It becomes something God didn't make you because someone doesn't like the fact that some of your tongue cells ended up in your hands.

49:53 You'll be in bondage all your days. And you don't think it's bondage when you try not to be you in some little area like that? It's amazing how much it'll put you in horrible bondage. So face this great principle that the Holy Spirit is not the author or owner of the unnatural, or of the affected.

50:15 Let your ambition be the ambition of Philippians 3, 12b. To lay hold of that for which Christ has laid hold of you. Or Acts 20, 24. Count not your life dear unto yourself, that you may accomplish the ministry that God has given to you.

Perspective 3: Discerning Suspicion of the Unnatural

50:34 Let that be your ambition. But no ambition to become somebody that is not you. And then the third thing. I want to say in conditioning this great principle, this axiom is this.

50:50 Not only that there exists a diversity, not only that the Holy Spirit is not the author of the unnatural and the affected, but the true people of God and discerning sinners will generally be suspicious of the forced and the unnatural. The true people of God and discerning sinners will generally be suspicious of the forced and the unnatural. Now notice my guarded words. I did not say that all of the professed people of God and all sinners will be suspicious of the forced and the unnatural. The gullibility of men in things religious continues to astound me. How anyone can swallow Schiller and Reverend Eich is beyond me. I didn't think the human throat was big enough to swallow these kupopers to death.

52:02 So, church, Ilana mam sampling, follow either of them. But apparently it is. And so there are those constant reminders that men's gullibility and things religious apparently knows no bounds. However, as a general rule, the true people of God and even discerning sinners will be suspicious of the forced and the unnatural. That's why Paul appeals again and again, as he does in that specimen passage, commanding himself to every man's conscience in the sight of God. He could say, you know our manner of life. We weren't hucksters. We weren't guilty of the tricks of the oratorical trades common in that day. We did not come to you with affected rhetoric. We didn't come as philosophers

52:54 or rhetoricians. We came to you as heralds proclaiming a message of God. And though in our day, because people are concerned, we are not. We are not. We are not. We are not.

53:05 conditioned by the cool communicators, the newscasters, who can talk about the death of thousands and never quiver their lips, never show any passion, and may be put off initially by anyone who preaches with earnestness and passion. If they hang in long enough, they'll know you're for real. They'll know you're for real. And if you would have God's true people love you and receive you as a servant of God, be yourself. Sixteen ounces of the pound, yourself, full of Christ, full of the Holy Spirit, but yourself. For the minute they suspect that you're forcing something even that you have decided would make you more spiritual in their eyes, but it's unnatural and it's forced. They feel uncomfortable. Don't you feel uncomfortable around people that are struggling and striving so hard to appear spiritual? There's an unnaturalness.

54:02 It makes you feel, don't you feel kind of queasy around them? When you sense that someone's just striving, they're all the time forcing the conversation to a quote spiritual tone. If people are just talking about innocent, wholesome things and laughing, they kind of lay back and they're always trying to steer the conversation in an unnatural way. But when it's natural, you can move right from talking about the most inane, innocent thing into the most lofty, and you feel comfortable with it.

54:33 Because it's natural. Am I the only freak around here that you know what I'm talking about? Well, you see, God's people are that way. And if they sense that in the pulpit, if they sense that you're assuming a tone that is elevated beyond your present experience, it smells funny. It's like trying to mask the smell of fish with Lysol. And when the two get mixed in your nostrils, it's neither Lysol nor fish. And it just makes you all the more suspicious that as soon as the Lysol blows, it's not Lysol. It's Lysol. It's Lysol. It's Lysol. It's Lysol. It's Lysol. It's Lysol. It's Lysol. It's Lysol. It's Lysol. It's Lysol. It's Lysol. It's Lysol. It's Lysol. It's Lysol. It's Lysol. It's Lysol.

55:05 Well, dear people, our dear people, if they have any discernment at all, the true people of God will generally be suspicious of anything that's forced and unnatural, even though the motive for it may be very, very knowable. So, trust God to give you the consciences of men being who God made you to be and nobody else. All right?

Qualification 1: Overcoming Weaknesses, Not Fatalism

55:36 Now then, let me say in conclusion what I would call some qualifications.

55:43 Because everything I've said now could be driven to an extreme that would be far beyond my intention and far beyond the balance of the Holy Spirit. So, I'm going to give some concluding qualifications. Number one. And I've got three of them.

56:05 I am not implying that we accept fatalistically our weaknesses and limitations and make no conscious efforts to overcome them. I am not implying that we accept fatalistically our weaknesses and limitations and make no conscious efforts to overcome them. Suppose a man has, by virtue of some slight...

56:37 physiological... impairment of his speech faculties and bad habits growing up.

56:43 Suppose he has chronically bad diction, an indistinct separation of his words, an incorrect pronunciation. Well, should he go on saying, well, if I start to speak distinctly and enunciate clearly and pronounce correctly, people will think I'm a phony because they remember me as the guy that mumbled his words and pronounced. Well, should he go on saying, well, if I start to speak distinctly and enunciate clearly and pronounced, people will think I'm a phony because they remember me as the guy that mumbled his words and pronounced. Well, should he go on saying, well, if I start to speak distinctly and enunciate clearly and pronounced, people will think I'm a phony because they remember me as the guy that mumbled his words and pronounced.

57:09 them incorrectly and indistinctly. Therefore, if I'm going to be natural, no. No. No, because the Scripture tells us in 2 Timothy 2.15, Do your utmost to show yourself approved unto God, a workman who needs not to be ashamed. In 1 Timothy 4.15, Let your progress in ministerial things in the context be manifest unto all. Never forget Demosthenes and his monotheism.

57:40 Mouthful of marbles by the seashore. Apparently, he had some kind of a speech impediment that made the possibilities of his becoming an effective orator impossible.

57:55 But by hours of discipline with a mouthful of marbles by the roaring of the sea, he became an effective speaker. No, we must consciously work on our weaknesses, idiosyncrasies. Seek to develop the voice God has given you to its optimum range and strength and potential. However, within all of that, there are certain limitations both of providence and of grace, and you must accept them.

58:31 For example, a finely tuned, mechanically sound, four-cylinder Chevette will go no further nor faster with greater comfort than... Then a finely tuned, mechanically sound, four-cylinder Chevette was turned off the assembly line to go.

58:53 It'll never be a Rolls-Royce, Silver Cloud, Grand Touring car. Ain't no way, Jose. Can't become. But let it be a finely tuned, mechanically sound, four-cylinder Chevette, getting everything you can get out of a finely tuned, mechanically sound, four-cylinder Chevette.

59:16 Now, if God didn't make you a Rolls-Royce, don't go all your days pouting about it. Except the fact that God made you a Chevette. That you be God's best Chevette you can be. For God's glory.

59:34 And if you say, I'm just a Chevette, two cylinders, four cylinders, what's the difference? And you let your plugs get all fouled up so you're only banging away on two cylinders. And your gas mileage is way down. Every little hill you peter out.

59:47 Don't you fatalistically accept that. That's sinning against God. Soberly assess you're a Chevette, and then work to be the best Chevette on the road. For God's glory.

Qualification 2: Unconscious Imitation is Natural

59:59 You get the point? I'm not saying, accept fatalistically weaknesses and limitations, and make no conscious effort to overcome them. Second qualification, I am not implying, when I've warned you about your biography, the dead models, and living preachers as living models, I'm not implying that we will not be influenced, by the unconscious, imitative element of true preaching. I am not implying that we will not, or that we ought not, to be influenced by the unconscious, imitative element in true preaching.

60:38 The way we are constituted, we absorb something of the environment we are in. That's what God says. Be not deceived, 1 Corinthians 15, 33, evil communications are companions corrupt to good morals. That's why God says, God says in Proverbs 13 20 warns us about our companions because there is an element of unconscious absorption and this is true with regard to preaching if you give yourself to preaching you are so opening the totality of your redeemed personality that there cannot help but be made many many levels of impression upon you consciously and many more unconsciously you are absorbing attitudes perspectives exegetical and homiletical devices and without knowing it you're even absorbing and having programmed into you certain physical responses that may not be natural to you I can't share a conference with a good preacher for three days without fighting for three weeks to get rid of his mannerisms they get programmed into me unconsciously and in the midst of preaching I'll find my hand over here and then I'll say hey what in the world's your hand doing over there

61:54 it's a gesture totally unnatural to me but it comes naturally and then I analyze and say oh yeah that's that's his gesture but just by giving yourself to that preaching something gets pushed in to the whole programming of the the mystery of what makes us what we are that when you reach a parallel place of intensity of thought or or sphere of expression somebody else's gestures will come out and then I'll say I'm not sure why I'm not sure why I'm not sure if it's just a 🤯 then you just say wait a minute that's not me and you grab your hand and slap it down and you deprogram yourself now i say all of that so that none of you will feel that you're somehow grieving the spirit through unnaturalness if you find yourself imperceptibly picking up certain gestures i find i have to fight all the time pastor bob's gesture of making a little circle and making his points that is not me but if i sit under him at all i find myself going like this and i have to get my fingers opened up i don't sit there and say now imitate him but when i'm giving myself to someone's preaching without realizing it i'm absorbing and somewhere there's being programmed into my brain and the part of the brain that controls the involuntary muscle action see i'm doing it now see this well that's not me that's him that's not me so don't get in bondage

Qualification 3: Conscious Imitation of Biblical Principles

63:20 if after you've been in this period of formation where you're taking in you find that it takes you a couple of years to get some of the nickel isms out of you and some of the martin martin isms out of you and don't put yourself in bondage and if someone comes up to you and tries to make you feel all guilty because hey do you know that you had a characteristic that don't let it get to you just say thank you and smile and send them on their way but don't let it get you in bondage all right okay i'm not implying it will not be influenced by the unconscious imitative element in true preaching and anyone who doesn't understand that doesn't know either what preaching is or doesn't know what it is to listen to preach and then my third caution is i am not implying that we should not consciously imitate the biblical principles we see embodied in other men i am not implying that we should not consciously imitate biblical principles which we see embodied in other men there is a doctrine of conscious spiritual imitation philippians 4 9 philippians 3 17 first corinthians 11 1 when we see and hear in another

64:40 such qualities as simplicity and vividness clarity imitate those things but imitate them in such a way that when you embody them they're smothered with your fingerprints a man like whitfield gave birth to a whole new generation of preachers and it's right there spurgeon gave birth to a whole new school of preachers the tenants those men mightily use of god in this very area rate awaiting they gave birth to a whole new school of preaching because men consciously imitated biblical principles that were operative evident in their ministries and it's right because we should be good at preaching why Godの力 Why? Why do i live the way God sees things Hallows he wants it distancing do so. But as we do, we want the principles to be dressed in the garb of our own God-given humanity and our own individual God-given identity. Now, in conclusion, if you would be effective as a pastor-preacher, and that over the long haul, then, my brethren, you must seek

Conclusion: Embrace Your God-Given Identity

66:02 to acquire and maintain an increasingly accurate and realistic understanding and an acceptance of your own identity as a man and as a preacher. Resist all temptations to question, why did God put me together this way? Why can't I have one of those voices that when you talk it makes all the furniture vibrate? When I hear men that have that kind of timber in their voices, I covet that ability.

66:37 God didn't give me that kind of voice. It caused me to be put together in such a way that I had a deviated septum, swollen membranes, no resonance chambers, would sound all the time like a man who had a cold in his nose because of blocked passages even after surgery, and I just had to come to grips. That's the way God put me together, so I got to make the most of my apparatus and do whatever I can to get out the nasality, learn to pronounce my M's and N's, and speak distinctly, and stop moaning and moaning. Growning that God didn't give me one of those voices with all those resonance chambers that make the pulpit vibrate when I talk. So don't waste your time complaining or wondering why God didn't put you together in a different way. Why didn't God put you together with greater natural lung capacity, doing all you can to get all you can out of what he's given you? You still have what Spurgeon calls slender apparatus. Well, God may have had a thousand reasons, and someday he may sit you on his knees and say, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, And give you an inkling of some of them. But face the fact that God made you what you are, and

67:45 determine that by the grace of God, you're going to become all that that grace in Jesus Christ can make you as a man and as a preacher. Don't sit around daydreaming. What would I be, and how could I be used if only this and only that? That isn't reality. So stop daydreaming and building castles out of imagination. Imagined ways you could be more useful. I'll give you a couple of words from some of the old masters with which to close. Alexander, on page 160, says this.

68:24 If there's any maxim which you might inscribe on your seal ring and your pen, it is this. Be yourself. As Kant says, every man has his own way of preserving health, so we may assert that every true servant of the gospel has his own way of being a preacher. And I pray that you may never fall among a people so untutored or so straightened as to be willing to receive the truth only by one sort of conduit.

68:54 Every genuine preacher becomes such under God in a way his own and by a secret discipline. Then he says a very interesting thing. But after having reached any certain measure of success, it will require much humility and much knowledge of the world and much liberality of judgment to preserve him from erecting his own methods into a standard for the rest of the world. And that's what I marvel at in some of the books on preaching and homiletics.

69:23 If I were to put myself in that straitjacket, I doubt I could ever say three sentences, one on top of another, with any confidence that I was called to preach. The rulemakers, unbelievable the way they usurp to themselves the way they usurp to themselves the way they usurp to themselves prerogatives they have no right to assert.

69:42 So here, Alexander, Lloyd-Jones has a good exhortation on pages 126 and 127 in the same direction. I won't weary you with that.

69:57 Now, when you accept who you are, one of the things you'll have to come to grips with is that there will be other people who think they can make a better assessment of who you are in terms of gift and grace. And you've got to resist becoming a...

70:13 a bully to their assessment, because he says, I say to every man among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think so as to think soberly.

70:26 Back some years ago, a well-known preacher in our generation on a Sunday night sat on the back of the cracker box when I was preaching, and his comment to the friend who brought him, after he sat there and saw me pour out my heart and open up the word to a little packed house of about... about 180 or 200 people, he said, what a waste.

70:49 That was his assessment.

70:53 I'm so glad that I'm not regulated by his assessment.

70:59 See, all he could think was his assessment of measure, of gift, and this little handful of people, what a waste.

71:09 Now, you've got to be willing for people to say that, to be what you know God's called you to be, and to do what you know God's called you to do. Not what others, but what the Lord himself. So be prepared to have some people think you're burying what God's given, be prepared to have other people think that you're a wild-eyed fanatic because you're pressing after matters that you were convinced are consistent with your God-given gifts and opportunity and measure of faith, and you'll be looked upon as a naughty Joseph with his dreams.

71:45 Well, if they're based upon the word of God and sound counsel and sober assessment, then dream your dreams and give your life to see them realized. And then someday you'll have more than dreams. You'll be able to say, this is the Lord's doing, and it's marvelous in our eyes. But don't let anybody kill what is most precious, and that's you, made the way God made you.

72:12 And if ever you sense around here anybody's leaning on you to destroy what you are as a man, yell, ouch, all right, and call us to account. It may be that you think something that's you is really some part of Adam that we're going after, and we may have to demonstrate it from the word of God. On the other hand, it may be that we have failed to recognize that there's something that is precious to you as you, and that we need to rethink what we're doing. May God help us then to come to grips with this vital axiom, essential to all effective pastoral preaching and ministry throughout all of our days.