87a) Desire for the Office, Spiritual Character #1

The Assumed Context of Desire for the Pastoral Office

0:04 Brethren, we pick up now the last two elements of the enlightened and sanctified desire for the work of the pastoral office. Having sought to define what I mean by enlightened and sanctified, we then consider the necessity and legitimacy of this desire. Secondly, the focus of this desire and three aspects of that focus. Now, in the time that remains, number three, the assumed context of this desire.

0:38 Since 1 Timothy 3 is our foundational or epitomizing text with regard to the element of desire in conjunction with a biblical call to the pastoral office, there is an assumed context of this desire. And that context is the...

1:00 The larger setting of 1 Timothy, and you'll remember from verses 14 and 15 that Paul wrote this letter to Timothy with this specific end in view. That if he tarried long, that Timothy might know how men ought to behave themselves in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and the ground of the truth. Now, we know from...

1:30 We know from the chronology of Acts and the pastoral epistles that at this time, the church at Ephesus was what we would call a well-established and well-ordered church. It already had office bearers. So it was in a setting where anyone who had a desire for overseership did not have that desire framed in a vacuum. He was in...

2:01 He was in a real church with real partially sanctified saints, with real overseers doing the real work of oversight so that the setting in which the desire would be born would be one of the gutsy realism of someone involved, at least by way of exposure to the life of an ordinary, healthy, well-ordered... biblical church now it seems to me that this is one of the greatest means to keep down unwarranted

2:41 desire for the ministry let a man realistic exposure to what is involved in shepherding the flock of god and if he's got romantic notions and all the rest a couple of years of that should pretty well blow them away and it's one of the reasons in wrestling with the theology of ministerial training we are committed to the principle that that training ought to be undertaken in the context of a real life well-ordered church with all of its problems with all of its struggles with all of its sins and imperfections so that men who aspire to

3:20 overseership are aspiring to something that they've actually seen in its real live workings and not something that has been framed either but by an unrealistic idealism or i give the warning by reading biographies that give a distorted view of the work of the ministry so often and so the counsel that i've even given to some of you men here and others have given to you that if someone has not been in the context assumed by this faithful saying and it's not a matter of having been

4:04 blatantly disobedient to the revealed will of god but im a Slug dot god guiding arsen leading us along the way in our understanding of his truth then the first step to having a truly biblical called to the ministry for some may need me putting themselves in a healthy biblically functioning biblically ordered church that they might be g so or a realistic perspective of what the work of overseership really is. Because, contextually, the assumed context of this desire

4:46 and the expression of that desire embodied in the faithful saying was not atomistic and individualistic, it was in the framework of a healthy ecclesiology, a healthy church setting. And as you counsel men in the future, it may be that you will have occasion to call people back to that principle that when this text was given, faithful is the saying, if a man seeks overseership, he desires a good work. Paul was assuming that that desire was coming to birth in the context of an established, well-ordered church that was even undergoing further refinement

The First Channel: Expressing Desire to God

5:31 in the context of an established, well-ordered church that was even undergoing further refinement in the context of an established, well-ordered church. And further maturation as a result of this letter giving directions to Timothy with respect to behavior in the house of God. And then, fourthly, I want to say just a word about the proper channels for expressing this desire. Now, here I have no explicit biblical text, but in the light of our confession, there are some things pertaining to the worship and the government of the church, of Christ, that are not explicitly set forth in Scripture, but we're to take the general principles of the word of God and the light of nature and sanctified judgment and seek to discern the will of God.

6:15 Well, it's in that area that I address this fourth aspect of an enlightened and sanctified desire, the proper channels for expressing this desire. Well, first of all, obviously, we express it to God himself. As I've told young men, and young women who've come to me and saying, Pastor, I don't know what to do. I find my heart going out, particularly if it's a young woman, to this young man, and I know it's not right for me to plunk myself in front of him down in the foyer or just happen to get in his way when he's going.

6:47 What do I do? I say, just tell God all about it. I said, God's neither shocked nor embarrassed. And if you just feel like you've gone head over heels, irrationally infatuated, tell God all about it.

7:01 He knows it. And get on your knees. And say, Lord, I can't handle this thing. My emotions have all gone crazy, and my heart's run out to this guy, and I don't know if I have any right to even do it.

7:12 Lord, here it is. Spread it all before him. Doesn't the Bible say, pour out your heart before him at all times? If I take this glass of water and pour it out, I just tip it up and just let everything in it come out.

7:25 And I'm so glad God's not nervous or fastidious when his children get on their knees and pour out their heart. Well, surely, that's where we ought to begin with this desire. And in counseling others, and in giving you men counsel, as this desire is obviously to some degree burning within your own breasts, continually bring it before God and say, Lord, here is this desire. If it is unenlightened, overcome my ignorance and enlighten me.

7:54 If it is unsanctified, help me to see the areas of unmortified carnality that are fueling the desire that I may, by the Spirit of God, by the Spirit mortify those improper motives. But, Lord, if this is something that is of your Spirit, then, Lord, you blow upon it. You take the bellows of your own influence and cause it to burn more deeply. You put upon it the logs of more of your truth and more of the principles of your Word until that thing becomes an even ever-growing passion and desire.

8:29 Spread the thing out before God himself. His ear is open to the cry of the righteous and ask him that if the desire is something like David's desire, we can have a passionate and noble desire that may not be the will of God in its performance. David had a passionate and noble desire to build God a house. He felt embarrassed when he walked into his own house.

8:53 He said, should I live in this kind of luxury when God's in the tent? I want to build a glorious house for my God. And God says, it's good that it was in your heart, David. But you are a man of blood and it would not be appropriate.

9:07 Thank you for the desire. I'll take the willingness for the deed, but I'll give the deed to your son Solomon. There's the principle, brethren. For one reason or another, a man may have a desire that may not be in and of itself indicative of the will of God.

9:23 And if so, he must, just like a romantic interest, bring it to God and ask God to wither it and to shrivel it and for God to bring influences to bear upon it. That will extinguish that desire. But pour out one's heart to God. But then secondly, disclose that desire to one's overseers.

The Second Channel: Disclosing Desire to Overseers

9:45 God has given, in the context of His church, He has given overseers. He's given under-shepherds. He's given those who are to be our guides. They are called those who lead us.

10:00 Who are in that position of pra-iste-mi. Those that are over you in the Lord. They are likened to shepherds who are to guide the sheep. And therefore, we must be open in disclosing our growing desire to our overseers, subject it to their questioning, to their scrutiny.

10:21 I can think of one of you, brethren, here that after that desire would not go as you poured it out to God over a period of a couple of years. The time came when this brother felt he needed to pour it out to me. And we spent an evening and I just sat and listened. I said, brother, tell me what's there.

10:39 And he poured out to me and in my ears what he said was indicative to me of something that I could not with good conscience discourage but encourage and then sought to set out a framework within which that desire could be further cultivated, assessed and scrutinized. So be open with those that are over you in the Lord and encourage others. In the future, when you're in this position, encourage them to come and to open their hearts to you. And then thirdly, to mature, trusted, spiritual friends and counselors.

The Third Channel: Sharing with Mature Spiritual Friends

11:17 God may not give us an Ahithophel. God may not give us a Jonathan. But surely, within the framework of the body of Christ, God will give us some special, trusted, spiritually-minded friends and counselors and hear them. Hear all of those biblical principles that speak of the multitude of counselors being the framework of safety, the principle bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ, the whole concept of exhorting one another, of living transparently at the deepest level with that inner circle of more mature, trusted, spiritual friends and counselors.

12:01 I'm not talking about indiscriminate, completely saying to all of your fellow church members where you are. No, no. The Bible discourages that. We are to follow the example of our Lord Jesus, who as perfect man did not disclose the same levels of his heart to the twelve indiscriminately.

12:22 There are things he said to the multitudes and then he took the twelve aside and said, now look, to you it is given to know things that it's not for them to know. But among the twelve, there were three. He would go up into the mountain into Gethsemane and among the three there was only one that leaned upon his bosom. So therefore our Lord has set the pattern that it is not sinful, that it is not carnal, that you cannot have the same liberty to spill your guts completely with everyone simply because they're a brother or sister in the Lord.

12:52 No, God gives those special friendships and he gives them that we might use them. That's why the book of Proverbs says, a friend near is better than a brother afar away. Far off. So somebody shared the same womb as you and your mother, with your mother, well big deal.

13:10 If they aren't near at hand to bear our hearts to them, what good are they? It's better to have a friend at hand than a brother that is afar off. And so I would urge you men at this time, in this peculiar intimacy even here, as there's an alignment of more intimate friendships and you men I trust are mature enough to handle that without jealousy or insecurity, that you cultivate that ability to bear your heart and to pray with and for one another who would fit into that category of mature, trusted spiritual friends and counselors. Obviously, if a man is married,

The Fourth Channel: A Wife's Support for Married Men

13:53 one of the first questions I ask him, as I did a couple of weeks ago with someone who came to see me from another state to discuss this whole issue, as he laid out the scenario, the scenario of God's dealings with him, I said, all right now brother, where is your wife in all of this? Is she fully on board? Has she grown with you in your growing desire for overseership? And if she hasn't, I tell him, look, that in itself is enough to be a caution light.

14:22 It may not be a red light, but it surely is a caution light because you cannot drag a woman against her will into the responsibilities and the rest that though we don't believe in a team ministry, and God calls a man, one of the requirements is that he have a well-ordered home. Well, how can he have a well-ordered home if he has a wife resentful of her husband's call and the demands it makes upon him? So a married man, you must encourage in giving counsel to others to share his heart to his wife and to see if they are on board and whatever the impediments may be, that these channels for expressing the desire may be used and become an instrument in the hands of God, to help either cultivate or further develop

15:07 or discourage that desire or bank it like we bank a fire at night to stoke it in the morning. And again, God's ways in bringing men into a well-established biblical call are so diverse that we dare not set up ironclad rules, but at least this general counsel, I trust, will be helpful as you wrestle with this yourself and as you will be called upon to give counsel to others. Well, that's all I wanted to say to you men on this first of the four elements that comprise a biblical call to the pastoral office, an enlightened and sanctified desire for the work of the pastoral office.