It's been six years since I started to pastor at MVBC. My first day in the pulpit was June 7, 2008. What a ride! I'm convinced that there is nothing more challenging or satisfying than being a pastor. I'm thankful for doctors and lawyers, plumbers and electricians, writers and basketball players--but as for me, I want to preach. What a privilege the saints give me at Mount Vernon. If you are one of them, thank you!
I heard today, at the annual SBC meeting, that 9 out of 10 men who start in pastoral ministry don't finish. I'm not sure if that number is accurate or not, it seems hard to believe. But even if it's close to being true, I'm shocked. It makes me thankful for each and every day that I get to serve the local church. I'm especially thankful for each Lord's Day I get to preach.
Stephen was a great preacher. Luke records in Acts 7 how Stpehen spoke to a crowd of skeptics, tracing the storyline of the Bible. He started with God's call to Abraham. He recounted God's faithfulness to bless Abraham with Isaac and Isaac with Jacob and Jacob with the twelve. Stephen spoke of God's providence in taking Joseph to Egypt and of God's goodness in raising Moses to lead the people home. Stephen skillfully reminded his audience how the people rejected Moses and turned their hearts over to idols. Through all this, God perserved with his people; God dwelt in their midst.
Stephen basically expounded the whole Old Testament to drive home the point that the Israelites rejected their faithful God. And then, like a boxer going for the final punch, Stephen applied the text: "You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you . . . they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered" (Acts 7:51-52). Stephen boldly proclaimed the truth. They should have been humbled and cut to the heart. They should have repented and believed.
What happened next? Do you know?
They stoned him to death (Acts 7:58). A sermon that should have ended with applause, ended with blood.
Lord willing, should Christ tarry, God will give me another six years at Mount Vernon and another six after that. Unlike Stephen, I preach to saints who are filled with the Holy Spirit, hungry for the Word of God, and eager for the Spirit to perform surgery on their hearts each week. When they see their sin they run to Christ. I don't take that for granted.
But regardless of the response of the congregation, please pray that I'd be like Stephen. Pray that I'd preach the whole counsel of God, that I'd apply the text faithfully even if it hurts, and that I'd be loving and resolute even when the sermons don't end in applause.