Pastor – value rest, and recreation

Preachers, by Lack of Exercise and Recreation, Tend to Melancholy

There can be little doubt that sedentary habits have a tendency to create despondency in some constitutions…

…To sit long in one posture, poring over a book or driving a pen, is in itself a taxing of nature. But add to this a badly ventilated chamber, a body which has long been without muscular exercise, and a heart burdened with many cares, and we have all the elements for preparing a seething caldron of despair…

…Let a man be naturally as blithe as a bird, he will hardly be able to bear up year after year against such a suicidal process. He will make his study a prison and his books the warders of a goal, while Nature lies outside his window calling him to health and beckoning him to joy. He who forgets the humming of the bees among the heather, the cooing of the wood pigeons in the forest, the song of birds in the woods, the rippling of rills among the rushes, and the sighing of the wind among the pines, needs not wonder if his heart forgets to sing and his soul grows heavy.

A day’s breathing of fresh air upon the hills or a few hours’ ramble in the beech woods’ umbrageous calm, would sweep the cobwebs out of the brain of scores of our toiling ministers who are now but half alive. A mouthful of sea air, or a stiff walk in the wind’s face, would not give grace to the soul, but it would yield oxygen to the body, which is next best.

Charles Spurgeon from When a Preacher is Downcast

Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;  you were bought at a price. Therefore honour God with your body.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20

Pastor – pray!

  

Prayer is the splicing of our limp wire to the lightening bolt of heaven. How astonishing it is that God wills to do His work through people. It is doubly astonishing that He ordains to fulfil His plans by being asked to do so by us. God loves to bless His people. But even more He loves to do it in answer to prayer.

For example, God knew that His purpose was to increase the men of Israel. But He said, “this also I will let the house of Israel ask me to do it for them: to increase their people like a flock.” (Ezekiel 36:37)….

…A pastor who feels competent in himself to produce eternal fruit –which is the only kind that matters- knows neither God nor himself. A pastor who does not know the rhythm of desperation and deliverance must have his sights only on what man can achieve.

John Piper as quoted in brothers we are not professionals

The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.

James 5:16b

Pastor – live what you preach

It is absolutely unethical when one is so busy communicating that he forgets to be what he teaches…

Nothing is more dangerous than to have a bunch of high-flying feelings and exalted resolutions go off in the direction of merely eloquent speaking. The whole thing then becomes an intoxication, and the deception is that it becomes a glowing mood and that they say, “he is so sincere!"

Soren Kierkergaard as quoted in Calling and Character

You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. Now we know that God's judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. So when you, a mere man, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God's judgment?  Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God's kindness leads you toward repentance?

^…if you are convinced that you are a guide for the blind, a light for those who are in the dark, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of infants, because you have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth-- you, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who brag about the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? As it is written: "God's name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you."

Romans 2:1-4, 19-24

Pastor – preach the word

[Superficial preaching] breeds a congregation that is as weak and indifferent to the glory of God as their pastor is. ‘Seeker-sensitive’ preaching fosters people who are consumed with their own well-being. When you tell people that the church’s primary ministry is to fix for them whatever is wrong in this life- to meet their needs, to help them cope with their worldly disappointments, and so on- the message you are sending is that their mundane problems are more important than the glory of God and the majesty of Christ… that sabotages true worship.

From John Macarthur in Preaching: how to preach biblically

In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage--with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.

 2 Timothy 4:1-5