There are some things you can be sure will happen to, for example, Rocky 1 will always be a great movie and Paul McCartney will always be a great songwriter.
And if you are a shepherd (or plan to be a shepherd), you will sin and they will sin against you. Quoting Bruce Hornsby: “That’s right. ” Gather several sinners in a church, appoint someone to guide them, and as sure as taxes and death, sin occurs.
- So here it is: if you want to be fruitful or effective in pastoral ministry.
- You must learn the biblical art of forgiveness.
- Being unable to forgive would be a grave for forgiveness in the ministry.
Because forgiveness is such a crucial aspect of pastoral ministry, Satan and his sinful nature will conspire together to keep you away from it. Specifically, they will use three distortions, in an effort to get you out of the path of forgiveness and take you to the swamp. bitterness.
DISTORTION 1? I’M NOT A SINNER, I’M A VICTIM
In Matthew 18:28, a servant who had just been given great debt (10,000 talents) found someone who owed him a small sum of money. When he saw this servant, they threw a switch at his head, and then he turned the key. game on this servant:
“But when that same servant left, he found one of his servants, who owed him 100 denrii, and taking him, began to hold him with the assurance saying, “Pay what you owe me. “
The first servant owed him great debt, but forgot everything when he saw the second servant, who owed him a relatively small sum. His first thought was: “He hurt me, let me down and assaulted me. So you owe me a debt!? He took his offended status, pulled out his victim card and got carried away by uncontrolled rage.
As an aspiring pastor, you should always remember: the status we grant ourselves should begin with the gospel and not with our experiences, our pain, our history, or the actions or omissions of others. This is a difficult reality because, we must admit, sin can be horrible!We live in a world of abuse, sexual abuse, rape and murder. Maybe you’ve had one of these tragedies, and if I hear your story, I’d cry with you. These tragedies are real, painful and important.
But in the scriptures, “Did they sin against you?is not the first and first state of the Christian. Instead, our main state is first and foremos s. “beloved of God, but sinner”. It is important to affirm this state because it defines us in our relationship with God. This particular status puts us face to face with a theological reality that offers perspective when considering how they have sinned against us. We have sinned against God more than anyone who has sinned against us. Read this again, this time more slowly. This means that our deepest problem is not that others have sinned against us, but that we have first sinned against God.
Have you noticed that when we think of our stories, we are always at the center of the scene, without committing sin?Other people add to our drama by going into our story and committing sins or omitting things they should have done. But what about us? We are only people who have good intentions, who bless others and spread joy. We’re good people and we always seem to have bad things going on. We live as if they had sinned against us forever!
But Scripture does not describe us primarily as people against whom others sin. In 1 Timothy 1. 15, Paul says of himself: “The word is faithful and worthy to be received by all: that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the leader. “
Although many people sinned against Paul (even stoned him almost to death and beat him with sticks!), He did not consider Himself primarily a victim, but identified himself as a sinner who had been saved by Christ.
If you consider yourself primarily a victim and not a sinner saved by grace, you will never learn how to help people rooted in bitterness or trapped by their own senses of victimization. The gospel will not flow through you until it is first applied to you.
DISTORTION 2? Of course I’m a sinner, but your sins are worse than my
At the heart of resentment is a state that we determine ourselves (sin against me!) And a debt that we deny (of course I sinned against God, but did you see how they sinned against me?) This distortion makes the sins of the Appear other big ones and yours small. More importantly, it spreads the seeds of self-justification in our soul.
The man who justifies himself says: “Of course I am a sinner, but I am better than you. In fact, does my moral superiority offer any advantage in diagnosing and evaluating your heart with authority?In fact, it can get very ugly. Self-justification turns Christians into Pharisees. Or self-adjustment is filtered into the sand of discernment. This is the area where I am most often guilty. My sinful self-justification impels me to raise my own interpretation of one situation and dispense with someone else’s opinion.
Self-justification creates an exchange in which we become judges, rather than God. Do our opinions become charitable in one? By which other people are measured.
It is the boss who will only see a lazy employee because the employee is late once, and the boss is never late, it is the mother who believes that all her children should agree with her opinions, and if they do not, they feel it disapproval. He is the man who refuses to forgive someone even after the person has confessed his sin because the confession did not seem “sincere enough. “
Self-justification distorts our perspective. Instead of living like “They gave me a great debt,” we live like “Of course I have sinned, but look at you!” Few things will sink a pastor faster than self-justification. If you want to be fruitful in pastoral ministry, you must learn to see people more for God’s grace than for their sins. And you must learn to agree with Paul: “That Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the leader?” (1 Timothy 1,15).
DISTORTION 3? I’M NOT A FISHERMAN, I’M A LAW FISHERMAN
At the heart of the lack of forgiveness is the assumption that we have the right to confer guilt and then demand a penalty. We assume that our offended state gives us the right to exact revenge. This is exactly what the servant who did not forgive in Matthew 18:28 did, the aforementioned servant had just received great debt, but when he found a companion who owed him a smaller amount, he demanded the penalty for the least debt. The unforgived servant assumed he had the smallest debt. right to revenge.
What we need to understand is that the cross frees us from our slavery by demanding punishment for small debts. How do you do that? Level the playing field. The cross reminds us that God has forgiven us an incomprehensible debt. Because of his incredible love, God now sends us to convey the same blessing, not the punishment, that we have received.
We are not arbitrators of sanctions, but debtors who have been given great debt, because we are forgiven sinners that we forgive.
The only way to eliminate the distortions of our lives is through the purifying power of the gospel. Constantly reminding himself that he has been freed from the greatest debt will free him from the feeling that he must demand revenge for the sins he has committed against him. You.
In the heart of the gospel there is a great injustice: who was truly the law-abiding person chose not to demand punishment for our sins, but preferred to endure them, punishing himself on the cross. 2 Corinthians 5. 21 expresses it this way:
He who knew no sin, for us made him a sinner; so that in it we may be made righteousness of God.
GET OUT OF THE DISTORTIONS
The cross does not ignore or deny sin. On the contrary, she bravely confronts our worst moments and says, “Your story doesn’t end there. “To get out of the distortions that can afflict your ministry, you must face the great debt you had that God has forgiven you.
If you enter pastoral ministry, people will sin against you, but these moments do not have to define you, why?Because they are part of God’s work in your soul and return to your life. Forgiven sinners forgive sin. And the forgiven shepherds love and help them, while they do.
By: Dave Harvey, © 2015 Call Me? Original: Three distortions that can destroy your ministry
Translation: Joel Pedro Cavani Relectura: Yago Martins. © 2016 Faithful Ministério. All rights reserved. Website: MinistryFiel. com. br. Original: 3 distortions to avoid in your ministry
Authorizations: You are authorized and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format, provided that the author, his ministry and translator are no longer no longer modified and not used for commercial purposes.