When a boy is selected for the National Football League, he is well aware that his future is in serious pain; knows that summer training will be hot and that technicians will crush it; he knows that rival players are asking for an opportunity to hit him with violent force, he knows that his ligaments will stretch and that his joints will hurt, and as if that wasn’t enough, he is aware that his biggest mistakes will be repeated on television, while millions of viewers mock him. his poor performance on the field.
Undoubtedly: if a boy wants to succeed in football, he must be prepared to face the risks of the profession.
- A man seeking pastoral care must also be fully aware of the risks of the profession that lie ahead.
- Think of it this way: the church is a gathering of sinners guided by sinners; and where sinners gather.
- Sin occurs.
- Bold! The New Testament certainly confirms this: when the Corinthians did not justify sexual immorality (1 Corinthians 5.
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- They were brought before the courts (1 Corinthians 6.
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- The Galatians turned away from the Gospel with Peter.
- The same disciple who witnessed the transfiguration and resurrection.
- Leading to hypocrisy (Galatians 2: 12-14).
I think it was Colson who said the local church is like Noah’s Ark: the smell would be unbearable without the storm outside.
Here’s my point: if you expect to enter pastoral ministry, do you have to be prepared to face sin?Yours, mine, ours, everyone else’s!As a leader, there will be times when you find yourself in a family role, so that someone sins against you. There will be trials, anger, gossip, disloyalty, cruel emails, malicious comments, cynical jokes and poignant comments about your family. Sometimes it can be pretty ugly.
How a pastor responds to sin against him determines the direction of his ministry. I think it’s because the way the pastor acts when he sins against him reveals his understanding of the gospel. Therefore, a man called to preach is a man called to understand certain things about forgiveness.
Let’s start with the most important thing
A MAN NAMED IS A MAN TO FORGIVE
In Matthew 18:21 we see Peter ask the following question before Jesus: “Lord, how many times does my brother sin against me, that I may forgive him?Up to seven times?”
It’s hard to know exactly what prompted Peter’s question. A friend had provoked him, and now he wondered how many times would he have to forgive before hitting him on the head?Maybe they’ll give us a little idea of Peter’s own vision of forgiveness (?Seven times, it’s okay. But, oh, the madman who makes me fail eight times!?). Whatever the reason for the question, Jesus ends peter’s entire paradigm by saying, “I don’t tell you this up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven?”(Matthew 18:22).
Then comes the mental tsunami. Jesus systematically destroys the entire concept of Peter’s forgiveness with an incredible parable about canceling a debt. Let me summarize. In the first scene of the parable, a king forgives an absurd debt of 10,000 talents. To understand the true scope of this cancellation, you must understand that a single talent represented around 20 years of salary. A talent was the measure of greatest value. And Jesus did not take the number 10,000 at random. This number was the highest Greek figure. In other words, the debt that was remitted was unintelligible, astronomically high. Jesus tries to illustrate forgiveness on an almost incomprehensible level.
Jesus then moves on to scene two, in which the newly forgiven debtor encounters a man who owes him a small sum of money. The first debtor became uncontrollably enraged with the second debtor, giving him a very tight neck and demanding that the debt be The second debtor could not repay this small debt, and the first debtor sent him to jail.
When the king learns of the small actions of the man he has recently forgiven, he calls him to explain them and then put him in jail.
To make sure that Peter, who was always a little slow to understand things, was not lost in the discussion, Jesus summed up the point in the parable by saying, “Will Heavenly Father do it too if you do not forgive each of your brethren from within?(Matthew 18:35).
What does this long passage have to do with pastoral ministry?Just this: pastors are the first (and most important) sinners forgiven, and forgive sinners very much.
If you enter pastoral ministry, people will inevitably sin against you, in fact, as a leader, people will sin against you in a unique way, because you will give direction and tell the truth, and people will react and respond in different ways. . Sometimes you will be the lightning rod of sin and criticism. You must live conscious of all that has been forgiven in you so that there is a willingness to forgive when they sin against you. Forgiven sinners forgive sin.
For forgiveness to be real, it can’t be limited to you. For forgiveness to bear fruit in your ministry, you must pass it on to others. The funny thing about forgiveness is that it comes with an attached divine redundancy. You are called to reproduce, the forgiveness you have received from others.
This raises an important question. Considering the call to ministry, are you prepared to accept the call to sin and forgive?Is there a package full of cruelty in your life?Are there people in your past you hold a serious grudge against?If that’s the case, now’s the time to deal with it. Forgiveness, like gangrene, has a way of rotting in our souls. In slander for the soul, he speaks to us and whispers to us, reminding us of the injustices committed and the unresolved grudges. If you don’t deal with forgiveness, it will seriously affect your effectiveness in the department.
But I’m not just going to tell you to “get over it” as if forgiveness were like a minor wound that you can ignore. However, there are things to do. For example, I want to encourage you to reflect on Ephesians 4:32, which says, “Rather be kind and compassionate to one another, forgive one another, just as God in Christ has forgiven you too. “The way to forgiveness is to consider the great debt God has forgiven you. God has forgiven each of us for an incredible, impressive and incomprehensible debt. We have been forgiven greatly, but are we willing to love much (Luke 7:47)?Are you ready to pass this pardon on to others?
If you pursue pastoral ministry, you must face this fundamental reality: forgiven sinners forgive sin. His effectiveness as a shepherd will require him to believe in it and apply it so that others can experience and enjoy it.
Translation: Joel Pedro Cavani Review: Yago Martins © 2016 Faithful Ministério All rights reserved. Website: MinisterioFiel. com. br: The path of pastoral care is the path of forgiveness
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