The Portrait of a Godly Pastor Part 2

Pastor Mike will be speaking on The Portrait of a Godly Pastor Part 2. He will be reading out of 2nd Corinthians 1:15-24.

How is it every day that you can move forward for God no matter all that’s happened in your past is because you’re not resting and what people have done to you or haven’t done to you you’re not resting in relationships you are resting in Jesus Christ who is the fulfillment of all the promises of God.

This is Pastor Mike Sanders. Are you ready for the Word of God to transform your life? Well we welcome you to Hope Worth Having Radio broadcast today and we’re excited about the opportunity to share God’s Word with you.

Today we’re going to be in 2 Corinthians chapter 1 and we’re going to be in verse 15 through 24 continuing the study that we began last week about the portrait of a godly pastor. There is much confusion in the world that we live in today as to what is a pastor.

Well we’re not looking to the world or the business community for our understanding of the portrait of a godly pastor but we are looking to the Word of God. The Apostle lays that model out for the people of God to look to and we encourage you as we follow along let’s dive into this passage and let’s learn more of the portrait of a godly pastor.

You know that as I was raising my children that there were many times that they wanted to run out into the street. They wanted to ride their bikes in the street but Terry and I would say no. No. Some of the best answered prayers you get are no.

They are no. This is not what God wants for you because it’s a destructive past but also we must remember that when God answers our prayers sometimes he said the timing’s not right. God is going to fulfill that in your life but the timing is not right but God’s timing is better than your timing.

How many of you believe that? And you might think that you’re ready for this blessing. You’re ready for this promise to be fulfilled in your life but God says… You know what, the reason I can’t fulfill that promise in your life is because you are not spiritually ready to receive what I have for you.

I mean, imagine this, if there was a family that wanted to give their 16 -year -old son a brand new Corvette, how many of you think a 16 -year -old is ready for a nice brand new Corvette? But we all know they’re not ready for it, right?

And you’re not ready for all the promises, you know why? Because you’re not spiritually there. You’re not spiritually there. On my heart, I always wanted to pastor, and since the time I was 16 years old, I surrendered to God and I was ready to roll, and after first year of Bible college, I was like, who needs this stuff?

I need to get out there and pastor, but thank God that God said, no Mike, calm down, relax, you need to finish up. I am not gonna set you loose on these people and destroy my church. Hey man, see you get the refined.

Some of you think, man, what’s up with Mike? He’s always got issues and he seems to whatever. And I’m just telling you, this is the refined Mike. I mean, you should have seen me in my 20s. You think I’m brazen now.

You think I’m bold now. You should have seen how messed up I was in my 20s. Peter reminds us in 2 Peter 1 .4, whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises. That by these you might be partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

Did you catch that? That God has exceeding great and precious promises. That God has promises for us and we can rely on these promises of God. And that you and I can live in a consistent and secure life and that the source of our security is found in Christ and his promises because we have the promises of God in our hearts.

We have the promises of God and that in those promises in Christ, they are all yes and amen. It doesn’t mean it’s gonna happen tomorrow. God promises to come back. It doesn’t mean it’s coming back in your timetable.

And as I remind people, God works with the willing, amen. You’re praying for your lost one to get saved. You’re praying for your family. You’re praying for your friends. God did not create us to be robots.

And God did not say, I’m gonna force it on you. God works with the willing. You’re praying for change. You’re praying for this person or that person. You’re praying for your circumstances to be better.

But you gotta remember that God works with the willing. He’s a sovereign God, but he did not create robots. So the promises are true. They are true and they are yes in Jesus Christ. But as we pray and claim those promises, we are…

and understand them in the context that they are built upon who God is and who Jesus is. The Bible says in Hebrews 10 .23, let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering, for he is faithful that promise.

God is faithful to fulfill all his promises. Deuteronomy 7 .9, know therefore that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God which keeps covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations.

God is true to his promises, he is constant in his love to his people and we can live securely because we have the promises of God in our hands and the spirit of God in our hearts. We can go with confidence forward with Jesus knowing that as he is working in us, through us and around us, that his promises are being fulfilled.

and we can stand on those promises and though they may not happen when we want them, we know that God in his perfect timing will bring all things to pass as they should be and he will right every wrong in my life.

That’s the problem is that we believe that somehow in this flawed world that we can right the wrongs. But the truth is that as long as there’s sin in this world and as long as there are sinful and selfish people in this world, every injustice will not be made right in this time, but there is coming a day and oh, what a day that will be.

When all the wrongs that are happening in your life and all the wrongs that are happening in our community, in our culture will be made right and they will find their fulfillment in the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so here you are, you’re struggling with hurts, you’re struggling with heartaches, you’re struggling with people, you’re struggling with relationships and you’re saying Mike, what’s this all got to do with me?

It is simply this, that you and I can rest securely in the promises of God and that when we cannot trust and rest in our relationships that have gone awry, we can always trust and rest in the promises of God.

So this person let you down, that person failed you, this person was absent in your life. What are we gonna do? What are we gonna do church? Life is messed up, people are messed up. How many of you know people are messed up, amen?

I deal with them every day, people are messed up. We gonna curl up, quit, give up, no. We’re gonna claim the promises. And when I can’t trust people, I trust God. And when I don’t trust the political system, I trust God.

And when I don’t trust certain decisions that are being made that are beyond me, I trust God. I’m gonna quit putting my hope in people and put my entire hope in Jesus Christ who is the fulfillment of all of God’s promises.

You see, how is it that you can rise up every day and be joyful? How is it every day you could be thankful? How is it every day you can be forgiving? How is it every day that you can move forward for God no matter all that’s happened in your past is because you’re not resting in what people have done to you or haven’t done to you.

You’re not resting in relationships. You are resting in Jesus Christ who is the fulfillment of all the promises of God in your life. That’s why the more you know the promises, The more that you read the promises, the more that you pray the promises, the more confidence you have.

And your confidence is not in the flesh, your confidence is not in self, but rather your confidence is in Jesus Christ, that he is working out all things together for his good, his glory in your life.

Do you believe that? Do you believe in your heart that God can take the tragic and flip it in your life to make it something triumphant? Do you believe that God can take the brokenness and the scars of your life and he can heal your heart and move you forward for him?

Do you believe that, my friends? Do you believe there’s a sovereign God above who cares about the minute details of your life and is willing to help you to take a step for him? You can believe it and you can believe it because of the promises of God, because God is not vacillating.

God is not tricking you with what he’s saying. God is not trying to mischaracterize what is going on, but God is telling you truth. And let me tell you something. God, the truth will do what, church?

And some of you have strongholds in your mind. Some of you have strongholds in your hearts. Some of you have things that you just will not let go. And it is holding you back. It is keeping you from being all that God wants you to be.

And you let that stronghold give you a bad attitude every day. And you let that stronghold keep you from stepping out by faith. And you let that stronghold wreck your relationship. And you let that stronghold limit your life for God.

When what you need to do is that you need. to let the promises of God tear down the strongholds in your hearts that were built by Satan and the flesh and the world. And you need to let the promises of God to be your security, not the walls you built, not the strongholds that are in your life.

Don’t let that be your security, but let the promises of Jesus Christ be your security. Can God’s people say amen? So Paul was saying this, as he diverts in this great theological truth about the promises of God.

And what he wants the Corinthians to know is this, that God is reliable. And that because God is reliable, that Paul is reliable. And that not only that if you are struggling with the apostle Paul, don’t let the apostle Paul hinder you.

Don’t let a person stop you in moving forward for Jesus Christ, that if you cannot trust Paul and you think he’s unreliable because he changed his plans of his itinerary, that there is a reliable God despite how unreliable you might feel the apostle is.

And so some of you, you’re wrestling with this person in your life and you just need to go beyond. When Daniel was taken into captivity, he was plucked out of his life that he knew. And he was put into a position that everything was changing.

And all that he ever understood and knew was now just like a rug pulled out from underneath him. And there was a lot of insecurities in his life. But yet here’s the thing, that Daniel kept trusting in the sovereign hand of God.

The book of Daniel is simply one thing, God’s in charge. God’s in charge. And not only did this happen to Daniel, it happened to the people of God. And they were now gonna be in a 70 year captivity that was prophesied by Jeremiah.

And that because of their disobedience, they found themselves in this. And here’s Daniel, get this, get this. And I want you to hold on to this. Did Daniel disobey God? No, Daniel purposed in his heart.

Daniel was a young man living for God, trying to do the right thing for God. And yet because of the disobedience of others, he found himself in captivity because of the disobedience of someone else. But here’s what Daniel did.

He purposed in his heart to not defile himself. He purposed in his heart that he would trust God. And that even though he did not agree with Nebuchadnezzar, and even though he did not like his circumstances, he would trust God.

He would know that God is reliable. he would lean on God himself, that even though his world was insecure, that his events were constantly changing, his dynamics of his family had constantly changed, but here’s the one thing that never changed, it was God.

It was his relationship with God. And you say I’m in a situation, I didn’t put myself here, I’m here because someone else put me here, I’m here because other people put me here, I’m bearing the burden of other people in my heart.

Listen to me, that there is a God who is in charge, there is a God who is in control, and that he is gonna help you navigate through these difficult circumstances, and he is gonna do that by giving you promise after promise that it finds its fulfillment in Jesus Christ.

And I know that may be more than what you wanted on a Sunday morning, but it is what you need so you can move forward for Christ. And as Paul is trying to help the Corinthians deal with some of their hang -ups, some of their heart issues, and some of their disobedience, he is taking them back to the promises of God.

And it only gets better, church. It only gets better. Because as we dive into this verse by verse, the fourth thing I want you to see in the portrait of the Apostle Paul as a godly pastor was authenticity.

That he was an authentic man. He was not fake. He was true. What he’s trying to say is, I’m true. I’m authentic in my relationship with God. Now get this, church. Verse 21 and 22. If you thought verse 19 and 20 was exciting, wait till you get to verse 21 and 22.

If you thought 19 and 20 was all that you could take and handled, that your cup is so full it’s overflowing, you better go get a bucket, my friends. Because in verse 21 and 22 he says, now he, referring to God, which establishes us with you in Christ, has anointed us in God, who has also sealed us and given the earnest of the Spirit in our heart.

So let me help you the fourfold work of God in your life. The first thing I want you to know before we get into the fourfold is I want you to see the Trinity at work in your life. And that when you think about your salvation, don’t limit it to just a decision that you made for God, a time that you received Christ as your Lord and Savior, but think of your salvation in its totality from beginning and fulfillment to the point that you stand before Jesus Christ.

Think of it in terms as these biblical words we think about, and that is justification, sanctification, and glorification. What’s that mean, Mike? Justification declared right before God because I believe in Christ.

Sanctified that God’s always working on me. trying to make me more like Jesus every day of my life. Glorification, there’s coming a day that God is going to launch me out of this world even though others may think it’s sad or maybe they think it’s happy.

The bottom line is you get promoted to heaven that God glorifies you and that he glorifies you in your body, in your soul, and in your spirit and you stand before God almighty. And as you stand before God almighty, listen, there is no more sorrow, there is no more offenses, there is no more hurt, there is no more heartaches, there is no more tears, that you stand before God as this person that God has redeemed and pulled out of darkness into light and he is doing a fourfold work in your heart every day no matter what you face today.

So what is this fourfold work? But first that God establishes us in the faith. It is God that establishes us. It’s not my works, it’s not anything that I do, but the scripture tells me in this text that I am established in Christ, I am established in the faith by God, that God is doing this great work, that all of God is doing is drawing me, he is helping me to understand, he is lifting up the blindness in my heart and my mind, and he is bringing me to the point to where I can receive Jesus Christ.

He is granting and blessing me with faith and repentance in my heart, and that it is God that has established me in the faith. The second great work that he is doing is he is anointing me, he is anointing me.

Paul is reminding the church that he’s been established in the faith, like they have been established in the faith, and it was all a work of God, and that he also is being anointed, that it is God who is anointing us.

It is this anointing, it’s referring to an Old Testament custom of marking a person for God’s service. Again, 1 John 2 .20 tells us that you have an anointing from the Holy One. What you may feel like is, maybe beyond what you could embrace theologically is clearly taught in the scripture, that you are anointed by the Spirit of God, you are anointed by God himself, you are anointed that God has a purpose, God has a plan, and that even all the hangups you have in this life, that God is gonna use that to turn things around so that you might find your fulfillment in serving him.

Not licking your wounds, not having a pity party because of your wounds, but rising up, understanding your anointing in Christ, that you have been anointed by God to serve him. You say, you don’t know my life.

Pastor, I don’t, but Jesus does, amen. He hasn’t given up on you. You are anointed, the third great work is you are sealed. This is signifying ownership in your life. Now look, this is not the sealing of an envelope.

This is not taking your tongue and sending a letter and licking the envelope and sealing it and sending it off. This is the authentication that truly you are the child of God. If you and I were to receive a letter from the governor, how would we know that it was the governor?

There would be the seal of the governorship, of the office of the governorship on the letter reminding us that this is official and it comes from the governor. If you get anything that says from the IRS, you better make sure it’s official, amen.

And if they say it’s official, you better do what they say or they’ll come after you. But what I want you to get is that you have a seal. upon your heart, and it is the Spirit of God. Paul is reminding us that we belong to God.

How do you know that you’re an authentic believer? There is the work of the Spirit in you that has been sealed. There is this authentication in your heart that the Spirit is at work. It is proof that you belong to Him.

Ephesians 1, 13, in Him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, you believed in Him and were sealed with the promise of the Holy Spirit. You were sealed. God stamped on your life that you are His.

He verified that you are His. How do I know that the Spirit is upon me? Is that the Spirit’s effect upon me is that first, I am convicted of my sin. The second is I am comforted in my sorrow. And the third is that I am changing in my life.

I’m not who I used to be. How do you know the Spirit’s working in your life? Right there, I just gave it to you. The indwelling Spirit is also a foretaste and a guarantee of what is to come for your heavenly inheritance.

For all of us as believers can think of moments and times where we have been so excited. I mean, we even were a little like the pastor is this morning, so excited about the word of God, so excited about what it’s teaching, that we have moments where we felt very much we were living in glory.

We were so filled with the Spirit and His word. We were so saturated with His truth that the joy was like living waters flowing out of us. And we say, why isn’t that all the time? Because the Spirit is a foretaste of what is to come for you.

You remember when Jesus took Peter, James, and John to the top of the mountain and that he unveiled his glory and they heard Moses and they heard Elijah and they were so excited that Peter said, how about we just build tents and stay here forever?

And Jesus said, no, we gotta go back down there because there’s some people with real issues down there. And there are times in your devotions and there are times in your walk with God that the spirit is so real and the glory is so tangible and that you just wanna stay here forever.

There are times in my office that I would just rather stay there forever studying the reading and living into the word of God that it’s all I could take to just open the door because that’s how awesome it is when the spirit of God is in you and that this is a verification of his work in you.

of a down payment of the spirit, so look at that. He says in verse 22 that not only has he sealed us, but he’s given the earnest of the spirit in our hearts. It is the down payment of your inheritance.

It’s a coming and God is saying, hang on, don’t give up. It’s a coming and that God is gloriously working in your life and that one day this is the way you’ll feel every day. One day this is what you’ll experience every day.

One day every tear’s gonna wipe away. You will be in the moment and the lifetime of ecstasy for years upon years upon years and as the hymnus wrote that after 10 ,000 years it’ll be like we just begun with God.

My friends, that is the work of the spirit in your life. That is the spirit inspiring you to not quit. That is the spirit saying to you that this majestic moment is a down payment of what is to come.

That God means business. If you go out, I remember when we bought our first house that they said you need to put down some earnest money, Mike. I said, what’s earnest money? They said, we need to know that you mean business.

We need to know, Mike, that you’re not gonna back out at the last minute on this contract. We need to let you know that if you put this money down and you decide to change your mind, you lose this money.

I don’t like losing money, amen. So I put the money down and I made sure we finished it all the way to the end and here’s what God has done in your heart, he has given you his spirit and he has given you those moments of glory.

He has given you those moments of majesty. He has worked effectively in your life that you are on cloud 29, much less nine. You’re so excited about what God is. is doing in your heart and what God is doing in your life that you wish it would just be constant and consistent every moment of your life, but it is just a down payment of what is to come for all who believe in Jesus Christ.

And if you think about what is to come, as we read in Revelation, he will be their God and they will be his people, that his presence will not, we know God’s omnipresent, but the manifestation of his presence will not be temporary.

The manifestation and the sense and the feeling of his presence right there consistently in our life will be forever. When you get to heaven, listen, when you get to heaven, your loved ones, they’re there in your life and they’re not gonna ever be taken away from you.

and they’re not gonna have to experience death. And you will hold on to your children, and you will hold on to your spouse, and you will walk in sweet fellowship, and you will be known as you are known in heaven as you were on earth.

You say, Pastor, the Bible says there’s no marriage in heaven. Thank God there’s no marriage in heaven. We might all destroy each other, amen? No, we’re brothers and sisters in Christ, but we will know each other as spouses.

We will know that we were married here on this earth, that in this portrait of God’s love, marriage is a portrait of God’s love for us, that we live that out. But listen, when we get to heaven, all the sorrows, all the sins, all the heartaches, it’s all washed away, all the tears, it’s gone.

It is just 100% utopia for God’s people. How do you know, Mike? Because the Spirit is the down payment from God to you, that He means business. And there is coming a day. There is coming a day. And oh, what a day that will be.

Unfortunately, self -appointed teachers sought to discredit the Apostle Paul before the church, as well as its leaders. And the reason that they did that is it was Satan’s way of attacking the gospel message of salvation by faith through grace, that we are saved by grace through faith, that God has given His Son to us and died on the cross for our sins.

And when we believe, when we repent and believe, He saves us from our sins. And so this message was under attack by attacking the Apostle Paul. But the Apostle Paul lays out those steps to understand the qualification.

of a true minister. So we’ve been learning those qualifications and I hope that has become a standard for you and that it become a model for you that you can look to over and over again. There may be many wonderful people out there, but if they don’t meet these qualifications, they are not the ones that you should submit your souls to and that you should learn from, but that you should always seek those fully qualified individuals who are teaching and training in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Well, I just want to encourage you to make sure that you go to our website, hopeworthhaving .com. We are regularly putting out blogs and there are different lessons out there and we cover things from marriage, parenting, to spiritual maturity and growth and we want to help you to be able to live your faith and to live in hope in these days.

And so if you just need that extra boost and you need that encouragement, don’t be afraid to go to hopeworthhaving .com. Check us out. Let us know how God is working in your life. and we’re thankful for the opportunity to be able to be with you.

This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ there is hope worth having.