A while back I listened to a series of messages that John MacArthur gave at seminary chapel. One portion in particular got my attention and I went back and transcribed it. I include it below for your benefit, with the note that it’s from an audio message (bolding is mine).
We are in process and we constantly are aware of our weaknesses. I really do believe, and this is from my heart to you…people ask me what the most difficult issue in the ministry. The most difficult issue in the ministry for me to deal with is not some what we call the front-row funnies who distract you and take up your time. The most difficult part of ministry is not trying to sort through marital problems although that can be very challenging to put together the pieces of shattered relationships. The most difficult is not the disappointment of people who fall into sin when you know they know better.
The most difficult issue in ministry for me, bar none, is to realize that I preach a better message than I live. That to me is the greatest burden that I bear. And I know that’s true and it will always be true and I think Paul knew it was true. Nothing made his wretchedness more evident to him than the message that he continually preached about holiness. Do you understand that? So unless you sort of become so self-centered and proud that you in some kind of pattern of sin ride above the reality of your true spiritual condition, all your life long as you minister the word of God you will suffer from the reality that you are not the man you preach. The challenge is to be as close to it as you can. If you are really passionate about the truth and you really care about the truth and it matters to you and holiness is important to you and honoring Christ and worshipping God is important to you, you will all your life suffer the pain of having to preach truth of which you cannot consistently live. Now that’s not to say that you ‘re a hypocrite, that you ‘re willfully doing this. It is to say that unwillingly you are caught in the reality of your humanness and the thing you most despise is not the sin in others but the sin in yourself. We are weak and there is no question about that.
Off to Work Day!
Amen to that. What a humble reminder that we are teaching the awesome, infallible, lifr-changing and true Scriptures. Not only that, but we are called just as Paul commands us to “Conduct ourselves in a manner worthily of the Gospel of Christ” (Phil 1:27). Thanks Todd for that quote. What a reminder for me!