A Pastor I know personally described his calling one day. In his words, this is what he said…
“I’m a firm believer in the fact that every WORD of God is PURE (Prov.30:5). I believe the real POWER of the WORD of God is actually in the WORDS of God, and that my job as an expositor is just to keep my grubby little hands off ’em!
My job is not to CORRECT what God said, CHANGE what He said, ALTER it, ADD TO it, TAKE AWAY FROM it, or try to IMPROVE upon it! My job is simply to expose WHAT He said, HOW He said it, WHEN He said it, WHERE He said it, WHY He said it, and to WHOM He said it.
My job is to bring the FOOD of the Word of God out of God’s KITCHEN to the TABLE of God’s people exactly as He prepared it, in a timely manner, and with a gracious spirit. I am simply the WAITER… I am not the CHEF.
My job isn’t to seek to be LIKED… APPRECIATED… ESTEEMED… LAUDED… APPLAUDED… or ADMIRED.
My job is to make certain the Word of God is PREACHED (2Tim.4:2-4) and MAGNIFIED (Ps.138:2)… so that the name of the Lord Jesus Christ is EXALTED… HALLOWED… HONORED… GLORIFIED… and PRAISED.
My job is not to BUILD the church, my job is to PROCLAIM the Truth, and allow the LORD to build HIS church (Matt.16:18). And all of these realities make me cry out with Paul: “Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach… the unsearchable riches of Christ”(Eph.3:8). I couldn’t be more humbled… blessed… or thankful!”
Sounds like he knows “his” place.
