scripture lesson this evening is 2nd Timothy chapter 2 verses 1 through 7 as we consider the question am I called to the ministry a trust will recognize probably immediately if that's not a question only for young men that's a question for a congregation a Church of Jesus Christ with perhaps but more particular application for young men but this is a this is a matter that we take up each one of us as part of our a joyful obligation to the Lord in relation to the ministry. The Apostle Paul speaking to the church, but writing directly to Timothy in the words of the Holy Spirit says this, you then my child be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also. Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuit, since his aim is to please the one who enlists him. athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules it is the hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops think over what I say for the Lord will give you understanding in everything amen throughout this series on vocation we've at least Particularly in the beginning of this series, we recognized that throughout much of church history, only so-called religious workers had what was considered to be a calling. Ordinary people, so to speak, simply had jobs. There was a radical distinction between what was seen as the sacred and the secular, and that applied to work life as well. But all believers, we've tried to... assert throughout this series are, in fact, as Psalm 113.1 says, servants of the Lord, not just those who work in the sanctuary, so to speak, but who work in the world as well. A few weeks ago in our morning service, we had a guest minister who referenced a chapter in R.B. Kuyper's Glorious Body of Christ or Glorious Bride of Christ. And the chapter was on the idea of the priesthood of all believers. And Kuyper says in that chapter, every living member of the body of Christ is undeniably a partaker of Christ's anointing, and hence a prophet, a priest, and a king. You hear allusion there to the Heidelberg Catechism. gospel ministry is but one of countless opportunities to live out the office of believer. And so Paul Helm is right, and I think this is helpful when he says this, the difference between minister and cobbler is functional. It's functional. Both are equal as believers before God. This is, of course, the Reformation insight, not the medieval insight, but both are equal as believers before God. Both have worthwhile work, but that work is different merely because each has a different gift and opportunity. Gift and opportunity, that's the difference. It's a functional difference. Nor does the special call to gospel ministry restrict anyone from Christian service. We're all in Christian service together. All believers are called to serve the King, living life on the witness stand, bearing testimony to the gospel. I don't know if this is unique language to Charles Spurgeon, but he made the point to say every believer can and must disseminate the gospel. Disseminate simply means spread seeds, cast out the seeds. Every believer does that. It's not just the minister. Paul uses that language, doesn't he, in 1 Corinthians, that so-and-so planted and so-and-so watered, but God provides the increase. But it's not just ministers who disseminate the gospel or spread the seeds. We've looked at some months ago how in the early church it was regular Christians who spoke the gospel in Antioch, just to use one example, so that, as chapter eight says, a great number believed and turned to the Lord. There, under the influence of ordinary believers, the disciples were first called Christians. The evangelists were not ordained pastors, but verse 21 of chapter 11 says, the hand of the Lord was with them. And so, we are going to make a distinction, of course, in the particulars of this calling, but it's not to undermine the true gospel ministry of every believer. And yet, as scripture teaches, there must be pastors and teachers, as Paul says in Ephesians 4, to equip the saints for the work of the ministry, for building up the body of Christ. The calling of a minister, which I hope has been evident from the thrust of this series, the calling of a minister is not a better work than others. But for some, becoming a minister is the best work because God has called them to it. But that's true of any calling. Your best work is the work that God has called you to. That's true for me as much as it is true for anyone here. And so, We want to consider this evening that question, am I called to the ministry? And I think that the main reason that I think is important for us to reflect on this together this evening rather than say, for example, calling a meeting of young men after a service and say, let's talk about this, brothers, you might be called to the ministry, let's ask that question about you. The reason we think about this as a congregation is because too often, How God calls men to the ministry is needlessly shrouded in mystery. Right? How does it happen? What is it like? And if we don't even know how to answer those questions, then we feel, I have no part in this process. And so because of that, not only do often men, young men or older men, give little thought to the possibility of gospel service. I don't even know how God does this, probably not for me, but believers also fail to help them find their calling because we don't understand that process. And so if God calls ordinary Christian men to become pastors, we should know how he does it. That's true for all of us. We should know how He does it. So I want to engage two more particular questions this evening. First of all, how are men called to the ministry? And second, what kind of men, or what are possible signs to a call to the ministry? What are possible signs? What kind of men are called to the ministry? So first of all, how are men called to the ministry? And put simply, We could say this, qualified men are sent by the church to speak for Christ. Qualified men are sent by the church to speak for Christ. So qualified men must fit a certain pattern and are sent by the church. They aren't self-sent. They don't go out on their own and they have a specific task to speak for Christ. We see that all in Romans chapter 10 verses 14 and 15. Now that sending process, just like the calling process for every single person in God's kingdom, that sending process will be different for every man. But the pattern we should expect is, and I think this is important, less like the dramatic and unmistakable call of the Old Testament prophets, and more like the pathway to ministry of Paul's spiritual son, Timothy. Now, let's think about Timothy for a moment. compared with, for example, Ezekiel's call, which we've been studying for months, which we don't have to look at because of our study, but you see the extraordinary character of it. God comes to him in the vision of majesty, he falls down on his face, and God says, rise up and go speak for me. That's dramatic, it's unmistakable, there's no question about it. The calling process for the minister today is more nuanced than that. But Timothy, as a good example, We can say a few things about him. He was raised in a godly home. That's, of course, not a qualification for a minister, but was the reality for Timothy was raised in a godly home. He was converted to Christ as a young man. He developed a reputation, a good reputation in the church. We read about that in Acts, Chapter 16, verses one and two. He was spoken of well in the church. And so when Paul met him and heard about him, he as he says in Acts 16 verse 3, wanted Timothy to accompany him. And so we read in 1 Timothy 4 and 2 Timothy 1 that the council of elders laid their hands on him to set him apart for the ministry. Now, I give Timothy's example not to suggest that Timothy's story is programmatic, that every, called to the ministry will look like Timothy's. Of course, many called to the ministry weren't raised in godly Christian homes and so on. But I do think his example may help demystify the calling process. Timothy, unlike Paul, unlike Ezekiel, had no Damascus Road experience, had no meeting by the Kabar Canal of the majesty of God. He was a faithful man, a gifted man, taken from presumably another calling in which he was serving faithfully and potentially to continue serving in well, but he was taken from that calling to serve the church. So how do men like Timothy enter the ministry? How may young men like perhaps some men, young men or boys in this congregation enter the ministry among us? And I think there's three answers, at least three answers to that question that scripture puts before us. And the first is prayer. Men are called to the ministry through prayer. Jesus once appointed 72 men to go preach the gospel and you think well that's that's a great number first there's only 12 disciples and now he's sending out 72 men may sound like a lot but he knew that many more than that would be needed and so he says in Luke 10 verse 2 the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few and And so what do we do? He says, well, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. And that shortage of gospel servants is a reality also today. It is not uncommon for denominations to have pastoral vacancy rates of anywhere from 10% to 20%. That's the case in our own denomination, approximately 10% to 20% vacancy rate with more retiring ministers on the way. And even churches that aren't vacant would benefit from more pastors, more evangelists, more church planters, And so what do we do? We pray. We pray that God would raise up pastors who would reflect God's heart for the church to plant and water and harvest a people for his name. And that call to prayer is not just for the congregation, it's also for young men who may be sensing, wondering if he's called to the ministry. Pray to the Lord that the Lord would help you to be faithful in your present responsibilities, to continue serving in whatever capacity God has currently called you, and to humbly, faithfully, courageously respond to the possibility of a call to the gospel ministry. And so, the first answer to the question of how are men called to the ministry is through prayer. We pray as a congregation. We should do that more. I should be doing that more with you. Pray also, young men, if you're curious, interested, feeling an impulse to that. Secondly, we should consider the importance of encouragement. If there are young godly men in our congregation, the Lord might be calling some to the ministry of the word and sacraments. And he might answer your prayers for gospel workers according to Jesus' command through your sincere encouragement." I suspect it's true that every, probably every minister, certainly most ministers would say if you answered, how did you begin to gain a sense of affirmation to your call to the ministry? They would say, well, because of the encouragement of people in the church. people who may be my Sunday school teachers, or family members, or ministers or elders, that encouragement made me more willing to think about a thing that otherwise seemed hard to think about. So pastors and elders should seek and equip faithful men whom God might use to shepherd the flock. That's the command, isn't it, to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2, verse 2. He says, what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. That's the calling of the church, the calling of the elders in particular to seek out and equip faithful men for ministry. Church leaders should also be testing potential future pastors long before they go to seminary, giving them opportunities in which to serve and evaluating their gifts. Parents also have an important role to play in the calling process. I'm going to read something from William Perkins, who, as I've mentioned before, is considered the father of English Puritanism, and it's going to sound too strong. I'm just warning you that it's a strong quotation on how parents may facilitate this calling process, but I think his attitude is right. if the sentiment is a bit extreme. He says this, but this would potentially solve the problem of shortages of ministers in the churches. He says, every Christian parent... by virtue of his general calling, that is the calling as a Christian, Christian parent, by virtue of your general calling is to dedicate some of his male children as much as possible to the service of the ministry, if they have gifts and inclination of nature for that calling. Now, that may sound extreme. He's saying literally every family should be dedicating as many of their sons as possible to the ministry. No, he qualifies that by saying if, they have the gifts and inclination of nature for that calling, so then he's exactly right. Simply, really what Perkins is saying is, parents, be urging your children, equipping your children, encouraging your children to find the calling that's appropriate for them. That may not be pastor, but he's saying don't leave out the ministry as a parent in your encouragement of your sons, in this case, to find their calling. be dedicating to have a mind of Hannah, to dedicate a son or more to the ministry if God grants. It isn't presumptuous for a parent to help a son think through the possibility of pastoral ministry. In fact, without such encouragement, particularly from parents, many young men might simply shrug off thoughts of a pastoral calling, which for many young men especially does seem presumptuous to think that I'll be a minister one day. Well, how do you continue to entertain that thought even? Well, by the encouragement, particularly of parents, elders, and other church people. And then young men should also seek encouragement. How will people know to encourage your possible pursuit of the ministry if they don't know that it's on your heart? And so you may certainly seek out encouragement. Now, you may not get encouragement, you might get discouragement if the need may be. And we'll touch on that in just a little bit. But do ask, you know, mom, dad, what do you think about this? Elder, pastor, what do you think about this? So prayer, encouragement, and then third, ordination. Now, it seems like we're jumping quite a ways ahead in terms of how men enter the ministry, but this is important to mention here. Ultimately, no one knows if he is called to the ministry until a church officially calls him to pastor their congregation and charges him to take heed of the flock, which the Holy Spirit has called him to help oversee, as Acts 20.28 says. And so really, in a sense, it's not accurate for a young man, not yet in the ministry, to say, I'm called to be a minister. You may be, you might be called to the ministry, but you'll know that you're called to the ministry when that process reaches its fruition through the actual, literal, paper call of a church to the ministry, where the church says, we believe it is God's will for you to come and pastor this congregation, and you accept that call, and you're ordained into the ministry. But this is important. This is important to recognize here. The internal call that a man might sense must be confirmed by a literal external call and the laying on of hands. That's how you know. But along the way, there will likely be indicators of a man's calling to the ministry. That confirmation of the church, on the one hand, prevents men or should prevent men from saying, I know I'm called to the ministry and boy, will I be a gift to the church. I'm so certain of my calling. No, it's the church who confirms that. But it also says that the church that will ultimately confirm a man to the ministry should also be encouraging and playing a role along the way. So prayer, encouragement. ordination. That's how God, if we could look at it very briefly, it's how God calls men to the ministry. But that brings up the second question. What are possible signs of a call to the ministry? How would we describe the not only whether a man has a real internal calling, but how would the church begin to proceed toward this external confirmation? In addition to understanding the calling process, a man considering the ministry and his church should evaluate his qualifications for ministry. I find it interesting that the qualifications for ministry found, for example, in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1, most of which are actually traits for all believers to be striving for, or at least approximations of traits that all people should be striving for, but they are required for officers in the church. And so, That helps us to answer the question, what kind of a man does God call into the ministry? What are some possible signs of a call to the ministry? Well, that he is at least, you know, at a certain level fits the qualifications that God requires of overseers. in those passages. And there's a lot of them, and so we're not going to go through any of them in detail, but I think it's helpful that John Newton, who you may know at one time had what we really should call a non-vocation, as really a kidnapper and a slave trader, but God called him into the vocation of the gospel ministry. And through that process, he identifies three signs of a ministerial call. So John Newton is taking those sort of many qualifications in the pastoral epistles and consolidating them into three, and I think that's, I find that very helpful. First of all, he speaks of the sign of desire. So what are some possible signs to a call to the ministry? Number one, the call, the sign rather of a desire. Paul's first word, at least in 1 Timothy 3, his first word on pastoral qualification commends a man's desire to be a pastor. If a man desires to be an overseer, he desires a good thing, Paul says. You have that desire. Surely, this is not what one writer, helpfully puts as a naturalistic sense of attraction. There's a wrong desire to the ministry and surely that wrong desire brings men into the ministry every single year, men who shouldn't be in the ministry because their desires are naturalistic according to the flesh, a desire to be heard. I mean, you think about how that can appeal to the flesh, where else in the world can a person presume to step up and speak for, you know, 30 minutes, 45 minutes to an hour, and everybody listen. That can really appeal to the flesh. You need to resist that naturalistic sense to be heard, or a craving for reputation, or power, or wealth, which of course is not a reality in every ministry, but in some ministries it is. And so, not that kind of a desire. But a man who's truly called will want to be used by God in the salvation of sinners and the strengthening of saints. So it's not this idea, boy, if I could just be a pastor, wouldn't that be something to be a minister and I could wear a suit and people could look up to me and so on. It's really the reality of how do I, I can't contain this desire to help play some small role in the salvation of sinners and the strengthening of the saints. He'll possess an internal yearning for the ministry. One pastor put it this way, you must feel that burden, that tug of the heart, that nagging, piercing prod from the Lord that He, at least perhaps, is calling you to this holy task. Now, some of the words that that pastor uses might not begin as strongly as that, so don't be discouraged if you're Desire isn't as strong as that, but there of course must be a real interest, a want for this. Unlike many other vocations, the ministry actually requires a genuine passion for the work. We said in one of the earlier sermons in the series, you actually do not have to have a passion. to do a really God-honoring job in most vocations. You can thank the Lord that He's given you something to do to provide for your family. You don't have to love everything that you do, but you really do have to have a passion for the ministry. It won't work without it. That desire for the ministry not only may not be carnal or naturalistic, but it needs to be informed. It can't be a sort of romanticized concept of the ministry, an old-fashioned, outdated concept of what the ministry was at one time. It needs to be informed. Young men should talk with experienced pastors to understand the challenges, to be able to truly count the cost, to not be like that person in Jesus' parable who begins to build a building and after laying the foundation can't go any further because His dreams are dashed, his bubbles are bursted. The ministry is not what I thought it was going to be. Better to find those things out earlier on. And this is especially important considering that as our church order understands the calling to the ministry, it's a lifetime calling. Only in extraordinary circumstances should a man be released from ministry. And so that desire, which is good and necessary, needs to be informed, needs to be educated by way of scripture and experience. So there's the sign of desire. You must have an interest in being used by God in this particular field, this particular calling. Second, there is what John Newton calls the sign of competency, the sign of competency. A man who may possibly be called to the ministry must generally meet the biblical qualifications of an overseer. God's people must see in him an imperfect but true reflection of the good shepherd. I need to stress both of those words. Imperfect, underdeveloped, unrealized, but real, true, accurate reflection of the Good Shepherd. There must be, even early on, at least in order for you to begin to discern a calling, there must be a real shepherd's heart. Whether you're 10 or 12 or 18 or 25, must be a shepherd's heart. heart man will have a high view of Scripture and an eagerness to obey it he will to a degree appropriate for his age and development be wise and kind and courageous loving convictional sympathetic he should possess a great capacity for discouragement and and the ability to graciously receive both just and unjust criticism, he should know his own weaknesses, not have a overinflated view of his giftedness. He'll have to be in the ministry self-disciplined and self-controlled, not having someone, not unlike other vocations as well, but not having someone watching over and say, now you do this and now you do that. manage time wisely. A good pastoral candidate will be generally competent, likely to succeed in any field, but especially equipped for pastoral work. Charles Spurgeon on this theme says the last thing we want is men who are totally unfit for any other work. And so they say, well, there's always the ministry. I can always become a pastor. He says, no, the opposite should be true. He should be generally qualified for any number of vocations, could succeed well anywhere. But this is his calling. His gifts will not be fully developed. In fact, that will never happen. I believe not even in glory will our gifts be fully developed because there will be development, and so we shouldn't expect a fully you know, a mini-pastor who's, you know, 12 or 18 or 20 or whatever, he's developing. He'll be developing. He, of course, need not be a genius, but he must have sufficient and growing intellectual strength in order to rightly divide the word of truth, as Paul says in 2 Timothy 2.15. He need not be a natural orator, perhaps best if not even, but he should be a good communicator and willing to get better at the craft through input and criticism and correction and all the rest. To see how a man might pastor, it's also essential that he have a positive history. when I say positive, I mean not necessarily for a whole lifetime, but a long enough history in the church as a maturing person to be able to say, we have some track record, we see where you're going. And that's why Paul says in 1 Timothy 3.16 that he must not be a recent convert. sometimes a person gets converted to Christ and the first thing they say is I want to become a you know I want to go to seminary I want to become a pastor and maybe seminary is enough time to start developing a track record but that's very important positive history we asked questions Like this, since coming to faith in Christ, whether as a young person or as an older person, how has the man actually been serving the Lord? Before he gets tasked to do it officially by the church, how is he doing it now in ways appropriate to his age and limitations and so on? Is he involved in the life of the church? Is he growing in the gifts required for the ministry? And of course, it shouldn't be left to the man to answer these questions. The congregation and her leaders should weigh in to help affirm or possibly deny a man's sense of calling. And frankly, the church hasn't always done a great job of either of those things. There are men who are ministers now who should have been discouraged from entering the ministry, and the marks were there. that they should not be in the ministry, but the church perhaps didn't have the courage to say, son, you don't have the calling here. We don't we don't sense it. We don't see it. So we have to be willing to do both to help affirm or possibly deny a man's sense of calling. And then. In addition to the sign of desire and the sign of competency, John Newton speaks of the sign of ordination, which we've touched on before. Ministers must be sent by the church. That's the final, the best, clearest sign. And that's in contrast. in our day to many self-proclaimed ministers. All it takes to become a pastor today is to simply say it. I'm a pastor of this or that or the other thing. And Spurgeon puts it bluntly in saying, an ambassador, which a minister we believe is, an ambassador unsent would be a laughingstock. Imagine showing up to some foreign country and going up to their, you know, into their, their places of government and say, I come here as an ambassador of the United States. And the people would likely ask, well, who sent you? What is your title? No, I sent myself. And he said, it's a laughingstock. A man truly called by God to the gospel ministry will be noticed, affirmed, equipped, supported, examined, authorized, and commissioned by the church of Jesus Christ. Paul Helm summarizes, again, not putting it in terms of a program, but summarizes what this may look like. He says, generally, a person will carry on a normal calling. I would almost say it's more than generally, it's certain that a man will, before becoming a minister, carry on a normal calling. And that's true because if you're a young man of 12 or 15 right now, your normal calling right now is that of a son. that of a student, that of, you know, a catechism class member. You're in a normal calling right now, so generally a person will carry on a normal calling, continuing in the place that God and His providence has put him. And it is when he is inwardly constrained to preach the gospel and his gifts, his ability to handle scripture, to preach, to give leadership, are recognized by the church that his inward call comes to be outwardly ratified. That's what God is doing. He's been doing it since the beginning of the ministry. calling men who are faithful in what they're doing, faithful in little things to be faithful in bigger things. And that's, of course, true outside of the ministry as well. It's the same thing we've been saying throughout this series. Puritan John Aerosmith simplified the requirements for a lawful calling into the gospel ministry in a similar way. He said, ability, inclination, and separation, or ordination. Ability, inclination, and separation. The process is really not mysterious. I mean, it is mysterious in the sense that all of God's works are not revealed to us in full, so there's a degree of we don't know exactly what God is doing, but it's really, in a certain sense, no different from any other calling in terms of the process. The process is not mysterious, but the calling, like every calling, is great. No man, as Paul says, is sufficient for these things. But then he goes on, just acknowledging that, to say, but God is our sufficiency. And so a young man, considering the ministry, should have both of those sentiments in mind. No man is sufficient for these things. I'm not sufficient for it. But our sufficiency is from God. After all, the gospel ministry is God's ministry. God's ministry there's no place really for a pastor to say my ministry it's it's God's ministry and he's allowed me to come in as a worker The gospel ministry is God's ministry. People plant, people water, but God provides the growth, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3.6. God allows people, not just ministers, but including ministers to assist in the transformation of lives. It's a great privilege, whether you're ordained or unordained, to participate in that. process, but he is the Lord of the harvest. That's what Jesus says. He says, pray to the Lord of the harvest that he will send workers into his field. Ministers are just men through whom the merciful God cares for his people. And so in this glimpse at the calling to the ministry, what we really see is the goodness of God to his people. ministering to us, caring for us in our troubles, in our weaknesses, in our needs, in different ways than every other believer is solving the world's problems also through their vocations. And so whatever it is, what we see behind the vocation is the Lord. As remember, Martin Luther called vocation the mask of God. behind that mask, whether the mask is the mask of ministry or the mask of whatever it is, is the Lord. And so knowing that, that the Lord serves us in the church through ministers, there's an ongoing need for it. We should want him to raise up men for the job. And so we pray and we work through encouragement and all the rest, trusting that he'll do it. Let's pray that the Lord would do that. Lord of the harvest, we thank you for sending workers into the field to gather your harvest. We thank you that you've continued to do that, to raise up ministers in our own lives from many different churches and possibly many different backgrounds and traditions. play a role in our lives as you've done also through so many countless more of unordained people we thank you for this particular calling and we pray even for those who may be sitting in the pews right now in this church that you would fan into stronger flame that is interest, that desire, that passion to serve in this calling to see Christ glorified. We pray that you would help us all in our responsibilities to see that people are served through men in the ministry. So we look to you to fill the vacancies in our own denomination and to provide workers to go perhaps even where there are no vacancies but where the need also is great. Hear our prayers for we offer them in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ.