TOPIC:‌"The Charge to a Minister"

‌           (Installation of a Minister)

                  by Rev. Dr. Reg Dunlap

 

TEXT:‌John 1:1-8

 

"There was a man sent from God, whose name was John" (John 1:6)

 

‌Charles Hadden Spurgeon, the prince of all preachers, when addressing a group of young men who felt called to enter the ministry, declared: "If God calls you to be a minister, don't stoop to be a king."

 

‌Now in that statement by Mr. Spurgeon, two truths emerge that I want you to catch. The ministry is the greatest calling in all of the world. And secondly, God is the one who does the calling. In the Bible verse before us we find out that John the Baptist was one of those God-called and God-sent men. He was a fresh voice from God.

 

‌That, I believe, is true of __________________________  _____________________ who is being installed today as Senior Pastor of ________________  ___________________ Church. He is a man of God. He is a man sent from God. He is a fresh voice from God for _____________________   _____________________ Church. Let me say three important things about that.

 

I.

 

‌Consider, for one thing, a man sent from God is DIVINELY COMMISSIONED. I am concerned that the verb in our text gets the recognition it deserves: "There was a man sent." He was sent from God.

 

‌A genuine minister of the Gospel is consciously and unshakably certain that he has been divinely called of God. He is not self-appointed. He has a compelling conviction that God has put him into the ministry. Such is the conviction of a man sent from God.

 

‌The minister who will do honor to the church he is to serve is the minister who lives in the great tradition of divinely and commissioned souls. In the tradition of men like Isaiah who said: ""In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord...And He said Go and tell this people" (Isaiah 6:19). In the tradition of men like Ezekiel of whom we read: "The word of the Lord came expressly unto Ezekiel...and he said...stand upon thy feet and I will speak unto thee,...and he said, I send thee" (Ezekiel 1:3, 2:1, 3).

 

‌In the tradition of men like Hosea of whom we read: "And the Lord said to Hosea, Go" (Hosea 1:2). In the tradition of men like Amos who declared: "And thy Lord said unto me, Go, prophesy unto my people Israel" (Amos 7:15). In . . .