Aaron Harvie said God is sending pastors out into a broken world, and it’s vital that they are fit and ready with the gospel to meet the challenges that are there.
Preaching from 2 Timothy 3:10–17, Harvie, pastor of Highview Baptist Church, a multisite church in Louisville, Kentucky, told those present at the 2025 Southern Baptist Convention Pastors Conference on June 9 in Dallas that this passage “unleashes the resources the Lord gives to us as we follow Him in ministry.”
“This is a critical passage for every pastor in this room as we say, ‘Lord, I want to be faithful, I want to honor You, I want to be fruitful in ministry,’” Harvie said. “How do we do it?”
Harvie said the Apostle Paul began here by identifying his ministry.
“He is now setting out with clarity that he wants to know nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified,” he said. “What a radical change in Paul’s life — he grew up in the traditions of the Pharisees.”
Paul knew a lot, but now all he wanted to know was Jesus, Harvie said. “Can I say my life is really Christ centered? Is my life about Jesus? It should be. … He walks with us, He forms us, He shapes us.”
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Much of that shaping comes through trials and tribulations, he said.
In verses 10–11, Paul lists some of the persecution he had faced, but he wrote that God rescued him from it all, Harvie said.
“If you have been in the ministry, pastor, we have a lot of things in common,” he said. “There are a lot of things we’ve had to endure together. You’ve experienced trials and tribulations.”
Harvie said he knows that because he’s led a Wednesday night business meeting, and he knows they have too.
“We’ve all received that anonymous unsolicited written manifesto evaluating your ministry and your church. We’ve all overheard that slanderous comment about our children or our wives,” he said. “We’ve all been pulled aside after preaching our guts out and being told it wasn’t good. We’ve all been there in those moments of trials and tribulations having had hard conversations with people.”
He said if pastors have ever had moments where they felt really alone and isolated, he wonders if they’ve ever started to ask themselves, “Is this really worth it?”
“I have to be honest with you — it’s not worth it, but He is. He is worth it,” Harvie said. “Jesus is worth following. Jesus is worth serving. Jesus is worth suffering. Jesus is worth everything we could ever think or offer.”
He is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, and He has rescued His people to walk beside Him and lead others to follow Him too.
“There is not a greater privilege in life than to be following our Lord Jesus in His mission,” Harvie said.
He said through the Word of God, pastors lack nothing and are fully equipped.
“We are complete. We are ready for any task, any assignment, any difficulty, any hardship. Anything He places in front of us, we are ready and prepared by our Lord and His Word,” Harvie said. “Do you believe that? He wants to make you gospel ready.”
For more information about the SBC Pastors Conference, visit sbcpc.net. To see Harvie’s sermon and others from the conference, visit sbcannualmeeting.net.
