Josh Powell said he remembers one sermon he preached as a young pastor. His congregation at the dwindling church was small, but they met in a large, “cavernous” building.
And that meant when an elderly lady started snoring on the third pew, it reverberated throughout the room.
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After the service, “she took my hand and looked me in the eye and said, ‘That was one of your best sermons yet, pastor,’” he said.
Her husband, who hadn’t turned on his hearing aids, agreed with her.
“And there it was, my approval,” Powell said. “My affirmation I was looking for was from a woman who slept through the whole thing, and a man who couldn’t hear a word of it. We’re looking for approval from our people, and that approval is quite hollow, isn’t it?”
What’s it mean?
The Apostle Paul told Timothy what it really means to be an approved pastor in 2 Timothy 2:14–16, Powell told those present at the Southern Baptist Pastors Conference on June 9 in Dallas.
“He wrote to Timothy that as a minister of the gospel you must not be interested in creating a reputation for yourself,” said Powell, who now serves as pastor of Taylors First Baptist Church in South Carolina. “As ministers of the gospel, we will have to give an account … and the approval of this world surely must not be our desire. He tells us in this world what we should be aiming for.”
That encompasses three things that a pastor should be, he said.
- A diligent worker.
“It goes to the heart of who we are as ministers that we are to be teaching or letting others know about this gospel,” Powell said. “The gospel must be lived out in our life and taught in our ministries.”
Part of that means not getting distracted by the work by things like arguing and “irreverent babble,” he said.
- A clean vessel.
All vessels have a purpose, but some are for honorable and some are for dishonorable use, Powell said.
“We understand that Someone has set us apart,” he said. “We need to be reminded as ministers of the gospel that the gospel is what we depend upon. The gospel is our testimony, the fact that we were once sinners and He died for us.”
Personal holiness is the expectation for every minister of the gospel, Powell said. Pastors must do what it takes to get sin out of their life “because it will kill us and destroy us,” he said.
“The greatest hindrance to the advancement of the kingdom is not a weak gospel, for our gospel is strong, and it changes lives,” he said. “The greatest hindrance is not a weak gospel but dirty messengers.”
He challenged pastors to be clean and ready for use at all times.
- A faithful servant.
“Paul seems to make it clear that you can’t look for the approval of Christ and at the same time seek the approval of man,” Powell said.
Part of serving Christ faithfully is to be kind, he said, though he noted that that doesn’t mean pastors shouldn’t have a backbone.
“We are stern, we are sure … but in all of that, we must look to proclaim and live out the ministry in kindness toward others,” Powell said. “The Lord’s servant will be kind, correcting His opponents with gentleness.”
Pastors seek God’s approval by shepherding His sheep well, he said. “Paul said, ‘I’m not looking for your approval; I’m living my life with the constant desire that you would come to know Christ and follow Him, and I seek after the approval of only God Himself.’”
Powell said the members of the church he pastored when he was younger didn’t need him to deliver an eloquent sermon as much as they needed him to labor faithfully for the gospel and deliver the truth kindly.
Their biggest need was for him to shepherd them well, he said. “And that’s what God desires also.”
For more information about the SBC Pastors Conference, visit sbcpc.net. To see Powell’s sermon and others from the conference, visit sbcannualmeeting.net.
