How Do I Know If I Am Called to Pastoral Ministry?

Does God help those who help themselves? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of CORE Christianity. Hi, this is Bill Meyer along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and this is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. Here's our phone number. It's 833-THE-CORE. That's 1-833-843-2673. If you get our voicemail, feel free to leave a message.

You can also post your question on our Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter accounts. And you can email us anytime at questionsatcorechristianity.com. First up today, let's go to Donald who's calling in from Kansas. Donald, what's your question for Pastor Adriel?

Well, good afternoon. My situation is I became a Christian, accepted Christ at age 16, which is over 40 years ago now. And throughout my Christian life, I have seen my family members get married, my friends get married, have children, but I'm single.

I simply don't know why because it brings me a lot of pain, sometimes physical, sometimes mental. And if you're wondering, yes, I love the Lord. But my concern is you can't take Jesus out for a movie and dinner. I am disturbed by this, and I need to know what the Bible says. That's the only advice you can give me.

Yeah. Well, brother, I'm sorry for the loneliness that you've experienced, and you're right, right? I mean, our relationship with the Lord is, I mean, I think above all else in terms of our relationships, you know, that's the main thing, but it's different than a relationship that you would have with a friend or with a spouse.

And it sounds to me like you have those desires, those longings, and for whatever reason, that has not materialized, that God has not brought a wife your way. In terms of the reason for that, I mean, I'm not a prophet. I can't tell you, you know, well, this is exactly why. I don't know you.

I don't know the people around you. I think that what we're called to in whatever circumstance we're in, for as long as we're in it, is to pursue that contentment in the Lord that the Scriptures speak about in places like Philippians chapter 4. Beginning in verse 10, Paul says there, I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you have received your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity, not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. And in every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. What Paul says that everybody knows, Philippians chapter 4 verse 13, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, but they don't understand the context there. The context is Paul talking about being able to endure difficult situations in life, you know, the lack of something that we desire or want. Here, you know, he's talking about being brought low.

Well, how can I endure that? Only through Christ, he says. And so I would say in the situation that you're in, and it's been it sounds like a very long time, I would say one, continuing to pursue that contentment that Jesus gives by the grace of his Holy Spirit in looking to him and trusting in him, but also in making your desires known to the Lord through prayer and saying, God, you know my heart, you know that this is a desire and ask the Lord to provide those things that you long for in a way that is pleasing to him and continue to pursue the kinds of relationships that I think are good and healthy within the body of Christ, those fellowship relationships that we ought to have. And maybe in the church that you're a part of right now, Donald, there's not a lot of opportunity for that.

And I understand that as well. I know for some people, you know, that's a really important thing and they search for a church looking for somewhere where they're going to be able to get that fellowship and that encouragement. And that should be something, you know, in terms of friendships and relationships and encouragement in the Lord that we should be getting in the local church.

I mean, I'm a pastor of a local church and I know it's not easy all of the time. And so just praying that the Lord would continue to cultivate that as well in the body that you're a part of, meaningful, rich friendships and relationships that will encourage you. And, brother, clinging to Jesus in this time while patiently continuing to wait and to pray that the Lord would provide for that which your heart longs for. And I want to pray for you right now, Donald, as well.

That we lift our brother up to you right now who has been walking with you for many years, it sounds like, Lord. And this is a desire that he's had for many years. And we don't know, Lord, why that desire hasn't materialized. He hasn't gotten married or found a spouse.

I don't know his situation exactly. But I pray, one, that you would grant him, Lord God, through Jesus, your son, that contentment that can only come through your Holy Spirit in this time. Father, that you would provide a wife, a spouse for him who loves you and who he can be a blessing to and an encouragement to as well. And so would you be with our brother? Would you draw him near to you?

Would you grant him those friendships and relationships that he longs for in Jesus' name? Amen. Thanks for that. And thanks for calling, Donald. We appreciate you so much being a regular listener of CORE Christianity.

By the way, if you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life, you can feel free to email us anytime. Our email address is questionsatcorechristianity.com. And you can always call us and leave a voicemail 24 hours a day at 833-843-2673.

Let's go back to the phones. Tim's on the line from Wichita, Kansas. Tim, what's your question for Adriel? Hi, Bill and Pastor Adriel. Thank you for taking my call.

I've got kind of a—spoiling it down to one question is kind of a challenge for me. I've been in the church since I was a little boy, eight years old. I'm 30 now. And for a long time, I've been told by others, including the church I grew up in and the church I love, I grew up in and the church I'm in now, I've been kind of urged or they've suggested that I get involved in the pastoral ministry.

But I don't feel comfortable going there. And I'm just curious, is there anything in Scripture to tell me, is God speaking through these people telling me I should be doing it? Or am I right to follow what I think is the right path and for me to stay out from behind the pulpit and not actually get involved in the ministry in that way? Tim, I love your question. I love also your humility, just the fact that, you know, there are a lot of people who jump into the ministry because they really want to do it or they feel called and nobody around them is actually telling them that. They're just sort of taking it to themselves. But I think for individuals to be slow and to really consider what is all entailed in a pursuit of the ministry and especially ministry of the word behind the pulpit, we don't take this seriously enough.

And I love that you're taking it seriously because you should. Think about what James said in James chapter three, verse one. Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. We all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man able also to bridle his whole body. He says, look, if you're a teacher, right, we're going to be judged with greater strictness by the Lord. And one of the ways we often struggle and stumble is with the things that we say. And so it should be something that we enter into cautiously. And I'm afraid that for many people, Tim, when they think about a call to the ministry, that's not how they view it.

They don't have the level of respect for the office, for the preaching of God's word that they should. I'm charismatic. People like me are drawn to me.

I've got a lot of woo. And I like the Bible. I can talk about the Bible and so on and so forth. But it really is a sobering thing when we think about teaching the word of God. And it certainly is for me as a pastor and as someone who does this radio broadcast.

And so one, thank you for treating it that way. Now with regard to this idea of calling, God can speak through others in the church in a way that I think would indicate that an individual is called to the ministry. We call this the external calling. Calling is one of the prerequisites, I would say. This is not something that individuals ought to take to themselves. And again, I'm afraid that there are people who were never called to the ministry who have jobs behind pulpits, even though that's not what they should be doing because they don't take the word of God seriously.

But you ought to have the external call. So you ought to have the people around you in the church saying, yes, we believe that you should be someone who teaches the word of God. And I don't know why they say that about you, Tim. Maybe it's the example that you set in the church. Maybe it's the way you talk about the Lord that they're encouraged by. And I think that's a good thing.

That's not a bad thing. But you also need to have a level of internal calling. That is, it should be something in you that's rising up out of you as well so that you feel as though, yes, I believe I have this sense that the Lord himself is calling me to handle his word.

Paul talks about this in 1 Timothy 3, verse 1. The saying is, trustworthy if anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. It's a good thing. It's not a bad thing to desire this, but we just need to be wise about it and do so sober-mindedly. But I think one of the prerequisites is, yeah, there should be this aspiration, this desire. And if that's not there at all for you, well, it could be an indication that maybe people just really respect you and you're a good churchman, but you're not called to the ministry. Or maybe that's something that grows with time, and more and more as time goes by, you have the sense of, you know, God, I think God is calling me to this.

So you have calling there. That's one of the prerequisites. The other ones that are listed in 1 Timothy 3 and in Titus chapter 1 are character requirements. Is this someone who has upstanding character, who's an example of godly behavior?

And the other one is competency. Are they able to teach the word of God? Do they dig into the scriptures? Have they studied to show themselves approved? Do they have training in sound doctrine and theology?

These are the things that I think we really need to be looking for. And so for you, brother, I would just say, you know, thinking about those things, listening to what those around you are saying, praying about it, and if you don't have that desire within, and it seems to you, it's like, well, look, I love being a churchman. I love following Jesus and serving Jesus in the church. I just don't think I'm called to be a pastor and to preach the word. I read James chapter 3, verse 1, and I say, okay, I don't want to be judged more strictly. I don't think that you should feel ashamed about that in any way, and I don't think you should feel ashamed about not wanting to pursue the ministry, because it is a calling.

But one thing I will say is the fact that you're approaching it with such seriousness, and I think that the fact that you're wanting to think about it, and the fact that there are people around you who are saying, man, we really think that you would be great at this, I think could be a sign that maybe you are called. I would just continue to pray about it and see how the Lord guides. Now, you said, I want to give you more time, one, because I just really appreciate your question, and I think that this is such an important thing, but you said, you know, this is kind of a complex, you wanted to get at one question. Did you have a follow-up question there, Tim, as well? Not really a follow-up question, because honestly, your response is very much in line with what my senior pastor said when I talked to him about this last night. But just a comment, if you don't mind, with the James 3, 1 verse, and what you were saying about the, you know, solemnness of being an actual pastor, in my church, they referred to the pulpit as God's holy desk, which is something that was new to me when I joined this particular church, and it instills a lot of that reverence for it, and that's something I haven't seen in another church before.

Yeah. Well, I think you can't have a high enough view of the Word of God and what takes place in the Word of God as being preached. It's a solemn charge that the apostle Paul gave to Timothy, you know, to preach the Word, and so that's the job of the minister as an ambassador for Jesus Christ to do that. And of course, none of us, we don't do that perfectly, but we have to be sober-minded and humble and cling to the grace of God.

And so, appreciate you, brother. May God bless you there at that church, whether he calls you into the pastoral ministry or whether you serve there as just a faithful member with the gifts that God has given you. We need people to do everything in the church, right?

Each of us, and this is a wonderful thing, brothers and sisters, are gifted in unique ways. Paul says this in 1 Corinthians 12. We're not all called to be pastors. We're not all called to be deacons. We're not all called with gifts of hospitality or teaching or helps.

God has gifted us in unique ways for the edification, the building up of the body, and the body is only healthy as each of us, with whatever those gifts that we have are, contribute those gifts for the good of the body. If everybody was called to be a pastor, it wouldn't be that healthy of a church. We each have unique gifts, and Tim, I don't know if your gift is to be a pastor, but I know that God has gifted you in some ways, and so may the Lord use you in those gifts for the good of his church. Some great counsel, Adriel, you know, and it's a far cry from those people who say, you know, I'm convinced that I need to be up there teaching everybody and leading a church and starting a church plant. Tim's got a very different perspective, and I love the reverence. I've seen it before, and it typically ends disastrous where you get, you know, young guys who are, you know, no church in my neighborhood is good enough, and so I'm going to go start my own, and they do, and it just, yeah, no, that's not the way to go. We want to approach it humbly, so.

Yeah, for sure. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. We'd like to say thank you to a very special group of people we call our inner core. These are folks that really believe in this ministry, so much so that they're willing to support us on a monthly basis. We don't get money from a church or denomination. We count on people just like you, our listeners, to keep this program on the air, and so Adriel will tell you a little bit about joining the inner core.

Yes, I would love to, Bill. The inner core is really a group that supports us with a monthly donation of $25 or more, so if you want to join the inner core, it's a $25 monthly donation. And that's just really a way that you can partner with us. That's how we view inner core members, and we're co-laboring side by side together for the faith of the gospel, like Paul tells the Philippians.

You know, we need co-laborers, really, to do the work that we're doing, and we're each gifted in different ways. We're each contributing in unique ways to get the gospel out, to get the word of God out. And so if you've been encouraged by core Christianity, if you feel like you've grown in your own faith and your understanding of the Bible, would you consider partnering with us for that monthly donation of $25 or more? We'll send you, right at the beginning, a copy of the book Core Christianity by Dr. Michael Horton, a wonderful book introducing you to a lot of these core doctrines of the Christian faith that so many people have forgotten about. And so, appreciate you all, and please, if you're not a member, consider joining the inner core. Easy way to do that is go to our website, which is corechristianity.com.

Just click on inner core, corechristianity.com forward slash inner core to learn more about becoming an inner core member. Let's go back to the phones. We have Leland on the line from Missouri. Leland, what's your question for Pastor Adriel? Well, hello there. How are you both? I'm doing well, Leland. How are you doing?

Well, I can't complain. Listen, I was at a service and the pastor that was preaching, he spoke about, in his conclusion, he spoke about Christ going to hell. And I want to ask you, now I know the answer to the question, but I want to ask you, and it's you comment on it for those who don't know.

Yeah. Did Christ ever go to hell upon his resurrection? Did he ever enter hell?

Leland, can I just ask you just a follow-up? So sometimes people will appeal to, you know, the Apostles' Creed, that ancient Christian creed where it talks about the descent into hell. It sounds to me like that pastor was not referenced. Was he just saying Jesus suffered in hell? Is that what he was saying? No, no, no, no.

He actually stipulated that Christ went to hell, and he got the saints who died prior to Christ's resurrection. Okay? That's my understanding. Okay. Okay. Well, look, a couple of things.

First, I think that the language can be unhelpful, especially if it's not explained. It sounds like it was just in the context of a sermon or something like that. Because typically when people think of hell, you know, they're thinking devils and pitchforks, and so when somebody says Jesus went into hell, the question is, well, was he suffering in hell?

I've heard of, you know, individuals saying something like that. This was a part of his atonement. He had to suffer there for us. And that is blasphemy.

That is not true. The one passage that sometimes people will point to is in the book of 1 Peter, in 1 Peter 3, verse 18, Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison. So this is a text that people will go to sometimes in order to defend the language that comes from the Apostles' Creed. And I think the idea here is not that Jesus went to hell to suffer, to provide further atonement or that kind of thing. This is a part of his victory, his trampling down on death, proclaiming victory over death, if you will. And this would be prior to the resurrection of Jesus. We're thinking in terms of the period in between his death and his resurrection, that time of his entombment, if you will, for three days, in which he proclaimed victory over death. Destroying death, trampling on the grave, and then rising again from the dead three days later. And so I could see that, but again, we have to be really careful with how we talk about this and what we communicate, especially to people who might get the idea that when we talk like this, we're saying Jesus had to go to hell and suffer in hell or something like that. No, Jesus bore our suffering on the cross.

The judgment that we deserve, it was there that he bore our suffering. So Leland, thank you for your question, brother, and God bless you. Continue to be Berean with the Scriptures. Thanks, Leland. Appreciate you being a regular listener to Core Christianity. By the way, we do get emails here and we'd love to receive your question. You can email us anytime at questions at core christianity dot com.

Here's one from Dean. He says, I have an apologetic question for you. Surely you've encountered folks who say it's foolish to believe the Bible. One of the big arguments they make is that the Bible, being thousands of years old, is written for people thousands of years ago. Applying it to the 21st century is pulling it out of context, and that some of it simply isn't relevant anymore. How would you respond to those people? Boy, well, there are a lot of different responses that I could give.

One would just be personal and experiential. I mean, I've been studying the Bible for almost 20 years, I want to say 15, 20 years, and one thing I'm struck by, Bill, the more I study the Scripture is just how amazing it is, how coherent it is, how it testifies to the fact that it truly is the Word of God inspired. And it's the Spirit of God that testifies together with the Word. As we're studying the Scriptures, and so many people, I think, who are critics of the Bible, who have later said, you know, I want to dig into the Scriptures.

I'm just going to read them. Maybe even to try to criticize them, they think, or to show that they're not true or that they're not relevant. What they find is that the Word of God speaks today powerfully. Now, there is a contextual difference. We're talking about a different time, and yet there's still so much application. Understanding the Scripture in context is key, but we're able to draw so many applications out from there. And if what you're looking for the Scripture to be or do is give you advice on what to wear today, that kind of a thing, or how to do your laundry, well, yeah, then if that's what you're looking for, then it's not going to be relevant for you in that sense.

But if you're looking to the Word of God, to hear God speak, to reveal His will to you for your salvation, to come into contact with Jesus Christ by the power of His Spirit, then I would say take up and read, because that's what the Word of God is for, and that's exactly what it does. And then I would also say there's so much besides that sort of personal, internal testimony of the Holy Spirit that we receive when we study the Scriptures, when we open them up and we open our hearts in humility to receive them, but there's so much in the Word of God that testifies to its divine inspiration. I think of the prophetic testimony, for example. God said in Isaiah 46, 9, and 10, I am God and there is no other. I am God and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times, things that are not yet done. In other words, God says, I'm God and here's how you're going to know.

I'm going to tell you the end of the story before it even happens. And when we read Scripture, the Old Testament, especially as it pertains to the coming of the Messiah Jesus Christ, you have all of these prophecies that were spoken and that were fulfilled majestically in Jesus, in His life, in His suffering, in His death. And you look at that and you say, well this just can't be a coincidence. God is behind this. The Scriptures are, as Paul told Timothy, God-breathed. And so when critics come against the Bible like this, I like to say, look, take up and read.

Spend some time reading the Bible and then come talk to me and see if your mind isn't changed. And so, I appreciate that question and God bless. Thanks for listening to CORE Christianity. To request your copy of today's special offer, visit us at corechristianity.com and click on offers in the menu bar or call us at 1-833-843-2673. That's 833-THE-CORE. When you contact us, please let us know how you've been encouraged by this program. And be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's Word together.