SC Conference Ministers & Wives Retreat – March 1-4, 2015 – Pastor Ferrell Hardison –– www.bridgechurch.cc
(Wednesday)
ON GUARD –
Living Victoriously in the Ministry
How to Overcome Discouragement/Depression in the Ministry
Being a ***Southern ***Pentecostal ***Pastor / Preacher has
drastically changed in my 40 years of ministry.
HERE’S WHAT I’M EXPERIENCING as a pastor/preacher….
….especially in the last 10-15 years….
THE PEOPLE WE PREACH TO TODAY ARE…
>>> Far more educated…(by secular/God-hating institutions)
>>> Far more saturated in, and influenced by, Godless
philosophies than ever before…(primarily because of the “instant
information age”)
>>> Far more likely to challenge your interpretation of the
scriptures than ever before (especially in the areas of the
inerrancy of scripture … and the content of your messages as being
“your opinion” or “your interpretation” … “your opinion or interpretation
is no better or more accurate than anyone else’s”) …
???-----> So, what some of these power
influences reaching the hearts and minds
of people in your congregation?
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There is a school of BEHAVIORISTIC PSYCHOLOGY
that says “MAN IS BUT THE SUM TOTAL OF HIS
ENVIRONMENT.”
Which means, “Maybe he was raised in
a bad neighborhood” OR “Maybe it’s in his genetic make-up.”
The Godless Behavioral Psychologist (and I’m not saying
they’re all Godless) says:
>>> “If a person does wrong it’s not really his or her fault, because
you see, human beings who do bad things are like a computer
that’s been programmed the wrong way, so no one can be blamed
if they do wrong.
>>> “Perhaps this person had an overbearing mother who made
them clean up their room and wouldn’t let them push her Pablum
off the high chair and this warped his little psyche.”
>>> I mean, this misbehaving person may be SICK but he’s not
SINFUL.
>>> He may be WEAK but he’s not WICKED.
We’re all told by the so-called experts that a man only needs
some sort of psychological adjustment, … his hurtful and harmful
behavior has nothing to do with his relationship with his Creator.
AND LET ME SAY THAT I agree that there can be factors
that shape us all, …
But I would also say that, ***as a society, ***we must
come back to a place of ACCOUNTABILITY ***and
remember that every person has a nature that he/she was born
with….and it is a SINFUL NATURE.
Humans DO WRONG because they ARE
WRONG in their very nature.
THE TRUTH IS:
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So first, your congregation is heavily influenced by the
BEHAVIORAL PSYCHOLOGIST and their secular theories …
Then you compound them with the EVOLUTIONIST that
tells us, “Man came into being by chance, and that we are merely
the product of an impersonal force….an accident of nature; MAN IS
ONLY AN ORPHAN OF THE APE.”
(HUMOR – And might I add, when man believes that he’s an
orphan of the ape he generally ends up making a real monkey of
himself.)
AND one of the greatest ways man makes a monkey of himself
is when he denies the reality of sin!
SEE…. if evolution is true then there is no such thing as sin
because right and wrong can change ….if evolution is true then
what was sin yesterday may not be sin today.….
And if man is the product of blind chance, then there is no
God, …and if there is no God …then there is no ultimate standard
of right and wrong.
So you have the BEHAVIORAL PSYCHOLOGIST and the
EVOLUTIONIST and their secular theories … Then you add to
them the
SECULAR HUMANISTS of our day….
These are the ones who are trying to remodel our
educational system in America, ….
….and they basically tell our young people: “There is no need
to get all hung up about this thing they call sin because after all, sin
is the invention of the church, and it’s just something conjured up
so they can control you with guilt.”
These SECULAR HUMANIST work very hard to get us to
down play the idea of sin.
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And then to this whole poisonous system of philosophies
and beliefs … it’s multiplied even further by a
LIBERAL CLERGY who no longer believes the Bible!
One such so-called minister recently said: “Bad behavior is
the result of an infantile environment, traumatic experiences, and
psychological complexes, then he went on to say “…after
preaching for 50 years I cannot help feeling that the church harps
far too much on sin.”
 Can you imagine a so called minister of the bible saying such
a thing?
 I am sad to say that when you look for the devil, you much
never fail to look in the pulpits across our land.
 BECAUSE SATAN MANY TIMES IS NOT FIGHTING
CHURCHES, HE IS JOINING THEM!!
AS A RESULT OF THESE GODLESS INFLUENCES
I am sure you’ve all noticed, as I have, that society has
almost done away with the idea of SIN?
The word SIN is considered so old fashioned today, that to
even speak of it from a biblical perspective is unheard of ….
It’s EVEN UNHEARD OF IN MOST CHURCHES.
Instead of calling sin what it is, we’ve come up with other
words to make it politically correct, so as not to offend anyone;
WORDS LIKE: fault… misdeed... flaw… error… blunder…
mistake… “they exercised poor judgment”… weakness…
psychological maladjustment… glandular malfunction…
“they stumbled” … we’ll call it anything but what it really is – SIN!
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Romans 5:12 – Wherefore as by one man (Adam) sin
entered into the world and death by sin so death
passed upon all men for that all have sinned.
There’s the world’s problem right there!
NOW … I don’t want to leave you depressed…. So to encourage
you, turn with me to….
Jeremiah 1:4-10
4 – Then the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
5 – Before I formed thee in the belly (womb) I knew thee
(meaning, “I knew you and I approved of you as My chosen
instrument”); and before thou camest forth out of the womb
(before you were born) I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee (I
separated and set you apart, consecrating you; and I appointed
you) a prophet unto the nations.
6 – Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! behold, I cannot speak: for I
am a child (only a youth).
7 – But the LORD said unto me, Say not, I am a child (youth):
for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and
whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak.
8 – Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver
thee, saith the LORD.
9 – Then the LORD put forth his hand, and touched my
mouth. And the LORD said unto me, Behold, I have put my
words in thy mouth.
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10 – See, I have this day set thee over (appointed you to the
oversight of) the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out,
and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to
build, and to plant.
Have you ever just wanted to run away from the challenges
of the ministry?
Look what Jeremiah said in 9:2
Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring
men; that I might leave my people, and go from them! for
they be all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men.
LET ME LEAVE YOU with this final word.
The words of the Apostle Paul to the church at Galatia:
6:9 – And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due
season we shall reap, if we faint not.
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