Ordination of Minister Fred Knox @ da Chapel
Pastor Joshua Goodin
Philippians 3:14 (NRSV)
“Keep Going”
*Understand your present predicament. You can become comfortable because your title has changed, and a lot of times in the church when titles change people stop working. Keep going, don't let today cause you to lose your humility. The same way they gave you papers they can take papers back. Identify the fact that you understand your present predicament and you are not perfect. Where would the church be today if people were more honest saying they aren't perfect, you don't have it all together, you are just glad that he woke you up one more day?
*It's a heavy seat being a preacher of the gospel in this day, with much scrutiny and criticism. You give a lot of grace when you are a preacher but when you need grace from the pew it's hard to find grace because then the pew becomes a group of holy rollers, tongue-speaking, baptizing in the Holy Ghost, who don't ever do anything wrong. God is using you but you're not perfect.
*Surround yourself with people who are strong in the areas where you are weak because there are some things that you don’t know and don’t have, but the problem is that you have to learn how to move yourself beyond the place of insecurity. Pursue until you get a hold of what’s holding you. When you give your life to the Lord there should be some changes that you pursue, your pursuit should be to be more like Christ. You act like you should have all the answers to all the questions but that's not your job, that's God's job.
*Look at your past progress. Your past progress can stifle future promises. No matter how much you have done for the cause of Christ you should never feel like you have done enough. There's always more to do, there’s always more growing and always more maturing. Doing ministry is tough, and you think you have gotten here and now you can stop working, but there’s still more work to do. God does his best work in broken people. You want to replay the good memories, but sometimes you have to relive the bad things that you did too. There are people who allow fears and failures of the past to hold them back. They come to church every Sunday and never do any work in ministry, paralyzed because they're wondering if people will know what they used to do. Get up and move forward because those things serve as lessons from the past. Don’t worry about what’s behind you. God was using it to push you to where you are now. Learn how to press even when you’re under pressure. Even when you want to quit and throw in the towel you have to keep on pressing.