21 “There is no peace”, says my God, “for the wicked.” (Isaiah 57:21)
When speaking of sin, a broken heart is a necessity. Too many times, those in ministry unknowingly raise themselves beyond the reach of the people they serve and take the role of sinlessness that only Jesus can fulfill. It’s easy for us to forget that the reason we can speak authoritatively on sin, is because at some point in our life and ministry we have been intimate with it. We have came to the ends of ourselves and seen that there is no peace short of the risen Christ.
Never forget the wickedness that you are saved from.
As pastors, we are not above but beside you. In the trenches pointing to our only hope and desperately pleading for your submission. The reason we know of the dangers of lust, greed, and arrogance is because we too have struggled (or do struggle). Yet in the backwards economy of God, the best saints are the broken ones. It’s the outcasts, the failures, and misfits that are used. Never trust someone who hasn’t recognized the subversive depth of sin in their own lives.
Matt simon blog 