Page 104 - Pastoral Ministries -Student Textbook

Study Section 14: “Don’t Quit Before You Finish”

14.1 Connect

Have you ever heard the saying, “Throwing in the Towel?” It comes from a sport called boxing. Two
opponents enter a square ring, put on gloves, and begin hitting each other until one is knocked down
and can’t get up. If one opponent is really getting beat up badly, the coach can take a towel and
throw it into the ring. It is a symbolic statement that the coach wants the fight to stop. In a sense,
he is yelling out, “We quit! We give up! Stop the fight!”

Some pastors feel like throwing in the towel every Monday morning! Years ago, I used to have a lady come to
my office every Monday morning to tell me about all the things I did and said WRONG the previous day. She
said it was her God-given calling to keep me on the “straight and narrow” path. Every Monday morning, I could
hear her coming down the hallway to meet with me. Believe me, I felt like “throwing in the towel” many a
Monday morning.

If you are a pastor, I’m sure you can relate!!! Here are some encouraging words so that you do not quit before
God wants you to….

14.2 Objectives

1. The student should be able to cite many of the 40 encouragements given to pastors to keep them
from quitting every Monday morning.

14.3 “Don’t Quit Before You Finish”
by Jimmy Draper

1. A Clear Call to Ministry.

“The man who would open the Bible for people to live
and die by ought to know beyond all chance of doubt that God has sent him to do it. If
he doubts this the probabilities are that he will do more harm than good in the pulpit!”
Elijah P. Brown in Point and Purpose in Preaching

“Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers,
to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.” Acts 20:28

“If a man goes into the ministry because he wants to, while in it he will conduct himself as he wants to and go
out of it when he wants to, but if he realizes that he is put there by the sovereign call of God he will try to please
God while in it, and he will stay in it till he receives a divine summons to give it up.” Dr. Jeff D. Ray, Southwestern
Theological Baptist Seminary

“The practical point for us here is that when God calls one to the ministry, he gives the requisite gifts to fulfill that
ministry…He very often calls them who obviously would not be able to fulfill their calling apart from his gifts.”
Kent Hughes

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