Thursday, September 5, 2013
Up against this is the “great
Encourager” or the “great Comforter,” the Holy Spirit of God. I was going into morning prayer meeting and
one of the brothers was leaving at the same time. After greeting one another he said to me
sincerely, “Pastor, I just want you to
know that your sermons do
make a difference.” He then
proceeded to mention a specific message that I had preached sometime
previously. Well, that’s “music” to a
preacher’s ears, not because of ego,
but due to discouragement. One of the constant battles that a pastor
faces is the question, “Am I making a
difference?”....“Are my sermons genuinely impacting people and instigating
spiritual change”...“In the end, does it really matter?” These are all the inner wrestlings that a man
with the sacred charge to “Preach the Word” goes through.
This reminds me of the oft-used
fictitious story of spiritual warfare.
It seems that the devil decided to have a garage sale. On the day of the sale, his tools were all
placed on display for public inspection, each one marked with a sales
price. There were a treacherous lot of
implements from hatred, to envy, jealousy, deceit, and the other successful
ones like lust, lying, pride, and so on.
Set apart from the rest was a harmless-looking tool. It was quite worn and yet priced higher than
any other tools of his nefarious trade.
“What is the name of this tool? asked one of the customers pointing to
this plain, yet potent tool. With a
gleam in his eye, Satan replied, “Ahh, but of course, this is discouragement. “Why have you priced it so high?” “Because it is more useful to me than all the
others. I can pry open and get inside
man’s heart with that, even when I cannot get near him with any of the other
tools. It is badly worn because I use it
on almost everyone, since so few people know it belongs to me.” The devil’s price tag for discouragement was
high because it is still his favorite tool, and he is still using it on God’s
people. If he were training a group of
his underlings, then his advice would frequently be, “Shhh, don’t encourage him!”
One of the verses that captures
for me the essence of preaching ministry is (Job 4:4)TM, “Your words have put stumbling people on their feet, put fresh hope in
people about to collapse.” Wow! Whether it is preaching in our public worship
services, various blog postings, or Twitter, they have one single aim to
them (2Cor.4:2;5) “We refuse to practice
cunning or to tamper with God’s Word, but by the open statement of the truth we
would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God... For
what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as
your servants for Jesus’ sake.” This
dimension is what added intensity and urgency to Paul’s prayer in
(2Thess.3:1)TM, “One more thing, friends:
Pray for us. Pray that the Master’s Word will simply take off and
race through the country to a groundswell of response, just as it did among
you.”
I’ve pondered a lot of the
so-called “innovation” today. I am no
stranger to or opponent of change or new things. I believe, however, that behind a lot of the
new things today lies a faltering confidence that the Word works! If the Word doesn’t work, then what are we
doing? I take refuge in the Apostle’s
decision in Acts. 6. They were forced to
make a priority decision. There were
lots of needs, and some of them were going unmet. Prolonged or unaddressed needs can lead to
dissatisfaction, which, in turn can create disorder or the discordant note of
disharmony. The apostles learned the art
of delegation, but it was their reasoning that was significant. (Acts 6:3,4) “Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute,
full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and
to the ministry of the Word.”
This wasn’t a move to get out of doing work, but the adage to work smarter, not harder. Their priority
mission and their passion would be prayer and the ministry of the Word. This is where their confidence lay.
All of this highlights the
important reality of the miracle or mystery
of influence. I’m talking about that
wonderful working of the Holy Spirit through God’s Word to touch people’s
lives. This is one of the blessed streams of encouragement God uses to
reinforce His servants. Please, believe
me when I say, I’m not elevating the preacher/pastor to idolatrous levels, but
one of the descriptive phrases of the fruit of our Savior’s redeeming sacrifice
is “He shall see the labor of his soul
and be satisfied.” We don’t always
get to see directly this influence, but there are little glimpses along the way
that fuel our tanks! It serves as an
incentive to want do our best with
the calling, opportunities, and gifts God has entrusted us with. I feel the “weight” of this sacred charge!
This all was sparked with a
phone call from one of the sisters in our church. As a manager, one of her responsibilities is
the mentoring and observing of new managers.
One was sent to her office for a day’s worth of training. When it came time to go to lunch, he offered
to drive. When he started up the car, she
heard a “preaching” tape. She listened a
moment and then exclaimed, “That’s Pastor
Warner! That’s my pastor!” He told her that he really enjoyed listening,
and that being raised in another religion, he’d never heard the Gospel like
that. It turns out that another employee
was working and bringing him preaching tapes.
He was looking forward to the messages.
This opened the door for her to discuss the Gospel with him and God’s
salvation in Christ. He has been in our
church ever since. All the time, I was
completely unaware to the mystery of influence that had been going on. Influence, but shhh, don’t encourage him!
It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I
send it.” Our joy is to share the
Word of God as best we can, and to leave the results with God. It’s not going to be our personality, our
persuasive ability, or the power of our eloquence or intellect. The power and influence lies in the Scripture
itself. Just like refreshing raindrops
or snowflakes, the Word has power to refresh and revive a parched desert. God will revive His people and convert the
lost, and even if we don’t see all the results, we need to remain confident and
faithful to proclaim God’s Word. Martin
Luther explained, “I simply taught,
preached, wrote God’s Word...otherwise I did nothing...the Word did it all!” But, shhh, don’t encourage him!
One of the marks of the
Spirit-filled individual and church is that they can’t stop talking about
Jesus. I love the newly saved, and
delivered Gadarene (Mk.5:18-20). “And when He got into the boat, he who had
been demon-possessed begged Him that he might be with Him. However, Jesus did
not permit him, but said to him, "Go home to your friends, and tell them
what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He has had compassion on
you." And he departed and began to
proclaim in Decapolis all that Jesus had done for him; and all marveled.” This ten city region that before had wanted
nothing to do with Jesus, later recognized and welcomed him (Mark 7:31) Why the
change in response? I believe, in part,
this was the result of the testimony and influence of this one converted man. J. Ray Klingsmith wrote, “People are starving for the Word of God,
and they don’t even know it; but when they hear it, believed, and get a taste
of it, it feeds their soul like nothing else can.” There’s no greater privilege than to teach,
and preach, and to understand God’s wonderful Word, But, shhh, you don’t want to encourage him.
This influence extends to all
kinds of places and people, you just never know. I received a note from one of our
congregants. “Pastor Warner, First of all
I want to share what my son was asking for on his birthday. My son’s birthday is coming up ____ and he
approached my wife and made this statement, “Mom, all I want for my birthday is
my family to be together (Abuela, Tata, Tios and Tias and cousins – he named
each by name) but he did not stop there.
He said he wanted all of us to be together over dinner and for Pastor
Warner to preach a sermon to us. You
know, he could have asked for an iPad (I would not have given to him), but
could have asked for Star Wars/Lego figurines, he could have asked for a party
at the bowling alley or trip to Disneyland, but my boy sees the important
people in his life and wanted us (including you) to come together for a dinner
and a sermon. I thought this was an
awesome request...” I couldn’t agree
with him more, but, shhh, you don’t want to encourage him! Oh, but you see, I already am, thanks to our
Lord Jesus Christ!About Me
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