Date: October 31, 2021 | Series: From Pastor’s Desk | Number: Vol. 10, No. 26
Beloved: grace and mercy to you from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. I welcome you to another week of the year and pray that the joy and peace of the Spirit of God will fill your heart and home all through it, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
I once heard a preacher speak of how the board of elders of an assembly once wrote to their headquarters to have their pastor transferred. Their reason was that he had been preaching on just one subject since he got to their church, which was repent and be saved. And when the pastor was asked to explain himself, he said the problem is not that he does not have any other subject to preach to these brethren but that they have not acted at all on the one he has been preaching to them. “Why, then,” as he further pointed out, “should he teach them new things, when they will not act on the one thing that he has been teaching them?”
What is the point of this? It is that until God’s people begin to intelligently act on what they are being taught, preachers who know what they are doing will not stop going over it. This is one of the reasons Paul says to the Philippian brethren, “Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord! It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you.” (Phil 3:1NIV) Did you see that? Paul did not see it as a problem at all to go over again the same things he had taught these brethren before. Why? It was because doing so would help them in staying in the will of God.
Now I know that many of us often get offended when we are being reminded or taught again by our pastors something that we already know. But we must also understand that if we are acting well on what we know to be the truth of God to us, we won’t need anybody to remind or teach us to do so. It is when we are acting as if we did not understand what we have been taught or like a forgetful hearer or like a stubborn student that this becomes necessary.
For example, I have personally observed that even though the subject of appreciating our pastors and other church leaders, who regularly feed us with the word of God and watch over us by the power of God, has been severally taught to many of God’s people, only few still take it seriously. I am saying that in most of our assemblies only very few people often personally and deliberately appreciate their leaders not just with words of mouth but also with their material things. What about others? Do they not know this? In most cases, they know. But they won’t just act accordingly. (Cf. Luke 10:1-8; 1Cor 9:14; Gal 6:6)
It will, in fact, shock you to know that many children of God have never in their lives deliberately approached their pastors to simply say, “Thank you sir for the good work you are doing,” or to just do something for them that will make them happy. But if these same brethren hear that their church leaders are involved in some sexual scandal or financial mess, they will most likely not hesitate to spread the bad news or to use whatever means they have to totally destroy them. It is no big wonder, then, that the prayers and words of blessings of many preachers don’t settle on their brethren to work for them.
Or do you really think that it is every word of prayer or blessing that is said on behalf of people that may rest on them or work for their good? No! Jesus once said this to His apostles: “When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; if not, it will return to you. Stay in that house, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house.” (Luke 10:5-7NIV) Can you see that? A word of blessing can return to the one who offers it, if the person he is offering it for does not respond appropriately. So, even if your pastor is praying for you to prosper and do well in life all the time but you are not relating to him as God wants you to, his prayers of blessing may not settle on your life and work for you as they ought to.
Unfortunately, many of God’s people don’t understand that the reason they are not prospering under their pastors in most cases is not that something is wrong with those pastors spiritually. Rather, it is that they are not relating to them as God wants them to. And if they will repent of their disobedience and stop taking the things they ought to have used to support their pastors to some prayer mountains, they will begin to see that they can prosper even more under the daily ministration of those pastors than under the once in a while ministration of the so-called anointed prophets they are dying to see. But will they repent? (Cf. Matt 10:40-42)
In any case, my point all along is that if your pastor has to go over certain bible topics again and again with you, it may not be because he does not have something else to teach you; rather, it may be because you are not yet working with what you have been taught as you are supposed to. And if you are not working well with what you have been well taught, it may be that you do not yet understand it as you should or that you are being a forgetful hearer or that you are just being stubborn. None of this, of course, is acceptable. So, stop being slow to learn, forgetful or stubborn and begin to take the things you are being taught seriously. That way, you can leave the elementary teachings of the Christian faith and move on to maturity (Heb 5:11-6:3).
Do have a great week.
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