Preach the Word.

“Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.” 2 Timothy 4:2

This is the charge given to every Minister as they enter the ministry of preaching God’s word. Before God calls His ministers, they are just regular Christians, just regular church members, listening, learning, and working to do God’s will according to His word. Then one day God the Holy Spirit delivers to them orders from God the Father, come and preach the word. It is at this time that their life just changed, and rapidly changed, and in an instant, we have a whole new work. That work is to preach God’s word, WOW what a change in a man’s life, we now have the most important work on this earth, “to preach God’s word”. What an overwhelming job, you are the one that God has chosen to be one of His ministers. However, that new job comes with importance, it comes with a charge, “Preach the word” preach God’s word. Suddenly you are Gods speaker, led by the Holy Spirit, you now have the awesome task to speak for God. Some folks do not understand all that comes with that task and I cannot explain it all for the lack of time, but let me say this, it consumes your entire life. I can only speak as a Pastor because that is all I have done, but I must stand back and praise God for everything accomplished. As a Pastor I am an overseer of a local New Testament church that belongs to Jesus Christ. I am also the leader in the church and the Under-Shepperd of the church, what a blessing. While being a Pastor is a work, “This is a true saying, If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work.” 1 Timothy 3:1 it is a “good work”, it is the “best work”. Then there comes the responsibility, oh what a responsibility it is, “Preach the Word” and if we fail, we fail in so much. God did not call us for any other reasons, He called us to preach the word, and most of the time preaching the word is a blessing to the hearers, and sometimes preaching the word hurts them. As a minister of the word you have a lot of wonders, do the hearers truly hear, are they paying attention, are they going to even get what I am preaching, then we must be reminded of Gods promise, “So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” Isaiah 55:11 It is not about us, we cannot change one single thing, we will not make one lost soul saved, we will not make one believer a church member, we will not build the church, and we will not destroy the church while preaching the truth. It is our faithfulness to the truth of the word that we as ministers are to be judged, “Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially they who labour in the word and doctrine.” 1 Timothy 5:17 The word “honor” means - a value – and the Lord said these men are worth double that worth, honor can mean many things, some may count it as money, but it can mean so many things because there are so many ways to honor your Ministers and Pastors of truth. The question is, if your Pastor or Minister are doing their part, are you all doing yours? Please honor your Minister, His life is not a normal life, his work is not a normal work, and being a Pastor of a church is not like being a normal church member. And may I add, neither is being a Pastors wife, they too are a part of the ministry and they also have commandments of God, do not leave them out of the honor due their husband. As Pastors we must concentrate on the work, “preaching the word” always remembering what God said thru the prophet Isaiah in  Isaiah 55:11 “…it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” This is our crutch in the ministry, it will keep us true to the word and it must be our anchor in the ministry. Our only responsibility is to the preaching of the word in truth, the results of that preaching is in God’s hands not ours. We are not to worry about the results, it is not Facebook and we should not be seeking “likes”. The word of God (in truth) is powerful and God has chosen you to preach it. If people do not like it, that’s not your problem, if people will not listen that is not your problem. If you upload your sermons to the web and only one soul hears it, that one person was blessed of the Lord. Not many are going to listen to the truth of the word, it is not what they are looking for because God said, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears..their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.” 2 Timothy 4:3 - 4 This is not an excuse, it is a fact, people in general and even some that you believe to be Christians and even some that are Christians simply will not desire to hear God’s truth. But our job as Ministers is to continue to preach the word even if we think it is not accomplishing anything or if many do not even seem to care. Do not concern yourself Ministers with results, just do the work you were all called to do, and if only a few seem to be listening or even seems to care, God does. And if one single soul is blessed by your sermon, then that one is the one God blessed thru your ministry today, and tomorrow there will be another, and another, and another. Remember, if the world loves you and praises you, you are not preaching the truth!