Preaching that Prepares People to Suffer

Preaching that Prepares People to Suffer-  It’s been eight years since my wife and I were told devastating news. Without any warning signs, Julie had stage-3 colon cancer. We both felt like we had been hit by a train—our four children all young, the imminent medical treatments all harsh, and the toll on our spirits weighty. We were pressed downward like never before and humbled far more than I could have imagined.

So, we did the only thing we could do, we clung to the promises of our gracious God. “Therefore, those also who suffer according to the will of God shall entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right” (1 Pet 4:19). Then, day after day, and now these many years later, this truth is still the anchor of our treasure.

Pastor, you may never know suffering on such a personal level, but many of your sheep will. Your weekly ministry of the Word, in all its forms, is building into your flock the abiding realities of God’s faithfulness. I did not fully appreciate it at the time, but our church’s commitment to biblical exposition had prepared us to walk through a season of intense suffering. I had been preaching every week, not fully realizing how God was storing up His truth in hearts and lives to be used when the time would come. Suffering is like an audit that reveals what has been stored or treasured in the soul of the believer.

Chasing relevance in preaching will not cultivate a mature people ready to stand under the weight of suffering. So much preaching today is designed to cater to the lowest common denominator of fleshly affections. Some claim such preaching is “relevant” to where the people supposedly are, but the reality is such preaching is basely carnal in nature. I think most pastors have no desire to lead their people down such paths, yet that is what they’re doing when they walk such roads without the lamp of God’s Word. To offer God’s people meatless sermons week after week is to offer a plate of sand to the hungry.

Having been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, pastor Paul Wolfe has walked the valley of cancer too. In his book, My God is True: Lessons Learned Along Cancer’s Dark Road, Wolfe details how careful preaching prepares the people of God to suffer with grace.

With the blessing of the Lord, such preaching prepares Christians for the future as well as arming them for the present. It is sometimes said that the minister must seek in his sermon to meet the people where they are. That is a noble aspiration, of course, but the minister’s job is also to get the people ready for where they will be. No, he cannot know precisely where their roads will take them, but he does know that the truths of Scripture are crucial to prepare them for every circumstance. So let him serve up a steady diet of those truths.

We see this principle drawn out in a little New Testament letter aimed at suffering Christians. Our fellow elder, Peter, carefully measures each word so that the sheep will be ready for whenever a cloudy providence crosses their path:

Pastoral Search Committees and Spiritual Purple Hearts

Question: The primary badge of apostleship for the mighty apostle Paul was _______

A) His ability to triple local church attendance in 24 months or less 

B) Paul's experience pastoring a large church with multiple full time staff.

C) His impressive academic credentials and communication ability.

D) His larger than life personality and his Christian celebrity status.  Paul would have been a keynote speaker at all the major conferences.  He also was the author of 13 best-selling "books."

E) His ministry scars and his spiritual purple hearts.

The answer Paul gives in 2 Corinthians 11:16-12:10 is E).   If we are being honest we'll admit that 2 Corinthians 11:16-12:10 is a counter cultural text to modern day evangelicalism.  Many search committees judge success and ministry potential using a much different criteria than what Paul sets forth in his Corinthian epistles.  I have heard of more than a few search committees of "Bible-driven" churches ask questions and eliminate potential candidates because they could not check boxes A, B, and/or C.  This seems to be especially true of local churches that are larger than 500 people.

Many years ago A. W. Tozer put it this way, "It is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until he has wounded him deeply." Few servants of Christ suffered more for the truth and for the Lord's church than Paul.

On rare occasions you will talk with a mature lay leader like Tom Gibson from Christ Fellowship Baptist Church.   Some years ago this particular elder team had the daunting task of hiring Dr. Steve Lawson's ministry successor.  One of the traits this leadership board said they were looking for as they went about the pastoral search process was to find potential candidates who had been "tested by fire" (as Dr. Lawson had been previously).  Rather than viewing Corinthian-esq battle wounds as a liability they viewed battle scars in the line of duty as a mark of maturity (James 1:2-4).

In his classic book on Spiritual Leadership J. Oswald Chambers noted,

When God wants to drill a man

And thrill a man

And skill a man,