He Live Forever: Ministering to Suffering People
In this lesson Newtown Conant expounds on 1 Corinthians 2, Jeremiah 17 and a smattering of other passages. He focuses on how to ministry to suffering people. People who suffer do not need your words, they need the words of God. To deliver the words of God you need to be deeply rooted in God’s word.
Ministry for the suffering
As I grow older, a good time is one where no one has heartache, weariness, or sorrow. But these times require faith. Christ often spoke to the weary, He gave them a light yoke and an easy burden. Every pastor needs to be ready to speak the words of Christ in seasons of weariness to lift the burdens of others.
In these times people needs the words of the Father. In my life I’ve performed 500 funerals, 30 of which were suicides, the people cared to hear my words then. And they didn’t need eloquent words, they need the right words. Words from the Father. Words that can take their hands and guide them in comfort to Him. For those words you need to wait upon the Lord. We can only teach the words of the Lord if we have the words of the lord.
When Jesus speaks he always has the words of the Father. In John 2:46 Jesus preaches and they say “never has a man spoken like this before” Why? He got his words from the Father. These are words of grace. Where do these words of grace come from? The 40th Psalm says “grace was poured until his lips, so grace came out of his lips.” Your words are very important. John 14:10 says “As my father hath taught me so I speak The word I speak are not of myself.” Where did Jesus get his wisdom? He got it from the Father. Let me repeat this again and again. Only those who are taught by God can teach for God.
1 Corinthians 2:9-14 agrees.
9 But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”—
10 these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. 13 And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.
14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
The things which we teach are revealed to us by the Holy Spirit. When this is true of us it will be seen in our preaching and counseling. People will walk away hearing from the wisdom of God. Paul asked the Ephesian church to pray for him in this way in Ephesians 6:18 and 20, pray that when I open my mouth if I ought to, to speak the very words I ought to speak.
If you want your church to hear from God you must be with God. When you preach from the pulpit, you are the one to set the tone for the church. As you are, so will your people be. Christ lived a hidden life with the Father but the life that you could see was shaped by the one you could not.
7 “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,
whose trust is the Lord.
8 He is like a tree planted by water,
that sends out its roots by the stream,
and does not fear when heat comes,
for its leaves remain green,
and is not anxious in the year of drought,
for it does not cease to bear fruit.” (Jeremiah 17:7-8)
Trees are more roots than branches. Jeremiah 17 tells us blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, He shall be like a tree planted by waters. Every tree my father has planted shall not be rooted up. Let’s look at this metaphor. What is the water? The bible, the holy spirit, and your inner most face all are metaphors for water in the Bible. Now look at the tree. The tree is a seen and unseen life. The hidden life of the tree is the roots, the roots grow deep and soak up the water. No one ever looked at a tree and admired its great roots. You can’t see them, they are hidden. Suppose the tree was all branches and no roots, first it could never have grown them—but for the sake of metaphor, the tree would topple over and be unable to stand.
This passage is written for you. The fruit of faithful ministry cannot grow without powerfully deep roots soaking up the water of the word and Spirit. 1 Peter 1 warns us of the fiery trials that wait us, without deep roots the dryness of life in trial will not survive let alone continue bearing fruit. But if the roots are way down deep, even in the greatest drought the leaf will not fade and the fruit will continue to grow. And the best of our fruit grows in our suffering if our roots are dug deep.
