Bible Reading: Rom 12:6-9
Read and pray: "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters," (Col 3:23)
THE FIRST PROBLEM: LACK OF BURDEN
The greatest problem in the administration of the church and in the ministry of the word is the lack of burden or, it can be said, not receiving a burden or not paying due attention to the burden received.
It is possible that the elders administer the church without having a burden. Those who minister the word may also do so without a burden. The release of a certain burden when we minister the word does not depend on being eloquent. If our only desire is to speak well to provoke certain emotions in people, our speaking will have been without burden.
Similarly, the ability to administer the church does not release the burden. It is not about our ability to manage, but about our administration being effective and able to touch people.
For example, when people come to the meeting, there may be a need to convey the word. We need to seek the Lord regarding what to speak and the result of our speaking. It is not a matter of speaking well or not, of the logistics of the presentation, or of the saints being touched, but of what will be produced in them.
If some of those present are still unsaved, we must have the burden of leading their souls by the grace of God, in order to plant in them the seed of salvation by speaking the word. Our burden, then, is salvation, and not the preaching of a dynamic message.
If they are already saved but do not love the Lord as they should, our burden must be to lead them to love the Lord. If they love the Lord but are unwilling to surrender to Him and receive His personal discipline, our burden must be to lead them to promptly surrender to the Lord and let Him deal with them. This is the ministry of the word with burden.
Otherwise, the Sunday meeting message may fall into the situation of the so-called Sunday services. Every week someone is assigned to preach a message to keep the meetings going. After the meeting, everyone goes home, has lunch, rests, and returns at night for the bread-breaking meeting. This is a Sunday service.
In this situation, those who minister the word need to have a burden. We need to know the condition of those who come to hear the message. Perhaps they themselves cannot perceive their condition, but we need to have total and very clear perception regarding their condition.
They may be able to sit and quietly listen to the word, week after week, but we cannot speak peacefully week after week. We need to receive the burden in order to "disturb" them and "trouble" them in such a way that when they come to the meeting feeling peaceful, they leave internally disturbed.
If we do not care that our preaching produces no effect on those who hear it, it is because we have no burden. This situation indicates that both the speaker and the listeners are in a routine. This is the condition of degraded Christianity, where the congregation routinely listens to the pastor, and he, in turn, routinely preaches to the congregation year after year. This must not be our practice.
The ministry of the word must enlighten those who hear. When we minister the word every Sunday, we must "trouble" people to such an extent that they have no more peace. This is what it means to have a burden.
If the listeners are indifferent, even if they quietly listen, the one who ministers the word must not remain calm. Instead, he must place himself before the Lord and let the Lord take away his peace, to the point of losing sleep and not eating, until he has received a burden from the Lord. Only then will his messages allow the Holy Spirit to operate in the listeners. Only this kind of speaking is God's speaking.
Those who minister the word need to have a burden; not just doctrines, logical arrangements, and examples. Ministering the word in this way is inadmissible; it is an offense to God and a sin in His eyes.
In Isaiah 13:1, the Chinese Union Version states that the prophets received inspiration when they spoke on behalf of God. The Hebrew word for inspiration, however, means burden [or weight - KJV].
Man needs to receive a burden. We cannot neglect our responsibility and think that God did not give us a burden. Paul's Epistles clearly demonstrate that he received burdens. When someone in the church in Corinth committed the sin of fornication, Paul did not simply condemn the sin or stop praying for the one who sinned. He received from God the burden to assume responsibility and commission on behalf of the church (1 Cor 5:1-13). Paul did not preach doctrines in his epistles; instead, he had the burden to share certain matters in such a way that he could touch people's feelings.
There is the danger that the ministry of the word in the church in Taipei becomes like the sermon preaching in Sunday services. When we minister the word of God, our attention must be focused on God's speaking, not on the topic we are going to speak about.
For God to speak, those who minister the word need to receive a burden. People may even react negatively or be deeply touched when they hear a message transmitted with burden, yet they cannot deny that it is God's speaking. This kind of message can help people and solve their problems.
A message that sounds pleasant but is devoid of God's speaking cannot touch people or make them turn inward, nor satisfy the hungry and thirsty, because these are not the words God wants to convey, even if they are taken from the Bible.
Therefore, we must not speak in such a comfortable or trivial way. We cannot simply speak because we prepared a message. Those who minister the word must bring people's condition before God. They have the responsibility to know their needs, be sensitive to their condition, and know what God wants to speak.
The help we receive in training cannot replace the burden within us. The danger is that the burden has been replaced so that we are devoid of revelation and spiritual burden.
Enjoy more: Hymn 398
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