What does a pastor do when the message that God lays on his heart is faithfully developed and preached but subsequently ignored? Does he give up? Does he turn in his ordination papers? Does he retreat to his study and crawl up in the fetal position? While those might seem to be viable options at the time (especially on Monday morning), what is the right thing to do? Obviously the right thing is to continue to preach. The preacher needs always to remember this—the response of people to God's message is not the responsibility of the deliverer. The preacher is responsible only for himself. If he has prayed; if he has studied; if he has delivered the message God has laid on his heart—a message based on God's authority (His Word), then that is all he can do. He can do nothing more. God requires nothing other than faithfulness from him. God will take care of the hearers. They are in His hands anyway.
Paul warned Timothy:
For the time will come when they will not tolerate sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, will multiply teachers for themselves because they have an itch to hear something new. They will turn away from hearing the truth and will turn aside to myths [2 Tim 4:3-4]. We may be living in the era of 'itching ears' but remember what the Apostle said in vv. 1-2: I solemnly charge you before God and Christ Jesus, who is going to judge the living and the dead, and because of His appearing and His kingdom: 2 Proclaim the message; persist in it whether convenient or not; rebuke, correct, and encourage with great patience and teaching.
The preacher's job, even when people don't listen—keep preaching! Be faithful! Keep praying! Keep studying! Keep preparing! The preacher doesn't work for the people anyway. He works for God!!!
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