Insight for Living

Bill Meyer: What keeps a pastor from quitting? What keeps a congregation from giving up on its shepherd? Well, today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll gets honest about the real pressures of ministry: the lingering conflicts, the opposition that never sleeps, the slow erosion of joy. Then he opens 2nd Thessalonians 3 and points to something stronger than all of it: the faithfulness of God and the things He uses to hold pastors and churches together. From his eight-part series called Steadfast Christianity, Chuck titled today's message: Cords That Hold Pastors and Flocks Together.

Chuck Swindoll: This is a day of tremendous opportunity, and that's not meant to be a cheerleading statement. It's true. This is a day in which there is great spiritual hunger. Amos's words are right: there is a famine in the land, and it's a famine for the word of God. There's a famine for love and compassion mixed with the teaching of the word of God. It seems like it's an either-or thing. You either get good teaching or you get a lot of love. You either get an overwhelming sense of compassion in this place while you starve, or you get big doses of food dropped on you like truckloads and you don't feel like anybody cares after the instruction is over. We need balance.

Our Lord promised that the gates of hell will not prevail against His church, and that's true. In fact, Paul writing to Timothy in the last letter he ever wrote, 2nd Timothy, said these words in chapter 4, words that have become rather familiar to some of us: "Preach the word. Be ready in season and be ready out of season. Reprove, rebuke, and exhort with great patience and instruction." Those are strong words. They come with a staccato exclamation point. Preach it. Be ready. Exhort. Reprove. Why would he say it with such passion? Because the world system is so convincing.

Congregations drink in, breathe in, and breathe out the system of the world all week long. We get it from our televisions. We get it from our news magazines. We get it from our schools. We get it from our neighborhoods. We get it from our clubs. We get it from our social contacts. We are breathing in and out all the smog of the world system. Then for an hour or two a week, we're getting straight scoop from God. Sometimes it takes a strong exhortation from God's word just to get our attention. A man who does that is often viewed as crotchety, loud, or cranky. No. Don't misread passion and desire for holiness for crankiness. Don't misread that.

Why was he exhorted like he was? Verse 3: "Because the time will come when they, people around the community, people in the church, the populace, the hoi polloi, when they will not endure sound doctrine. But wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires and will turn their ears away from the truth and will turn aside to myths." We don't live in a vacuum. When you say no to the truth, you say yes to myth. When you say, "No, God, I don't want to know what You think about it," then we say, "Yes to the world, I want to buy into your lies." It's just that simple. It's a black-and-white thing, a very clear contrast.

Look at verse 5. How is Timothy to respond in a world like this? "But you," very strong and emphatic. People will do this. They will want that. All kinds of teachers with ear-tickling tongues will tickle the ears of listening audiences. "But you," he says it in chapter 3, verse 10. He says it in chapter 3, verse 14. He says it in chapter 4, verse 5. "But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry." A ministry is not to be endured; it's to be fulfilled. Great word, by the way. This word means to bring to full measure, to discharge all the duties connected with it.

Fill your day full of the things that mark your responsibility as a minister of the gospel. Calvin adds these words: "The more determined men become to despise the teaching of Christ, the more zealous should godly ministers be to assert it." But being men, we tend to back off. We tend to fold our arms and sigh at conferences like I attended. Oh, what's the use? There's a starvation setting in upon God's people.

Go back to 2nd Thessalonians chapter 3. Let's take a look at five verses in 2nd Thessalonians 3 that point out four responsibilities of the minister of the gospel, followed by four responses or responsibilities of congregations who are surrounded by the teaching of the gospel. It's a very simple outline. There's some truth here for the pastor in the first three verses, and then there's some truth here for the flock in about the middle of verse 3 down through verse 5. Let's take a look at them. First of all, let's dissect the pastor. That sounds like normal stuff, doesn't it? Let's do it for a few minutes.

"Finally, brethren." Now, understand, this is a preacher's "finally." It doesn't mean it literally; it just meant to wake you up so that you'll listen a little longer. He's got a whole chapter of things to say, but this is one of those in-between "finallys." He's addressing these words to the Christian, and so do I. You're a Christian, and if you're involved in a congregation and if your growth in Christ is important to you, listen to what God says about the person or the persons who minister to you. "Finally, brethren, pray for us. Pray for us."

Let's stop right there. The first thing I would list regarding a good minister is admission of need. He openly says, "I need prayer. Pray for us." I found that he asked for prayer in Romans 15:30. He asked for prayer among the Ephesian Christians in Ephesians 6:19. He asked for prayer from the Colossian saints in Colossians 4:3. He earlier asked the Thessalonians to pray for him in chapter 5, verse 25 of the first letter. He even said in verse 22 of the letter he wrote to the slave owner, Philemon, to pray for him. Paul is readily admitting his need for prayer. Why? Because he's merely a man.

He's just a human being, and he could easily be intimidated. He could easily get off course. He is in no way a self-assured guy who pulls his own strings and opens his own doors. Oh, he could, but he learned in the flesh it doesn't work. So pray that God would open just the right doors and I would march through them unafraid. Never think for a moment that the one who ministers the word to you can pull it off in the flesh or has any interest in doing that when under God's control.

I happen to be the one who ministers in the church pulpit, and I readily and on a regular basis admit my great needs. I struggle just as you struggle. I battle just as you battle. I fight within myself just as you fight within yourself. Given to myself, my garden would become full of weeds, and I would raise plants that would poison my own life. But your prayers for me and for our staff will keep us on target and keep us pure. I readily admit my wholesale need for prayer, and I do so without reservation. The minister is to be vulnerable. He is to call for help. He is to let people see the cracks and gaps and needs in his life.

That's why Paul asks for prayer. The second thing I would list is a declaration of the objective. That's in the last part of verse 1. "Pray for us," and what am I to pray for? "That the word of the Lord may spread rapidly," the word means to run. That the word of the Lord may put on sneakers and run the race. That there would be nothing to hold it back. Pray that the word of the Lord will run with speed and that the word of the Lord will be glorified, just as it did also with you. He's got great memories of the Thessalonian flock. He remembers when he ministered to them, the word of the Lord struck those people and they hit the ground running, and they're still running for the cause of Christ. Pray that what happened in Thessalonica would keep happening wherever I go.

I love the way he puts that, that it would keep running. Don't miss the affirming close, "just as it did also with you." While I was away, one thing that repeatedly came to my attention as a reason for discouragement was the lack of enthusiasm among those pastors' congregations. I don't know of anything that just drains at the heart of a minister of the gospel like an unenthusiastic body of people. They just sort of sit, soak, and sour. They're just same, sanctified, and galvanized. They just kind of get set in a rut and just keep the machinery going, Pastor. It's a burden for all of us, but try to stay on top and God bless you.

The declaration of his objective is that the word of the Lord would hit the road running and that the people would be revolutionized within so that if necessary, they stand all alone in their company, or all alone on their ball team, or all alone in the classroom at school, or all alone in their neighborhood if necessary. When the word of God takes root, it revolutionizes the person. But when it is simply an intellectual exercise, all it does is satisfy idle curiosity and makes you heady and high-minded and stuffy and snobby. He said, "I pray and I ask for you to pray that the word will run."

Third in the list would be a recognition of human opposition. That's in verse 2. "And while you're praying, I recognize that there's human opposition: that we may be delivered from perverse and evil men, for not all have the faith." Literally, there's a definite article, "the faith." Look at the kind of men he refers to. Perverse is a word that means capable of outrageous and harmful acts. Did you hear that? Verse 2: "That we may be delivered from people who are capable of outrageous and harmful acts against others." And evil speaks of those who are thoroughly corrupted themselves and intent on corrupting others.

Now, that's what the minister of the gospel must face as he stands for the truth in the face of people who don't love the truth or, as he calls it, people who do not have the faith. I got to thinking about that. I thought about Paul's words to these people, and this is among his earliest letters. As far as we know, 1st Thessalonians was written about 50 or 51 AD, and already he talks about opposition. So I thought I'm going to go to the very last letters he wrote, 1st Timothy. I want to see if he had opposition at the end of his ministry.

And I found someone. Verse 18 of chapter 1, 1st Timothy 1:18: "This command I entrust to you, Timothy, my son, in accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may fight the good fight, keeping faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith." He even has the guts to name them. "Among these are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have delivered over to Satan so that they may be taught not to blaspheme." You think that opposition wasn't strong? So strong that Paul, rather than fighting those men, said, "I deliver them over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh."

Well, did that cause them to leave him alone? Nope. Last letter he wrote, 2nd Timothy, chapter 4, once again, verse 14. Same man, intense opposition. "Alexander the coppersmith did me much harm. The Lord will repay him according to his deeds." Can you beat that? Here is a man 13, 14, 15 years in ministry. He's founded churches, he's shaped lives, he's forged out a theology for the new covenant. He has been God's man of the hour all the way from Jerusalem to Rome and maybe into Spain. And all along his steps have been dogged by the same old Alexander, the same old guy that's determined to make life miserable for him.

Mark it down. Anyone who stands for the truth will face the opposition of men who are unprincipled, men who oppose men and women who oppose the truth. Few people have said it better than Alexander White. He writes very well regarding Alexander the coppersmith. White says, "There was no man among Paul's many enemies who so hated Paul and so hunted him down as this Alexander the coppersmith. Alexander followed Paul wherever he went, poisoning the minds and the hearts of all men to whom his tongue or his pen had access. One of our latest and best authorities thinks that Alexander even followed Paul to Rome and did his best to poison Nero and his court still more against Paul. But whether he made that malicious and superfluous journey or no, Alexander certainly did Paul and his good name and his divine word all the evil that his gifts of speech and pen could do. It is no wonder that the constant presence of Alexander and his implacable and sleepless malice was about too great a trial for Paul to bear."

Think of that: implacable, sleepless malice. There isn't any man who stands for God today who doesn't have enemies who stand against him. When you pray for your minister, pray for those who oppose him. These may not be great in number, but they may be extremely effective. Sometimes they're just little sniping things. Sometimes they're just kind of nagging cranks and nuts. You know? I've agreed for years with Ironside that where there's light, there's bugs, and these are buggy people. They just nip at you and bite at you and drag you down. The apostle Paul had such opposition. I repeat, not the kind of opposition that simply says we want to look at the other side of this, but the kind that says, "No, no, no. I resent it. I don't like you. I don't like the way you declare God's truth. In fact, I don't like the truth. Quit talking like that," and in a number of different ways try to stop it.

Back to 2nd Thessalonians. Opposition from the human element, but I love the balance. I call it the flip side of that is the proclamation of God's faithfulness. You with me so far? The admission of need, the declaration of the objective, the recognition of human opposition, and now the proclamation of divine faithfulness. Verse 3: "But the Lord is faithful." Now, that's the answer. See, rather than turning the pulpit into a hammer to fight his battles, the apostle says simply, "The Lord is faithful. He will take care of the opposition. I will not lose my target by getting involved in those side-light skirmishes. The battle is bigger than that person or two or three." One of my messages to those young and older men in ministry was don't get off target because you've got somebody that doesn't like where you're going.

God is faithful. God will fight for me. He is there. I can call upon Him. He sees me through. He will never leave me. He will never forsake me. And even when the other person gets the upper hand, God is unintimidated. He is the one that everyone else must ultimately change their course to meet. I thought of that when a friend of mine mailed me this conversation from the sea. Listen.

The helmsman reported to the officer on the deck, "We are closing on collision course with another ship, sir." The senior officer on the bridge: "Tell him to alter course 15 degrees and maintain open contact with my bridge." "Yes, sir," replied the sailor. Almost instantly, the radio crackled, a voice saying, "Negative. Change your course 15 degrees." The officer snapped back, "This is a ship of the United States Navy. Change your course 15 degrees immediately." The voice replied, "Negative. Change your course 15 degrees." The undaunted officer, becoming agitated now, said, "You will change your course 15 degrees now, mister. I am an admiral in the United States Navy." The response, still calm: "No, sir. I repeat, change your course 15 degrees. I am a lighthouse."

Can't you see him grabbing the wheel? Get this thing in another direction! I am a lighthouse. That's God's faithfulness. Go to the lighthouse. Ultimately, everything will have to change its course when it's on a collision course with a lighthouse. They're not fighting you; they're fighting the lighthouse. It'll defend itself. Don't lower yourself to their skirmishes. It's not worth a hassle. Like my dad used to say, "Don't worry when a mule kicks you, just consider the source. Just a mule."

Now, so much for the pastoral side of things. Let's dissect the congregation. I've been looking forward to doing that for so long. From the flock, the Lord is faithful. First of all, there is protection from attack. I love the way verse 3 concludes: "Protection from attack. The Lord is faithful. He will strengthen and protect you from the evil one." Now, the reason I love this is because all of the responsibility rests with the faithful God. Many a pastor spends sleepless nights worrying about his flock, anxious over how they're going to behave and what they're going to do in this situation. Maybe another cult has moved within two or three blocks of that church building, as is the case with one man I spoke to.

And I says, "Well, you have the truth. Theirs is founded on error. You have the living faithful God to uphold His message. He will do it." The protection of the flock is in the hands of the living God. And by the way, even when some wander and stray, they become a point of strength in later years. I thought of that when I read in Luke 22 this week, verses 31 and 32. Jesus said to the apostles, "Satan has desired to have you plural, that he may sift y'all plural as he would sift sand. But I have prayed for you and you singular, Peter, you, when you have turned around, you will strengthen the brothers." Same word as strengthen here in verse 3: He will strengthen you.

What am I saying? I'm saying sometimes it takes the experience of dipping into a wandering lifestyle to become even stronger in later years. If your past has been marked by wandering from the truth and you're now back on course, you're part of the answer for a stronger congregation. God needs your testimony, or at least the flock needs your testimony. Let's put it this way: God can use your testimony in the flock. Some of the great messages that I have heard, I've heard from baptismal waters. I've heard from people who have gone dipping their lives into the lowest dregs of society and then they've come back. And they've turned completely around and they've declared faith in Christ, and now in those waters they stand and they tell you the difference God has made now that they're walking with Him. What a strengthening point it is to our faith.

The protection from attack, and this is a word for violent attack. He will strengthen you. The word is sterizo. We get that word for the drugs from this word strengthen: steroids, to make one stronger. This is God's strengthening and God's protection. You know what I thought about on this point? I thought of the terrorist activity in our day, and I thought at how much at the mercy of the terrorist we really are. When I pack my bags and make my way to an airline terminal, I am at the mercy of the moment, and so are you. When I get on that airplane, or when I take that public transportation from one spot to another, I am at the mercy of the terrorist. And you know who I have to trust in, aside from my God? My government. Those who have the clout, the authority, those who have the military might, those who have the intelligence and expertise to spot out the troubled areas and to protect me as a citizen of this country. And I trust them. I must, or I would never travel.

Bill Meyer: We're never more aware of our own weakness than when we realize how little control we actually have. Chuck Swindoll has more to say about this thought, but here's what we already know from 2nd Thessalonians 3. The God who strengthens and protects His people is not caught off guard, not by opposition, not by enemies, not by anything this world can throw at His flock. He is faithful, and that faithfulness is not a sentiment. According to the apostle Paul, it's a fortress.

You're listening to Insight for Living. Keep listening as Chuck continues his in-depth study of Paul's letter. But first, I'd like to tell you about some helpful resources designed to deepen your understanding of 2nd Thessalonians. First, Insight for Living offers an interactive Bible study workbook. This resource, like the teaching series, is called Steadfast Christianity. You can purchase a copy by calling us right now at 800-772-8888 or go online to insight.org/offer.

Every leader knows the feeling that Chuck described today: the opposition that won't quit, the weight of responsibility, the question that surfaces in the quiet moments, "Is this worth it?" Nehemiah knew that feeling, too. He was building something that mattered, surrounded by critics who wanted to stop him. But he kept his eyes on God and his hands on the work, and the wall around Jerusalem went up.

In his book, Hand Me Another Brick, Chuck walks you through Nehemiah's blueprint for courageous, God-honoring leadership. Whether you're shepherding a congregation, raising a family, or leading a team at work, this book will show you how to lead through opposition without losing your focus and how to build something that outlasts you. We'll send you a copy of Hand Me Another Brick when you make a donation to support Insight for Living. Just call us at 800-772-8888. You can also write to us at Insight for Living, Post Office Box 5000, Frisco, Texas 75034, or go online to insight.org/donate.

I'm Bill Meyer. Chuck Swindoll continues his study in 2nd Thessalonians called Steadfast Christianity Monday on Insight for Living.

The preceding message, Cords That Hold Pastors and Flocks Together, Part 2, was copyrighted in 1986, 1991, 2002, and 2024, and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2024 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.