2 Samuel 3:39
“And I am this day weak, though anointed king; and these men the sons of Zeruiah be too hard for me: the LORD shall reward the doer of evil according to his wickedness.”
As good of a man as Joab was, he certainly caused David a lot of problems because of his self-willed acts. Though Joab was very loyal to David, his acts of the flesh hindered the man whom he served. One of those acts is found in the verse above.
Judah and Israel were in a very unstable time. Saul had died and Judah had made David their king, but there were some in Israel who still wanted to be loyal to Saul and his family. This situation caused a civil war. One of the main men who led the quest for Saul's family to continue to reign was Abner. During one of the battles, Abner killed Joab’s brother. It finally came to the point that Abner knew the kingdom needed to be transferred over to David. As this transfer of power was being negotiated, Joab secretly met with Abner and killed him for his brother's sake. This was the type of act by Joab that David constantly had to patch up. Though Joab was an asset to David, he also was a liability that hindered David's reign.
In the ministry I have found that many times pastors have to spend too much time trying to fix what their followers have done. Many times these followers have sincere motives, but they are constantly doing something that the pastor has to fix.
For instance, many times I have watched pastors have to babysit their followers. When I say babysit, I am talking about followers who carry their feelings on their shoulders and feel offended if their leader doesn't give them some sort of attention. There are others who the leader has to walk on eggshells around them because they will explode if the leader does something that offends them. Then others are constantly doing something dumb that the leader has to fix. It could be patching up a relationship because of something they said. It could be an action that caused a bad name for the pastor and church, and he had to go back and explain that this is not how the church does things. Whatever the situation is, many times pastors are weakened because of the actions of their followers.
We need to be careful that we are not the one who is weakening the progress of what our pastor is trying to accomplish. Every time the pastor has to spend time trying to fix something that we have done, it takes time away from him being able to build the work and win souls.
I ask you, are your self-willed acts constantly causing problems for your pastor? Does your pastor have to patch up mistakes that you constantly make? The best way to make sure you are not weakening the hands of your pastor is to think before you act. Don't act out of selfishness or passion. Do everything on purpose. Before you do anything, make sure that what you do is what your pastor would want you to do. If you are not sure how he would want you to do something, then ask him before you do it.
Be careful that you don't hinder the progress of your church by making your pastor go behind you and patch it up. Let's be sure to contribute to the progress of our church by strengthening the hands of our pastor instead of weakening them. If the pastor can spend his time building the church, then it will benefit everyone.
To contact Evangelist Allen Domelle, send an email to contact@oldpathsjournal.com.
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