07/24/23 THEY JUST WON'T LISTEN

07/24/23 THEY JUST WON'T LISTEN

If you have ever tried to reach and help a loved one who has a destructive addiction (alcohol, drugs, pornography, self abuse, illicit relationships), but they reject, refuse your counsel, your outreach of love, your offer of support and help; or if you have warned a loved one who is living in a make believe world, which will eventuate in their ruin, but they continue in the destructive activity, errant way, confused thinking, and you cannot get them to see or abandon their errant way; or if you have a loved one who is facing a terrible medical malady but they are not willing to take the available steps to avoid the inevitable; then you may understand the heartache of a pastor who tries to pull folks back from the fires of destruction.

It is heart breaking when loved ones choose to take a path of destruction, when they refuse to take the way of deliverance. Sometimes they do not believe that their way is dangerous or they do not believe that the way of deliverance is valid. They have swallowed a lie and they will not turn from it.

If you have experienced any of these scenarios, then you may understand what it means when a pastor cannot reach people with the light of the gospel and the power of God's word and His Holy Spirit.

I remember when my son and I pulled up behind another car at an intersection, which teed onto a highway. While we were waiting for a tractor trailer to pass by, the car in front of us inexplicably pulled into the path of the Semi.

The truck was barreling down the highway, with no way to stop or miss the small car. The truck t-boned the car at full speed. The car driver could do nothing, the trucker could do nothing and we could do nothing but watch (and of course we prayed). But we could do nothing that would cause the collision to not take place. (Miraculously, God protected the driver, who flew about in his car, knocked out of his shoes, while the car basically flew a few hundred feet down the highway). Except for the intervention of God, the consequences were inevitable.

If you have ever watched a love one deliberately pull in front of a disaster which could have been avoided, something that you could have saved them from, but they would not listen, then you have an idea of what it means to be a pastor, offering God's deliverance from total disaster to people who will not listen.