The Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Galatia,

“Each new generation must learn what God has done for His people so that “My children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you” (Galatians 4:19)

Recently, I was reading John MacArthur’s new book, Final Word: Why We Need the Bible, and reminded of what a privilege and pleasure it is to serve Christ’s Church, “helping to supplement the spiritual sustenance the local church requires from God’s Word.”

“My heart goes out to those true believers who can’t find a reliable church that provides real spiritual food. I hear from people in that situation all the time. They’re committed to their local church, but they’re not being faithfully fed. They have to survive with weak teaching, scrounging for morsels instead of feasting on the riches of God’s Word. And in that malnourished state, they develop deficient immune systems, succumbing to heresies and errors they would otherwise know to avoid. That’s the cost of weak preaching and weak pastors—they leave the people under them exposed and vulnerable to lies that would not confuse or corrupt stronger believers. Today, too many pulpits are occupied by hirelings who don’t know the first thing about how to feed their flocks—they’re either incapable of feeding God’s sheep or unwilling to do so. My prayer is that believers caught in such situations would find faithful ministries to help supplement the spiritual sustenance they require from God’s Word.“