OUTLINE:

“equipping the saints"
It’s not a pastor’s job to spoon feed his sheep. It’s his job to push them to “work out their own salvation with fear and trembling” (Php 2:12b), often challenging them with “difficult” messages. The true test lies with the disciple, not the teacher. <— Learn this!

“Give a man a fish and he eats for a day; teach a man how to fish and he eats for a lifetime.” - Secular Proverb -

People Are Lazy
Man’s laziness likes to “move the needle” in the shepherd/sheep relationship so that the shepherd is demanded more of while the sheep increases in laziness. ’Tis why so many sheep prefer distilled secular proverbs over Biblical ones that force them to think or even research for answers (seek diligently - ala Mt 7:7).

2Co 12:15b
If I love you more, am I to be loved less?

2Ti 4:2
“preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.”

Ro 12:2 [Amplified]
And do not be conformed to this world [any longer with its superficial values and customs], but be transformed and progressively changed [as you mature spiritually] by the renewing of your mind [focusing on godly values and ethical attitudes], so that you may prove [for yourselves] what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect [in His plan and purpose for you].

Seeking is an act of humility, borne of a fear of the Lord.

Lk 11:9-10
“So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it will be opened.”