Often they preach on some topic or another and then tag the
sermon with a non-descript “invitation,” that nobody knows why or how to
respond to.
That’s not preaching the Bible. That’s not preaching the
gospel. That’s not even preaching. That’s just filling time.
Paul wrote, following his failed excursion into philosophy
at Athens, “I have resolved to know nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified…”
(1 Corinthians 2:2). He didn’t say, “I have resolved to know not much more than
Christ and Him crucified. He said, “I have resolved to know NOTHING but Christ
and Him crucified. What does NOTHING mean? Does it mean “something,” “a little
bit” or does it mean “NOTHING?”
Suppose a preacher takes a few Scriptures from the Old
Testament, maybe one of the famous stories like Daniel in the lions’ den, David
and Goliath, Joshua and the walls of Jericho or any of the other great stories,
and reads them. Then suppose he reads about obedience and how “God blesses
obedience and curses disobedience.” Then suppose he tacks on the gospel at the
end. Has he preached the Bible? No, he has not.
The problem is that many preachers treat the Bible as though
it is a bunch of unconnected, unrelated stories, rules, regulations and wise
sayings. It is not.
The Bible is the most remarkably consistent, intertwined and
amazing books ever written.
First of all, it is written by God. He used 40 different
authors over thousands of years who wrote 66 books, each of which relates to
every one of all of the others! That is astonishing!
What a total shame to not demonstrate in every sermon how
the Bible is all about God’s character, His love of His creation and His plan
for its redemption. What message could possibly be more powerful, more relevant
and more important for any human being to hear?
Preachers wake up! Stop cherry-picking Scripture to put
together a sermon that fits your agenda or your “theosophy.” Cults do that! Let’s
not let the Word of God be treated like some legalistic bunch of do’s and don’ts.
Neither let us use Scripture to show how bad the church is
or how bad some practices in the church are. The church is the BRIDE OF
CHRIST!! Stop doing that! The church is not bad. The church is good! There
might be some people who need Bible study, training or growing, but the church
is GOOD. Get that through your backward thinking, legalistic heads!
Come on, preachers. Study before you speak. Find the gospel
in the Old Testament as well as the New Testament. Stop taking the lazy way out
in sermon preparation. Start finding Jesus in every verse of the Bible. He’s
there! You just have to find Him there! Do it!
Don’t tag your sermon with a quick invitation. Make your
message lead up to a great, positive, compelling and inspiring invitation. Make
Jesus the whole point of your message. Make every word of your message be
designed to introduce people to Jesus and to inspire those who already know
Him. If you don’t think He is worthy of that, you need to revisit your own salvation experience!
No comments:
Post a Comment