Give 'Em A Good Warm-Over

A pastor preached a message on David and Goliath on a fine Sunday morning.

A few weeks later, he preached from the same passage, gave the same illustrations and drew the same conclusions.

Then, just to make certain everybody had heard it, he preached from David and Goliath once again.

Now, some of you are thinking, "This must be a joke. What's the punch line?"

No punch line. This is no joke.

Does it occur to pastors that when they "preach" from the same passage over and over, use the same illustrations over and over, draw the same conclusions over and over and use the same cliches over and over, the congregation might get the idea that they are too lazy to develop a new sermon?

Out of 66 books, are there not enough passages to keep a pastor busy with new material?

There is one message (and only one message) that bears repeating every single Sunday. It is a message found in every book of the Bible. It is the message that Christ paid the sin debt we owe. 

If a pastor thinks that message is boring, maybe he should reconsider his calling. It was the apostle, Paul, who said, "I have resolved to know nothing while I was with you but Christ and Him crucified." That is our only message. It does not deserve to be tacked on as the caboose of some other message, it must BE the message.

Can't find Jesus in the whole Bible? Consider this:

Jesus In Every Book of the Bible

In Genesis, He's the Breath of Life
In Exodus, the Passover Lamb
In Leviticus, He's our High Priest
Numbers, The Fire by Night
Deuteronomy, He's Moses' Voice
In Joshua, He is Salvation's Choice
Judges, Law Giver
In Ruth, the Kinsmen-Redeemer
First and second Samuel, our Trusted Prophet
In Kings and Chronicles, He's Sovereign

Ezra, true and Faithful Scribe
Nehemiah, He's the Rebuilder of Broken Walls and Lives
In Esther, He's Mordecai's Courage
In Job, the Timeless Redeemer
In Psalms, He is our Morning Song

In Proverbs, Wisdom's Cry
Ecclesiastes, the Time and Season
In the Song of Solomon, He is the Lover's Dream

In Isaiah, He's Prince of Peace
Jeremiah, the Weeping Prophet
In Lamentations, the Cry for Israel
Ezekiel, He's the Call from Sin
In Daniel, the Stranger in the Fire

In Hosea, He is Forever Faithful
In Joel, He's the Spirits Power
In Amos, the Arms that Carry Us
In Obadiah, He's the Lord our Savior
In Jonah, He's the Great Missionary

In Micah, the Promise of Peace
In Nahum, He is our Strength and our Shield 

In Habakkuk and Zephaniah, He's pleading for revival
In Haggai, He restores a lost heritage
In Zechariah, our Fountain

In Malachi, He is the Son of Righteousness rising with healing in His wings

In Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, He is God, Man, Messiah
In the book of Acts, He is Fire from Heaven
In Romans, He's the Grace of God
In Corinthians, the Power of Love
In Galatians, He is Freedom from the Curse of Sin

Ephesians, our Glorious Treasure
Philippians, the Servants Heart
In Colossians, He's the Godhead Trinity
Thessalonians, our Coming King
In Timothy, Titus, Philemon He's our Mediator and our Faithful Pastor

In Hebrews, the Everlasting Covenant
In James, the One who heals the sick.
In First and Second Peter, he is our Shepherd
In John and in Jude, He is the Lover coming for His Bride

In the Revelation, He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords

      The prince of peace
      The Son of man
      The Lamb of God
      The great I AM

      He's the alpha and omega
      Our God and our Savior
      He is Jesus Christ the Lord
      and when time is no more
He is, HE IS, HE IS THE GREAT I AM.

So come on, you preachers who can't take the time to find Jesus in the Old Testament as well as the New Testament; get with God's program!

When you claim to "preach the Word...all of it," are you talking about using it as a bunch of DOs and DON'Ts, a list of things we do (or don't do) to please God? Or are you finding in its pages from Genesis to the Revelation the good news of Messiah crucified, buried and resurrected? He's there. If you were called to preach, He is who you were called to preach about. If you cannot preach Christ, you were not called to preach.