To Live is Christ

There is hardly a sin more needless or tragic than bad preaching.  In an attempt to be relevant, some sacrifice truth.  Others, though they speak truth, do so without applying the text in a way that impacts the hearers.  The preacher's work is not to stimulate minds but engage hearts through the Holy Spirit's anointing and power.  Charles Spurgeon lamented of those who missed the mark in his day:  "For instance, the great problems of sublapsarianism and the supralapsarianism, the trenchant debates concerning eternal filiation, the earnest depute concerning the double procession, and the pre- and post-millenarian schemes, however important some may deem them, are practically of very little concern to that godly widow woman, with seven children to support by her needle, who wants far more to hear of the loving-kindness of the God of providence than of these mysteries profound.  I know a minister who is great upon the ten toes of the beast, the four faces of the cherubim, the mystical meaning of badgers' skins, and the typical bearings of the staves of the ark, and the windows of Solomon's temple:  but the sins of business men, the temptations of the times, and the needs of the age, he scarcely ever touches upon." (Lectures, pg. 75)

What is the point of preaching if you miss the point?  I have been mulling over how we Christians tend to think like Christians and only see things from our point of view.  We think it is imperative to prove Jesus is the Christ while unbelievers see no need for a Savior in the first place.  Some preach over people's heads, and some preach only to themselves!  The pulpit is not an opportunity for a preacher to let the world know what he thinks but to hold forth what God says.  But let us not think that sermons are reserved only for pulpits.  Our Christian witness during the ordinary mundane activities of our lives is quite possibly the only sermon some people might be exposed to.

Christians, like most people, tend to think that if we just had all our facts straight with a little "shock and awe" we could convince anyone to our position.  This is simply not true.  Very little of the great quantity of soul-work is done in minutes.  Often it takes years - years of not saying things, but living a life for Christ which demonstrates His love to others that makes a huge impact.  Facts do not save people from hell and pithy sayings cannot change a man:  it is God who does that!  It is God who makes a man, opens his eyes, and transforms him too.  If we are willing to allow God to change us, He'll also change others through us.  It is a change which begins in the heart and reverberates through the soul by God's grace, not because we memorized the "Roman's Road."  If we talked a little less and did a little more our sermons would have more substance worth chewing on.

Jesus wasn't just a preacher:  He was a doer.  His works opened doors for Him to speak.  People heard of all the things He did and were intrigued to hear what such a Man had to say.  It is one thing to have an opportunity to speak for God's glory:  it is another thing for people to want to listen!  Proverbs 18:16 says, "A man's gift makes room for him, and brings him before great men."  Jesus is the greatest gift I have ever received.  When we choose to live for Jesus we share Him with the world.  A man's words can be disputed and debated, but an entire life lived for God silences even the harshest critics.  Let your righteous life of purity weigh upon the consciences of God-hating men.  That way Jesus will do all the talking.