I know many of you that follow my blog are not pastors, church planters, or will never preach a sermon in a church may be wondering how this topic of preaching the Word applies to you. Go read 2 Timothy 4:1-5 before you continue reading....
no, seriously, read it......
don't skip down, read it.....
get you Bible out and read it.....
have you read it? check out verse 4
Does that describe you? see, if you have not read it you have no clue what I am talking about so better go and read it!
I believe this verse describes our "church" culture today. Churches are full of people who want the pastor to tell some good stories to motivate them to live a better life. As a pastor, it is hard not to tell the fun stories that motivate and encourage people - it feels good to get someone to tell you "Good Job". But if I am not careful, I will water down the Word by running out of time telling stories to give people what they want and never get to the Word.
So how does the average church member fight against this mentality? Be in the Word yourself apart from Sunday mornings. If you spend time in the Word during the week, then it will be familiar to you when the sermon comes around. But if you spend more time in the world, well, the Word will be unfamiliar, harsh, and not very encouraging to you. You will leave a service thinking the preacher is mad at something and it just did not do it for you!
If we are to be disciples that make disciples, we must hunger for the Teacher's Word! Use this rule of thumb before you criticize your preachers sermon: did you spend enough time in the Word during the week to give you a foundation to compare his sermon too?
PS: If you did not take time to look up the Scriptures I asked you to at the beginning of the blog, I wonder would you rather hear my Words or the Bibles? Just a question!
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