I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. 2 Timothy 4:1-2
Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel. 1 Corinthians 9:16
I preach the Word; that’s what I do.
I preach because I have to do it. I don’t sense a choice in the matter at all.
I preach because nothing else can satisfy the urgency and passion that God has ignited in my heart for His truth and His people. The same should be true for you. If you can go sell cars or shuffle stocks instead of being a pastor and preacher of God’s Word, then go do that.
For the rest of us, I’m grateful for a brief opportunity to talk about our common goal: being the best proclaimer of God’s truth that we can be. I’ve signed up to do this for a lifetime and want to be continually growing in effectiveness. In a series of posts, I’d like to pass along some things about preaching that I’ve learned so far that may be helpful to you as you serve the body of Christ.
Don’t Miss
We all know some things are better caught than taught. Formal instruction is necessary, but there are still those pieces that you have to figure out for yourself. Often, it is those pieces that determine your success or failure. You can’t learn these from a textbook; you can only pick them up by experience, both your own and from those you trust.
For all the difficult trade-offs that come with living your Christian life in public, we get the joy of holding God’s Word in our hands, rightly dividing the Word of truth, and watching it change lives. That’s so much bigger than having free weekends.
1: Your preaching must flow out of your own relationship with the Lord.
Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. James 4:8
I’ve heard it said that you can’t teach what you don’t know, and you can’t lead where you don’t go. If you don’t know God and His Word personally and experientially, you’ll never be able to teach about them effectively or powerfully. Unless your preaching is drawn from your own experience, it will get thin and stiff and silly—fast. You might be able to pull off a masquerade for a month, but you can’t keep it up for a year.
