2. Exemplary speech and conduct.
Although far from perfect, we preachers are called to be examples. There is no getting around that.
Just this evening, a member of our church asked me to pray with her for a friend, another member of our church, who is incarcerated. At the end of our conversation, she said the reason she wanted me to pray was because she perceives that I have a closer relationship with Jesus Christ.
Now I have no more special access to the throne room of God than does she. But what she said struck me quickly.
My living speaks to her.
I am to exemplify the kind of deepening, devoted relationship with Jesus Christ that she herself desires. There needs to be both tangible (speech) and intangible (faith) demonstrations of your preacher’s convictions that serve as a model for you.
3. A public love for the Scriptures.
You don’t have a real preacher if he doesn’t love the word of God. The Bible is the very word of God to humanity.
If a preacher preaches something other than the scriptures, it won’t transform your life.
It cannot be trusted as a good foundation upon which to build your life. It will give way when the storms of life strike.
But if your preacher preaches the word of God according to its original intent, you can bank your life on it. History is the single greatest witness that the Bible can be trusted as the word of God.
We preachers are to give our attention to publicly reading, preaching and teaching the word of God.
