Putrid From The Pulpit

I know many of my writings are hard on preachers. I also know there are some truly faithful men and women serving Jesus around the globe. There are also a number of professional preachers. They dress the part. They make speeches. They are eloquent. They are educated. Some of these do not preach with passion, power, or a pained heart. 

When I look back over the past 30 something years and consider some of the putrid I preached I am sickened by it. How many times did I preach to the mind more than to the hearts of people? How often did I content myself with dispensing biblical information but left unconcerned if lives were not changed? How often did manipulate the crowds by making them laugh or cry by playing on their emotions? How many times did I shamefully enter the pulpit and preach putrid messages because they were not bathed in prayer? I have been guilty of all the above. So have other preachers. 

I recently heard the story from a friend of mine about talking to a man appointed to help his church find a new pastor. He relayed a couple of comments that fueled this blog. First, he talked about how all the resumes of the preachers seemed like they were bragging about their accomplishments. When he checked on sermon links by these preachers he did not finish watching or listening to any of them. He said they all sounded like boring Sunday School lessons. No power and no substance. He did use the words but I will. PURE PUTRID!

Where is the depth in the pulpit that cannot come from academia but only from an authentic walk with God? Where are the messages birthed in the prayer   closet rather than the internet or local bookstore? Where is the anointing like Paul spoke of that empowered his preaching? Where is the passionate preaching that God uses to move mountains? It exists but you may have look hard to find it. 

Some time ago I was convicted of two things when it came to preaching. First, God should preach the sermon to me before I deliver it publicly. I need to be transformed by the truth. Over the years I preached many messages I felt no passion for. I justified it by telling myself I was still preaching God's word. If I have no passion for the truth how can I ever expect listeners to hear a fresh word from God. They will not hear peaching with any life in it. They will only hear words that bore them to sleep and apathy. When I am convicted, encouraged, or challenged by the truth of God's word I will preach it from the heart and not the mind. 

The second thing is after God preaches the message to me I need to preach it with anointing and passion. God gives both. If God preaches the message to me first and if I have passion for that truth I believe I will be much more likely to preach powerfully with His supernatural enabling. I am not called to make speeches. I am called to deliver God's word with God's power. 

One of the things I pray before preaching is, "Father, I ask you to anoint my mind so I think your thoughts. I ask you to anoint my mouth so I speak only your words. I ask you to anoint my heart so I feel what you feel. I ask you bring all three in harmony to deliver your truth today."

Some might argue that preaching this way would exclude expository preaching verse by verse. Not necessarily so. Yet it takes a lot more time and effort to sit before a text preaching verse by verse until that truth penetrates and God wells passion for that truth. It takes more time to wrestle with the text until God reveals and preaches the truth to the preacher first. This may not be done in a couple of hours. 

I have stood before hungry flocks and offered putrid so many times in the past. I repent for it and apologize to every group of people who had to endure it. I sinned. God called me to do more than dispense Bible information. 

I am preaching at a church this Sunday I have never been to before. I have been tossing around different messages for weeks for these people but cannot settle on one. This morning I prayed, "Lord, what do you want to communicate to these people? I want to preach what you n want to say and not one of my all time favorite sermons from the past which is easier. What do you want me to preach?

I sat back and listened. At first I mentally started in Genesis and worked my way through several chapters before moving on to Exodus. I entertained and dismissed several messages this way for some time. Then a verse I read yesterday in my quiet time resurfaced. As I thought about it my mind spun in several directions from that truth. I believe now it is what I am to 
share this coming Sunday. God preached it to me. I have passion for the subject matter. I am trusting Him for the empowering to preach it. 

I trust God to give it substance and power. I trust people to be convicted and to repent and change their ways. I trust God's word will not return to Him void but it will accomplish the purposes for which He is sending it forth. The message has already been preached to me. Passion is welling up for this truth like molten lava from a volcano about to erupt. 

That is what preaching should be. Molten lava of God's fiery hot truth erupting into the hearts of listeners stirring them from apathy and hypocrisy. Not more putrid from the pulpit.