LET MY PEOPLE GO
A visiting
minister was very long-winded. Worse, every time he would make a good point
during his sermon and a member of the congregation responded with
"Amen" or "That’s right, preacher" he would get wound up
even more and launch into another lengthy discourse.
Finally, the
host pastor started responding to every few sentences with "Amen,
Pharaoh!" The guest minister wasn’t sure what that meant, but after
several more "Amen, Pharaohs" he finally concluded his very lengthy
sermon.
After the
service concluded and the congregation had left, the visiting minister turned
to his host and asked, "What exactly did you mean when you said
"Amen, Pharaoh?"
His host
replied, "I was telling you to let my people go!"
2 Tim 3:16a All Scripture is God-breathed
Gen 2:7 God-breathed
into his nostrils the breath of life
Gen 25:8 And Abraham
breathed his last breath and was gathered to his people.
Ezek 37:9-10 Then he
said to me, "Prophecy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it,
'This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and
breathe into these slain, that they may live.'" So I prophesied as he
commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their
feet — a vast army.
Mark 15:37-39 With a
loud cry, Jesus breathed his last. The curtain of the temple was torn in two
from top to bottom. And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus,
heard his cry and saw how he died, he said, "Surely this man was the Son
of God!"
John 20:21-22 Again
Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending
you." And with that, he breathed on
them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit.
2 Tim 3:16b and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training
in righteousness,
Teaching = here
is what we are going to learn today.
Rebuking = Shaking
your finger when someone is about to touch a hot stove of sin.
Correcting = Just
a second, instead of going that way let’s go this way.
training in
righteousness = Remember what I taught you, now let’s practice it in real
life.
2 Tim 3:17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every
good work.
We come to worship to hear the God-breathed, teaching,
rebuking, correcting, training scriptures preached so that we will be well
equipped for good works.
CAN’T REMEMBER ANY SERMONS or MEALS
Several years ago “The British Weekly”
published this provocative letter:
Dear Sir: It
seems ministers feel their sermons are very important and spend a great deal of
time preparing them. I have been attending church quite regularly for thirty
years, and I have probably heard 3,000 of them. To my consternation, I
discovered I cannot remember a single sermon. I wonder if a minister’s time
might be more profitably spent on something else?
For weeks a
storm of editorial responses ensued, finally ended by this letter:
Dear Sir: I have
been married for thirty years. During that time I have eaten 32,850 meals –
mostly my wife’s cooking. Suddenly I have discovered I cannot remember the menu
of a single meal. And yet, I have the distinct impression that without them, I
would have starved to death long ago.
2 Tim 4:1 In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge
the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give
you this charge: 2 Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season;
correct, rebuke and encourage — with great patience and careful instruction.
Preach the
Word
be prepared
in season and out of season;
correct,
rebuke and encourage — with great patience and careful instruction.
2 Tim 4:3-4 3
For the time will come when men will not put up with
sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around
them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4
They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn
aside to myths.
People turn aside to myths: A very
common myth that many Christians believe is, “If I do everything right, life
will work smoothly.” We seem to be immersed in an attitude of entitlement,
believing that God owes us an easy and comfortable life if we serve Him. We
expect to be able to avoid all pain, and we look for formulas to make life
work. Frankly, many of us are addicted to our own comfort zones, and when
anything disturbs our comfort zone, we feel betrayed and abandoned by God.
2 Tim 4:5 But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship,
do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.
But you, keep your
head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an
evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.
Basically, no matter what…keep
faithfully doing the work you are called to do - including preaching.
Is
preaching what is done after worship or is it also an aspect of worship?
Let me suggest the answer to that is different for me than it is for you. Every
sermon I preach is and must be worship for me but not necessarily for you. For
me, when I preach, I dare not open my mouth unless I have invited the Holy
Spirit to be in the preparation as well as the moment of proclamation. As I
preach, I am absolutely worshipping the one who has given the message - God’s
Holy Spirit. My hope would be that during the message you have an encounter
with God that allows you to know him and give Him glory. My guess is that, this
does not happen for you every Sunday. I am not talking about “feeling close to
God” because worship has very little to do with feelings though we sometimes
experience them during worship. Worship is attributing worth to God which you
sometimes do during a message - other times your heart or mind may be so
distracted that it is not an experience of worship for you. I have had times
where I have listened to a sermon and it has not been a time of worship for me
- but that was my doing not the preachers.
If
we establish that preaching is worship, what is most important in the preaching
event. I have several thoughts but only two matter in the end. Besides those
two - it is important that I first experience the text - that it lives in me;
it is important that I understand the text and the congregation who receives
the message as best as I can. It is important how I deliver the message - the bible is not all poetry, or narrative, or history, or parable, or eschatological,
or chronological, or, or, or…there are many different genres of how it is
written and therefore are many different ways it can and should be presented.
As important as all of those are, they mean nothing if the other two are not
met - those are that every message must be biblically based and Christ
centered.
If it does not come for scripture it is
the preacher's thoughts - if it is not Christ-centered, it has no life or power
so what’s the point. The great preacher Charles Spurgeon illustrates it well
with this story: SPURGEON QUOTE: NO JESUS CHRIST IN IT!
A Welshman heard
a young man preach a very fine sermon-a grand sermon, a highfaluting,
spread-eagle sermon; and when he had done, he asked the Welshman what he
thought of it. The man replied that he did not think anything of it.
• "And why not?"
"Because there was no Jesus Christ in it."
• "Well," said he, "but my text did not seem to run that way."
"Never mind," said the Welshman, "your sermon ought to run that way."
• "I do not see that, however," said the young man.
"No," said the other, "you do not see how to preach yet. This is the way to preach.
From every little village in England - it does not matter where it is - there
is sure to be a road to London. Now, from every text in the Bible, there is a
road to Jesus Christ, and the way to preach is just to say, `How can I get from
this text to Jesus Christ?’ and then go preaching all the way along it."
• "Well," said the young man, "suppose I find a text that does not have a road to Jesus."
"I have preached for forty years," said the old man, "and I have never found such a Scripture,
but if I ever do find one I will go over hedge and ditch but what I will get to
him, for I will never finish without bringing in my Master and Savior Jesus
Christ."
2 Cor 4:5-6 For
we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your
servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who said, "Let light shine out of
darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
1 Cor 1:22-24 Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks
look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and
foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and
Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
1 Cor 2:1-2 When
I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I
proclaimed to you the testimony about God.
For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ
and him crucified.
CONCLUSION
2 Tim 4:1 In
the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the
dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this
charge: 2 Preach the Word!
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