Who Are They Preaching For! Spiritual Maturity 2014 Like many of you reading this, I have heard many pastors, evangelists, missionaries, and ministers preach. From a visiting missionarys one night stand to an evangelists two week revival [Bible conferences, and preacher retreats], from a broad cross section of society deliver countless messages. When I was younger in the Lord and ignorant of many Bible truths I was enamored by any man who claimed to be a preacher and devoured everything he said. Unfortunately, now that I am older and hopefully a little wiser my enthusiasm has diminished to a degree. Why, you may ask? Because after a few years of listening, watching, and studying preachers and analyzing their mode, method, and motivation for preaching, I realized many preachers too often preach to impress people more than to minister to people. Especially if there is a notable preacher peer in the room they wish to impress. They appear more in love with the act of preaching than with the purpose of preaching. The self-centered ego of man is not eradicated when he is called to preach. It is a powerful influence of the flesh that strives to get a preacher off track by satisfying a selfish desire or ambition—to be thought of as a gifted, clever, smart, powerful, brilliant, etc., preacher by his peers. The ego of man is the epitome of pride. It loves positive attention and notoriety. The only thing it may desire more is to be loved, admired, and appreciated. This is in stark contrast to the attitude a believer in Christ should hold. Christ said more than once before one could follow Him he had to “deny himself—deny the desires of his flesh. Paul said believers should make themselves of NO reputation and be a humble servant; traits mans proud ego shuns. Im convinced the biggest enemy a Christian has is not the Devil or the world, it is his own vain, proud, self-gratifying flesh. This self fixation or ego IS the LUST and PRIDE of man—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life! Unfortunately, this uncrucified flesh has dwelled among preachers, as well as all other believers, since the beginning. Instead of preaching from pure, godly motives solely to help others and please God, flesh has ulterior motives and secretly seeks to impress people and show off. Any honest preacher with any time under his belt will admit this. The tendency to knock their socks off with ones wit, oratory, knowledge, and presence is a desire that is hard for many to ministers to overcome. They treat preaching as if it is a competition. Some Bible schools even have preaching competitions for their young preachers and award prizes to the winner. How do they determine the winner? Do they count souls saved, lives changed for the good, Bible doctrines expounded, etc.? No, they measure their oratory, organization, knowledge, and performance against their fellow competitors. No wonder many preachers harbor this competitive, adversarial spirit throughout their ministry. Usually a minister has to be quite seasoned and mature in the ministry before he realizes the futility and vanity of such an attitude. Preaching is not a competitive sport, it is the means God has established to save those which are lost and edify those who are saved. It appears oratory, delivery, and even dishonesty have in many cases become a substitute for Holy Spirit endued power. When one reads of the ministries of those in centuries past, he realizes the results they obtained were NOT a because of flashy oratory or clever alliteration. They were effective because they had upon them the prayer induced power of God!
Posted on: Mon, 27 Jan 2014 08:34:40 +0000
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