Yes, I know, it is twice I have posted on my blog from this dear brother, Zack Eswine. But it's just good stuff and even if your not a preacher, you need to read this. Pray for your Pastor my friend, they need it!!
Preaching is Testimony
Posted by zeswine in preaching and the preacher.
In Webster Groves, Missouri, preaching doesn’t feel like martyring but what if that’s what it is? After all, we preachers are called to do what most people never do. We stand up in a public place week after week and declare what we believe.”We preach” Paul says, “because we believe.” (2 Cor. 4:13) Isn’t this why, depending upon the time and place in which we live, what preachers do is a dangerous business? Does this mean that every time we prepare a sermon we are not only turning over the room of the text, emptying its drawers, searching its hard-drive, sifting the clothes in its closets and opening the boxes beneath its stairs; but we are also digging through the files of our own personal response to God? Preaching therefore is not only proclamation. Preaching is testimony. We are not only ambassadors we are also converts. Prior to our homiletic, preaching exposes our humanity. We not only try to say what the text says, but in so doing, we implicitly reveal our own response to that text before God.
No wonder I’m scared sometimes. There is no hiding. Someone may not like the implications of my public meddling. My limits and sins, my own need of Jesus are put on display. To preach can feel like standing in an emergency room having to wear one of those gowns that doesn’t cover everything and with no way to hide my condition and need for help. I feel like a fool. I am thought of as one. No wonder I’m emboldened sometimes. I preach what I believe. This is no game for me. I’m not in class anymore trying to get a grade for my sermon. My whispers are war-cries. My exegesis is ambush. My sermon is insurgency. My illustrations are uprising. I am an outlaw with a bounty on my head. I am preaching allegiance to a different king and a new kingdom. Preaching is rebellion against sin and subversive of its rules and ways. The world is broken. I can no longer pretend otherwise.
Ask Yourself
We are meant to preach because we believe. I feel grateful. This is God’s kindness to resist the hypocrisy that distastes all of us. I also need help. Sometimes I can hear myself saying something like the following. When I do, I need Christ’s grace to recover me by His mercy. Such thoughts reveal to me that the sermon has become a crisis of my faith.
I preach because I’m scheduled to (we don’t know what tomorrow will bring, Christ is your scheduler)
I preach because they want me to (people are fickle, Christ desires what is best for you)
I preach because I’m good at it (not everyone will agree with this assessment, Jesus’ opinion is best)
I preach because if I don’t I don’t know how to provide for my family (our jobs are rarely secure, Jesus is your security)
I preach because it gives me opportunity to do other things (what if sermon making fails to do this for you? Jesus is your future and holds the desires of your heart)
I preach because I enjoy the study (what happens when time to study is lost? Jesus has joys beyond study for you)
I preach because if I don’t I might lose their respect or interest (people are fickle, Jesus’ opinion is what you need)
I preach because God will love me if I do (will God love you if you do not preach? Jesus’ love depends on something other than your sermon-making)
I preach because I’m respected (what happens when respect is removed? Jesus sticks closer than a brother)
I preach because I’m the only one who can (what happens when you burn out or worse? Jesus is the hope of Christianity in your generation, not you dear friend)
That is good stuff!
Eric
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