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Preaching is More Than Talking or Yelling

ByPastor Wynn

According to research done by the Barna Group and other statistical researchers, most people are biblically illiterate.  One such report revealed that only half of U.S. adults could name one of the four Gospels.  Still others (including professing believers) found it difficult to name at least four of the twelve apostles.  Albert Mohler reported that “A Barna poll indicated that at least 12 percent of adults believe that Joan of Arc was Noah’s wife. Another survey of graduating high school seniors revealed that over 50 percent thought that Sodom and Gomorrah were husband and wife.”

Yet, these same people can recite the names of all the players on their favorite sports team, and give the statistics of each player.  They can give a chronological history of each loss and victory.  They know all the NASCAR drivers by name and their car number.  They can name all the teams of the SEC.  They avidly follow their favorite players.  They can cite the many reasons that a particular football player should be the Heisman winner, and so forth.  Like the children of Reuben and Gad, they can name the places and peoples of the world but have little knowledge of the Word of God (Numbers 32:1-5, 19).

It is little wonder that so many churches have left the moorings of biblical truth and set sail on the seas of compromise and man’s opinion.  The modern church bears little resemblance to the one found within the pages of the New Testament.  While I am grateful for those who approach the services of the church with anticipation, they are the few among professing believers.  As you gather around the entrances of the local church on Sunday morning, give attention to the discussions taking place.  Yesterday’s games, races or other competitions are the top topics.  It seems that the gathering of the local church is a mere religious club, where the participants have little vested interest in what happens.  Where are the believers that are passionate and eager to hear from God?  Where are the congregants who approach the service with hungering hearts and thirsty souls, that can only be quenched with drinking deep from the well of God’s Word?

Sadly, most of the responsibility can be laid at the feet of the local church pastor.  Too many pulpits have been replaced with counselor’s stools and motivational lecterns.  The “message from God” has been replaced with “thought for the week.”  Expositional preaching has been replaced with a topic of the day.  Little preparation is given to the average sermon today.  Several years ago, a preacher told me, “I don’t have to study much anymore.  Give me a text of Scripture and fifteen minutes, and I can get a message ready.”  Needless to say, that man should never stand in the pulpit.  Shallow preparation produces shallow preaching that produces shallow Christians.  Yet, a visit to the average preacher’s fellowship will reveal the same attitude, even it is not so bluntly stated.  I have often sat in meetings where the preacher announced his text, read the text, and from there departed.  In one such meeting, I heard a preacher give a wonderful motivational speech on how to succeed in life, but it could not properly be called a biblical message, because it had nothing to do with the text that he read in Romans 7:18-20.  Such mishandling of the Scriptures is a flagrant violation of the command of God to “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needed not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15).  It is utter disregard for the biblical exhortation for the pastor to “Feed the flock of God” (2 Peter 5:2).  The pastor/shepherd should remember that it is obedience to that specific command that will yield the “crown of glory that fadeth not away” (2 Peter 5:4).

It is amazing what is called “preaching.”  In many circles, a man can yell loud, spit far, pound the pulpit hard, and people declare “now that’s preaching!”  It will not matter that Scripture was not expounded, or that a text had been yanked from its context.  As long as the supposed preacher declares it forcibly and passionately, then that is “preachin’.”

Please note that it is not the purpose of this article to attack those who faithfully proclaim God’s Word.  Yet, it must be understood that we cannot expect mature believers to be developed when there is not a systematic exposition of God’s Word taking place.  It is no wonder that we have so many “growling” members in our churches when the man in the pulpit does little more than throw them an old bone with no meat, as he would toss a bone to a dog.

What we need in our day are men who will devote themselves to “continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word” (Acts 6:4).  We need men who will faithfully teach the Word of God in a line-upon-line, precept-upon-precept method (Isaiah 28:9-10).

The call to preach is the greatest of all callings!  Let those of us, who mount the pulpits of God’s church, be men of God who have labored in the Word of God, been filled with the Spirit of God, and then faithfully preach to the people of God the Word of God.  Paul did not tell Timothy to “Preach about the Word.”  He said, “Preach the word” (2 Timothy 4:2).  To do so takes time in prayer and time in study.  If we will do that, then our ministries can have both depth and breadth.  We will discover that the true believers, as hungry sheep, will gather to be fed the Word of God. Therefore, Preach the Word!

Is the expositional, line upon line, the style of preaching you use?  What are your thoughts?

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41 Comments

  1. Another “home-run” article, Preacher! 100% right on target… Phil. 4:13 <

  2. Amen and Amen. Do you remember Dr. Porter from TTU? Someone once told him that the difference between teaching and preaching is that with teaching the person talks in an understandable voice but when it is “preachin'” you can not understand what the guy is saying!! Sad, but that appears to be the mentality of many.
    I see it here on the field. I study hours on end and the people look at me like a bump on a log. Ask someone 15 minutes after the service lets out and you will be hard pressed to find someone that could give an answer 🙁 Though that be the case, I am going to do my best to communicate the Word of God!

  3. I wish more would pick up the banner of expository preaching. It almost seems disdained and we are producing churches that claim to know truth but often can’t support their doctrine with 1 verse of scripture. Great article. From Texas.

  4. Amen Pastor Wynn!

    I have enjoyed hearing many different sermons delivered in a variety of styles and with a multitude of personal quirks and nuances, and I have come to realize that it takes these many variations to reach our quirky souls with the truth from God’s Word. My criteria for listening to a sermon is that it actually be from God’s Word and that it is delivered in its context, the sound of the Preacher’s voice, the enthusiasm or lack thereof from the messages delivery matters little to me. The important thing is that the Spirit of Truth, which God gave me the day that I was saved, says amen at each point given.

    Those who limit themselves to the slobbering pulpit pounders miss the deeper messages and greater spiritual growth from the studious expounders. And those who require their Preachers to have college degrees and limit themselves to fine lecturers, miss the passion and zeal of the former that can kindle a fire in the soul of the believer, or make the fires of hell real to the sinner.

    Many Christians either don’t know, or they lose sight of what God has called them to do. All Preachers are not the same, and every man that is called to Preach has not also been called to Pastor a Church. God calls Pastors, Evangelists, Teachers and Comforters (Deacons) to name a few, all should be Preachers, but all with different roles to play within the local assembly. But then there comes the problem of pride, ambition, the desire for titles and status, and an utter lack of humility for one God called Preacher, to submit to the leadership of a God called Pastor. Each man wants to be autonomous and to do things his way, whether God has actually called him to do so or not.

    Preach to me fire and brimstone, spit and foam, stomp around and hop over the pews railing on sin, or delve deeper into the doctrines of hell and teach the differences and the costs of my sins. It is all the same hell and the same sins, one message for the logger and one for the doctor, one for the better than thou crowd and one for the humble and lowly. But however the message is delivered, it must agree with the Word of God, and it must be delivered in the power of the Holy Spirit, or it is just words and oration of mere men and no better than any other.

  5. Thank you, Brother Pearson. Your comments are accurate. The content of the preaching must always be biblical, no matter the style of the delivery. Yet, it is the delivery that seems to gather the most attention in many circles.

  6. Pingback: I just Worship - Preaching is More Than Talking or Yelling - I just Worship

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