Sunday 18 September 2011

The Pride of Being a Preacher!

Some men just glory in the fact that they are preachers - whether god or bad makes no difference. But the position pleases them to no end.  Now, as Dr D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones once famously said, there is no higher calling to which any man can be called than to be a preacher.  I totally agree.  But when men get to the point of being proud that they possess this appellation, and resat on that position alone, they give a mighty strong indication that they might never have been called to this exalted work in the first place.

Being a preacher is an excellent - provided that the man preaches Christ in all His fulness.  But if the man has no message for his congregation; if the sheep look up and are not fed on the Word of God; and if the preacher does not convey to them a sense of God, there is only one main reason why this is the case.  He has not been to God to get his message.  When a preacher man has been in the presence, he will emerge with a message that is burnt indelibly upon his heart.  No message, no time spent with God.  That's the simple rule. 

What we need in today's church is a new kind of preacher.  In fact, what the church needs most today is not the most contemporary building in the country; not a user-friendly worship place - isn't it amazing that everything today has to conform to the 'user-friendly' qualification, including the church! No, what the church needs more than anything else today is a preacher who emerges from the presence of God, filled with His Spirit, and bursting to bring the Lord's message to the congregation.  She needs a man with a message!  She needs first and foremost a messenger sent from God. 

Indeed, that is precisely what God is looking for, a man with the Lord's message for perishing sinners, and it appears that He has not found that man yet.

Are you that man?  Are there stirrings within your breast to be that man?  Is the Holy Spirit putting this sense of vocation into your heart?  Then run with it, for God is looking for such a man - a man who will bring His message to a lost and dying world.  Do you hear that call?  Then go, for God is sending you to this most vital of all works!

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