The Perils of Preaching

This week, I've been preparing to deliver my first sermon. Needing to give it this week was a surprise to me, but I have sensed for several months that the time was coming for me to do this. Nevertheless, I've been nervous about speaking because of what a responsibility it is. The problem with it for me is not the public speaking part: it's how much I've seen people blindly believe whatever the preacher tells them. Who am I to speak? I'm a lousy Christian!

Since I'm not the primary teaching pastor at my church, I shouldn't be so concerned, but I know that the pulpit is a position of influence. I constantly see people led astray by pastors who proclaim falsities. One of the greatest crimes I can imagine is done from the pulpit: when preachers claim to preach salvation but lead countless people down paths of self-worship, idolatry, and ultimately eternal destruction. They live and speak in active opposition to the Gospel and they're so well disguised as bearers of the truth that most people cannot tell that their "ministries" are consumed by sinful intent.

With everything that is in me, I pray that I may never be such a person. I know my capacity to become corrupted by greed and selfishness. There is nothing good I have to say of my own. I have access to no new proprietary revelations that "you're not going to get anywhere else." I can only either say things that anyone can learn without me, or I can tell lies.

I believe that the Bible is God's Word. I believe that God moved imperfect people to pen God's perfect Word. Through diligent contextual study and healthy skepticism of individual translators, we have access to the infallible truth of the Word. If the truth is true, it will be self-evident and needs no defense. There is no wisdom believing in things that are not sensible.

I'm going to start with the basics and I'm building my scaffolding with scriptures. I'm beginning with the Gospel as it is the core of the scriptures. My aim will be to make sense of what has already been said so that if someone walks into the doors of our building knowing little or nothing about God or the Bible, they can leave with confusion settled and doubts allayed. God's word should be made plain and accessible to all.