Evaluating True Preaching

John 7:14-18

            Every communicator of God’s Word who desires to grow must evaluate Himself by Christ’s earthly teaching. Living as a man, He was the perfect illustration of anointed preaching.  If a man is merely interested in self glory, he will never evaluate by such a standard. But every sincere preacher desiring God’s hand on his life and ministry will gladly stand before this searchlight.

            As the Pharisees gave their pompous evaluations of Christ’s teaching, Christ gave two thoughts to measure all preaching.

1. Is my preaching God-initiated?

The Pharisees put a high premium on their ritualistic brand of formal education. A carpenter’s son came along and stunned them with His insights.

“They were astonished saying, ‘How has this man become learned, having never been educated?’”

It did not occur to them that any other path for learning was possible other than their man-initiated schooling. Jesus’ response regarding His education gives the clue to great preaching.

            “My teaching is not Mine, but His who sent Me.”

Christ, as a man, sat at the feet of His Father and simply communicated what He heard. His preaching was God-initiated. Jesus reiterated this so often that there is no doubt of its supreme importance. Jesus said…

• “I can do nothing on My own initiative.” (John 5:30)
• “I do nothing on My own initiative (John 8:28)
• “For I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent me has given Me commandment, what to say, and what to speak.” (John 12:49)
• “The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in me does His works.” (John 14:10)
• “When He, the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth for He will not speak on His own initiative but whatever he hears he will speak.” (John 16:13)

The mark of great preaching is not only diligent study (1 Timothy 2:15; Ezra 7:10), but a dependent heart consistently crying upward. “Lord, these are your people—what do YOU want to say?” Many men work up a sermon and their hearers see shine, but receive little sustenance. Faithful preachers pray down their words and deliver them hot and nutritious from above. It is the combination of diligent study and spiritual dependence that marks great communication.

It is not only God-initiated in its content, but also its timing. Such words are “fit for the need of the moment that give grace to those who hear” (Ephesians 4:29) There is an unmistakable power that penetrates the heart, convicts the soul, heals the wounds, and draws men to the Father. This conduit preaching lets God reach through the preacher and touch the heart, accomplishing deliverance of which He alone is capable.

Is your preaching God-initiated? There is a price paid to have the privilege of such delivery.

2. Am I preaching to be known?

We must be done with self glory if we are to preach as Christ.

            "He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who is seeking            the glory of the One who sent Him, He is true, and there is no            unrighteousness in Him.” (Verse 18)

It is the great curse of all preachers. Our natural pride rises when preaching. Standing before others, the untested heart has a secret desire to be noticed. We long to be appreciated, recognized, spoken of, remembered. We are frustrated when no one makes a positive comment to us after our message, silently angered by candid evaluations from wise listeners.

God will not entrust His truth to those who are, even unconsciously, determined to steal His glory. The proud communicator may receive great adulation from undiscerning listeners, he may revel in thoughts of how great it was, but he will hear no applause from heaven. God may override and deliver the message for the sake of the hearers at times (He spoke through a donkey once), but be grieved by the messenger, knowing his ministry will be limited by a love of human praise.

We must ruthlessly evaluate our motives. We must let the Word of God pour daily over our hearts to teach, reprove, correct, and train us in righteousness. We must be often in prayer crying, “Search me, O, God, and know my heart.” We must enlist and welcome the evaluation of godly men and women to see those things to which pride blinds us. We must realize preaching is not the performance of an hour but is developed through our relationship with Christ every hour of the week. .We must let God purify the messenger so there is no admixture in the message.

Preaching is a lifelong discipline. God accumulates His Word in the mind of the diligent student and builds His channel in the heart of the humble servant. And along the way, moments of great preaching come. Humbling and thrilling for the preacher is that moment when God speaks, when he knows the privilege of communicating God’s truth to hungry hearts…and blessed are those who hear.

"Proud to be here!"

I'm proud today...

Not in the vain, ungodly way (I trust).

I'm proud of my kids. Away in Richmond, Virginia, I've talked--one way or another--to all of them in the last 48 hours. Not unusual.

I'm proud of...

• Jennifer--for embracing God's will for her life as a mom and wife and doing it with incredible excellence. What a great mom she is!
• Randy--for being a great provider and testing everything by God's word. I have confidence in his willingness to lead his family by "every word that proceeds from the mouth of God." That'll do.
• Becca--for forging out across the world, separated from her family (which is really hard) and being willing to make the tough choices for the sake of God's will. She's a pioneer and has the spiritual constitution to make an incredible mark for Him.
• Ragan--for risking it all on God...trusting Him for finances, direction, leadership. And, for being just crazy enough to make my daughter laugh through the journey.
• David--for being a man. Accepting responsibility, teaching and training men, honing his craft and ministry, and never being ashamed to say, "Love you, Dad." What growth I'm seeing.
• Joshua--for really stepping up this year. Learning how to learn and discipline himself. Embracing responsibility and for his tender heart for people. He loves people...all kinds of people (just like Jesus)
• Bethany--my Princess. What a girl. Full of life, joy, spontaneity, drama and a consuming love for Christ and for her family. I love to hear her excitement when she hears my voice.
• Daniel--for growing. Facing temptation and winning. Being a leader to others. Growing in skill (incredible musician) and being passionate about Christ
• Timothy--the Warrior Poet. A writer, he just wrote a new song, at 12. He's got the gift like his brothers and sisters. I love to see him smile.
• Jessica--full of play and fun and everyday is a new day!! Love her dad and her friends and family. I love to see her play with her nephew. I love that she loves to throw her arms around my neck and give me a big ol' kiss.

It's taken truckloads of money to raise these kids. (Lord, you remember how much I need your help here?)

But...today, and forever, I am the richest man on earth.

A grateful Dad

7.9.06                          Can God Really Speak to Me Today?

The Christian kingdom is filled with imbalance. Someone sees a heresy (a truth out of balance) and then swings so far to the other side that they are equally wrong.

Does God speak to us today? There could be very few questions of greater importance. How can anything be more critical than knowing whether or not I can personally commune with the God of the Universe? Ideas on this subject are as abundant as Christians. The purely secular person explains everything in terms of science. Any supposed voice is explained away as natural phenomena.

Many pastors do not go that far, but they confine God’s voice to His written Word believing when the Bible was finalized God’s voice was silenced. They explain that the Bible is God’s full revelation and there is no more need for another word. They have great reverence for God’s authoritative word (as do I) but give little room for the communication of His Spirit. Understandably, as we listen to these well-intentioned pastors preach it often seems sterile and cold, devoid of the life of the Spirit of the LIVING God.

A.W. Tozer disagreed with this narrow approach. “I believe that much of our religious unbelief is due to a wrong conception of and a wrong feeling for the Scripture of Truth. A silent God suddenly began to speak in a book and when the book was finished lapsed back into silence again forever…with notions like that in our heads how can we believe?...the Bible will never be a living Book to us until we are convinced that God is articulate in His universe.”

Others hear voices everywhere. “God told me to divorce my wife,” a wild-eyed man once told me. He was totally convinced that God had spoken to him directly and clearly. “You may have heard a voice,” I quietly replied, “but it wasn’t God, for he never violates His written Word. He is, of all things, consistent.” Turn on the television and you will see strange aberrations with no restraint. God is blamed for a lot. He seems to be telling a lot of people a lot of things that make little sense and glorify everyone but Him.

We need balance.

God is speaking through His Word. “Today if you would hear His voice, do not harden your hearts…” the Psalmist said. The Word is alive, made so by the presence of the One who is constantly longing to commune with His creation. If you approach the Bible as a dead book you may study its content but you will never know its Author. You will not hear His voice.

“I read Thy Word, O, Lord, each passing day

And in Thy sacred page find glad employ, but this I pray,

Save from the killing letter.

Teach my heart, set free from human forms

The holy art of reading Thee in every line

In precept, prophecy, and sign

Till all my vision filled with Thee

Thy likeness shall reflect in me;

Not knowledge, but Thyself my joy,

For this I pray.”

This was written by a man (J.C. MacCauley) who knew what it was to commune with a living God.

God is speaking by His Spirit. “For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God” (1 Corinthians 2:11-12).

How can we ignore the quiet, but certain “inner witness of the Holy Spirit” that has comforted, encouraged, rebuked, corrected and guided God’s children for centuries? Our sinfulness and subjectivity make it possible to misread this speaking Voice, but it IS speaking nonetheless. To muzzle God simply because we have abused this is amazingly arrogant. Why would we deny God’s ability to continue to speak by His Spirit today? What would cause us to think can we limit God like this?

God is speaking through His people. Why would the Bible remind us that “in the abundance of counselors there is victory” if there was not the ability to hear God as He speaks by His Spirit through others? Again, man’s sinfulness makes every person’s counsel open to evaluation, but is God not powerful enough to speak through another? If not, what is the value of preaching? If I did not have the confidence that God could speak as I stood to preach the Word I would think my work is of little value. He spoke through a donkey once; there’s hope for me.

God is speaking through His creation. “The heavens are telling of the glory of God; and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands. Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words; their voice is not heard. Their line has gone out through all the earth and their utterances to the end of the world” (Psalm 19:1-4). If you have not heard God’s voice through a thunderstorm or the singing of a bird you are missing His greatest symphony. I am not speaking of transcendental meditation, but that the whole earth was created to communicate. To deny this is to deny its purpose. Those who fail to listen to God’s voice through creation have a one-sided God.

“God is speaking. Not God spoke, but God is speaking. He is by His nature continuously articulate. He fills the world with His speaking Voice,” Tozer said. The work of the devoted follower of Christ is to learn to listen, to tune our hearts to hear. But how?

We must get in a right posture “seated at the Lord’s feet listening to His words.” We must quiet our hearts and “be still and know that He is God.” We must believe in this process knowing that “that He is and He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” We must be persistent and “ask and keep on asking, seek and keep on seeking.” We must practice till our hearts are attuned to properly hear knowing that, “Blessed is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at my doorposts.”

And when we misread His voice, (which we most surely will do) we must blame ourselves and understand our depravity not concoct a quick theology that aborts His voice in our lives and the lives of others. Being able to distinguish our mother’s voice over a crowd comes from years of hearing. The ability to discern God’s true voice from the voice of the world, the flesh or the devil comes from a long obedience in listening. And we will “know of the teaching that it is Him” as we see fruit from our following.

“The order and life of the world depend upon that Voice, but men are mostly too busy or too stubborn to give attention,” Tozer proclaimed. If you deny God access to your life, you are on your own and the world will feel the tragic effect of this loss.

God is speaking. Are you listening?

Your Lover

Bill Elliff

May 25,2006

“Now King Solomon loved many foreign women…from the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the sons of Israel, ‘You shall not associate with them, nor shall they associate with you, for they will surely turn your heart away after their gods.’ Solomon held fast to these in love…and his wives turned his heart away…his heart was not wholly devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been.”

(1 Kings 11:1-4)

            Lovers can be subtle and deadly. For Solomon, it was the attraction of women, the pleasure of female companionship and adoration. He not only loved them, he became obsessive in his affections (700 wives and 300 concubines!) And his obsession caused him to be undiscriminating. He crossed the line to love that which God had strictly forbidden. God’s warning was based on what He knew about His creation and what He particularly knew about Solomon. It was not simply about loving women, it was about not loving God. Undiscriminating passion would steal God’s place in Solomon’s heart. It always does.

            It began with a simple affection. I’m sure Solomon felt his first foreign wife was not that harmful. He continued to rule. God, in mercy, gave him a measure of blessing no doubt. He must have felt a strong pull of conviction for He knew God’s Word and was a man of wisdom. Yet he misread mercy and assumed this small compromise could be embraced with no consequence. So he went farther. Over the years he became sloppy in His love for God till one day he found himself bowing at a pagan altar.

            Do you suppose Solomon ever thought his love for God was waning? If questioned, do you think he would have said, “I love God with all my heart!” But he didn’t. It was not a particular step but the unrestrained direction that was telling. With every new indulgence he was walking away from simple, pure devotion to the One who calls for “all our heart, all our mind, all our strength.”

            And there is always a point where God says “enough.”

“Now the Lord was angry with Solomon because his heart was turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel who had appeared to him twice and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods; but he did not observe what the Lord had commanded. So the Lord said to Solomon, ‘Because you have done this and you have not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you, and will give it to your servant.’” (1 Kings 11:9-11)

Forbidden lovers extract a price we never anticipate. Solomon’s directional turn cost him his position in ministry and brought years of turmoil and confusion to everyone around him. He could have been remembered as the wisest man who ever lived yet he will forever be the poor man who couldn’t control himself.

How could this happen to one who possessed such wisdom? How could he, of all people, make this obvious error? The irony of such foolishness by a man of such wisdom illustrates that no one is immune. Past success never guarantees future blessing. Any lover can lure you down the sauntering path to spiritual disaster.

Take ruthless stock of every lover in your life. The love of possessions, the obsession with any comfort or pleasure, the quiet, steady passion for applause and attention…she has many forms. Watch your first lover and heed the first warning. You may wake up in bed and discover the kingdom is gone.

Eternal Love

(based on Jeremiah 31:3)

No start, no end;

How could it be

The love with which God love’st me

Has always been?

No start, no end;

Before my birth

Before the making of the earth

He loved me then.

No start, no end;

It stills my mind

To think that such a love divine

Is now pursuing me!

No start, no end;

On heaven’s shore

He’ll love me yet, still more and more

And never stop

No start, no end;

Who would resist

A love that is as true as this

Eternally for me?

Bill Elliff