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Having been surprised on Sunday with a new pulpit (see news story), I have been giving a lot of thought this week to the sacred duty of peaching. What's odd is that after being moved to tears when the pulpit was presented, at lunch that day, I had to tell my children what a pulpit is. Imagine that! The preacher's kids didn't know what a pulpit is. Of course, the last time they saw me standing behind one Andrew had just turned seven and Alora was still three. So my reflection on the sacred duty of preaching began as I was attempting to communicate to my children the seriousness of what Daddy does.
It is humbling and fearful to think that I stand and speak as God's spokesman and under-shepherd of His flock. You would think that the fear involved would be restraining. On the contrary, I am compelled to preach. I do so with trepidation for sure, but I am compelled to preach. The fear and trepidation cannot restrain me from preaching, but they do necessarily restrain my preaching. That is, they restrain my preaching by tethering it to the Word of God alone. I understand my sacred duty to be to:
...fully carry out the preaching of the Word of God, that is, the mystery which has been hidden from past ages and generations; but has now been manifested to His saints,to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. And we proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, that we may present every man complete in Christ.
Colossians 1:25b-28
It was a good time for me to contemplate these things. As I look around in our culture today, I see many pulpits being used to peddle man centered ideas of self-improvement with worldly slogans and even sermon titles taken directly from our worldly culture. It sickens me on many levels, but at the same time, those sermons seem to be drawing the largest crowds. I'll admit that being compelled to preach makes me desire a crowd, and that desire can sometimes tempt a preacher to do things differently. So, it was a good time to be reminded of the sacred duty. Therefore, I continue to pray that God will vindicate His word by the fruit of regeneration, repentance and Godliness among His people. But I add to that prayer, that the Church at large will be protected from the ill effects of a neglect of His word in pulpits.
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