Preach the Word

There are many great books out there - books that can really encourage your faith and strengthen your walk with the Lord. These books are great to read and they are great to share with your friends, but they should never take the place of Bible study.

There are some churches out there that preach through books like this, taking a chapter each week and talking about how it applies to the church. I want to say - that is not right.

We read in 2 Timothy 4:

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom:  preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. (vv.1-5)

We are living in a time where people want to find for themselves those who preach what they want to hear. They find that pastor who will tickle their ears, as it were. This is not okay. We are called to preach the Word, and nothing else.

In my 11 years of full-time ministry I have committed to preach the Word. In youth group I would do this, and I strive to do it now as I pastor a church, and I want to say that it is the best church growth strategy there is.

I preach the Word because there is no higher authority. The Word of God is the authority in our lives. Everything that we do should be weighed against what the Word of God says about it. We look to His Word and live by it. There is no gray area. When it comes to church, if my sermons are coming from the Word of God and not the words of man, there will never be something that I must apologize for. God’s Word stands on its own.

I will say, it is not possible to preach the Word if you do not know the Word. We must be devoted to knowing it, so that we can preach it. We need to be ready in season and out of season, as we see here in 2 Timothy. This means that we should know the word enough to give an answer for the hope that is within us, as we read in 1 Peter 3.

I relate this back to my preaching in church each week, but we ALL must be able to share the Word of God with others. Yes, I preach on Sunday, but we all practice the Word of God in our daily living. This means that you are not exempt from knowing the Word yourself. This was one of the major tenets of the Protestant Revolution - that the common man should have access to and know the Word of God.

You and I both need to invest in knowing the Word of God so that we can preach it with our lives and with our words. We know that faith comes from hearing, and hearing from the Word of God. So, dig into the Bible first and foremost. Get to know God through His Word so that you can share Him with your life and your words.