The Power of the Pulpit
“I solemnly urge you in the presence of God and Christ Jesus, who will someday judge the living and the dead when he comes to set up his Kingdom: Preach the word of God. Be prepared, whether the time is favorable or not. Patiently correct, rebuke, and encourage your people with good teaching. For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear. They will reject the truth and chase after myths. But you should keep a clear mind in every situation. Don’t be afraid of suffering for the Lord. Work at telling others the Good News, and fully carry out the ministry God has given you” (2 Timothy 4:1-5 New Living Translation)
Someone said, "We are suffering today from a weak pulpit and pointless preaching. We have clever speakers but few prophets; we have too few fearless speakers for God and truth. We have the best paid and best educated ministry but too much of it is popular, flabby and insipid and stirs neither heaven nor hell.”
Weak-kneed, Casper Milque Toast, pusillanimous, panty-waist, lace-on-their drawers preachers, muddy and muddle the murky waters of a world gone crazy with their watered-down, syrupy sweet sermonettes for Christianettes.
A.W. Tozer said he noticed as a young Christian many preachers “spoke so gingerly, so apologetically that one got the impression that they would rather remain silent forever than offend anyone." If ever there was a day for fearless, anointed preaching it is today! "Fearless preaching is all the more necessary in dangerous times," exhorts John MacArthur. "When people will not tolerate the truth, that's when courageous, outspoken preachers are most desperately needed to speak it." "Sound preaching," he says "confronts and rebukes sin, and people in love with sinful lifestyles will not tolerate such teaching. They want to have their ears tickled. Churches are so engrossed in trying to please non-Christians that they have forgotten their first duty is to please God."
"To me there is nothing more terrible for a preacher, than to be in the pulpit alone, without the conscious smile of God" (Marty Lloyd-Jones). Preaching is a demonstration of the power of God! "Many congregations are doomed to listen to a powerless preacher, a man without unction (anointing), one upon whom the fire of God never seems to rest. What a strange anomaly it is to see an unanointed servant of the Living God, who is an eternal fire. How can such creatures exist?" (Martyn Lloyd-Jones).
What is preaching? While I was a student in Bible college, I heard Dr. Robert Ketchum, founder and past president of the G.A.R.B.C. (an independent Baptist organization). He said this about preaching, "Start low and go slow, then rise higher and catch fire and burn them up."
Preacher, we have just one priority, to preach God's Word as it is to people as they are. If you are a Pastor, Preach God's Word, “in season and out of season," when it’s popular and when it’s unpopular! If you are intimidated by Political Correctness, you will never preach the Word in power! Dr. Ben Carson, 2016 Presidential hopeful said, “We need to be in a place where people feel free to express themselves and not to be intimidated by political correctness It’s destroying our nation…”
