Preaching the Gospel God’s Way
Not Bowing to Man’s Way
Galatians 1: 9 – 11
I’ve gotten accustom to listening to a radio station that promotes God’s Word to be taught and preached. Some of these men have great messages and others are more like lecturers. They give long speeches and put you to sleep at the same time. The apostle Paul was not a man who lectured people. He told it plan and simple, and if you didn’t like it, then tough.
In Galatians 1, we find that Paul said it as plan as it gets in verse 11, when he wrote, “But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man.” What a great statement! Today we are in a world in which men who are called to preach have to meet three criteria’s. First they must meet men’s approval. We know that this is not the way it should be, because God calls the man and when that man is man enough to answer that calling, God is the one that qualifies him. No person has the right to tell a man if he is qualified to preach or pastor; only God does. Second, the pastor or preacher must have at least a master’s degree, but a doctor’s degree qualifies him more. Resumes for pastoring are ridiculous. A man who is called by God to preach is not looking for a job, but for a church to lead as he follows Christ. Most churches can’t even pay a pastor a salary that allows him to concentrate on the church by itself. He usually has to get a secular job, and be available all the time. Third, and this is the most ridiculous and heart breaking thing of them all; he can’t follow the Holy Spirit’s guidance and preach. It must only be a 15 – 20 minute message and you better not go after 12:00 p.m. The pastor better preach a message to make me feel good, because that is what we need.
Okay, so I may have gone overboard a little, but that is what many of the churches seem to be doing now. Let’s give lectures on books that pastors, preacher or some so called Christian author wrote and not use the Bible. I often wondered what the apostles would do in this horrible world today. They would not fit into the mold of the churches in this world whatsoever. Can you even imagine what Paul would have said if the church at Corinth told him, “You preach too harsh, we want to feel good about ourselves! I am reminded of the time he was preaching and a man came to listen. He sat in the window and fell out of it and died. The amazing thing was Paul continued to preach. After he finished, he then attended to the man. What a heartless man, huh? Where was his heart? He was totally sold out to Jesus! Just like we need to be
The preaching of the gospel is the power of God unto salvation, I Corinthians 1:18. It is foolish to those who choose not to listen to it. Unfortunately there are many who claim to be saved that do not want to listen to the Word preached. It’s a waste of their time. There is a preacher I know, who was pastoring a church, and the deacons wanted him to prepare two sermons for Sunday morning. They wanted to look at them and if one of them was too harsh, they wanted him to preach the other. They wanted to dictate what he preached instead of God leading him in what to preach. The reason they had given this pastor was that visitors were being offended and that they wanted the church to grow. We need to remember, before a church can grow in number, it must first grow spiritually. Some of the spiritually strongest churches are small in number. The man did the right thing and resigned the church when he was told to do that, and he should have! God calls men to preach not men. Paul said, “I’m not preaching what you necessarily want to hear, but what God leads me to.” He went on to say in verse 10, “If I try to please men, in preaching, then I shouldn’t call myself a servant of Jesus Christ.” Of course, that’s in layman’s terms. If a man tells people he is called to preach you can measure that by what he preaches and how he preaches it. Many of the pulpits have been filled with men, and now women, who God did not call to preach, and their motives are totally wrong. John tells us, in 1 John 4:1, “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.”
America is in turmoil because many people have made the wrong decisions when voting for our elected government officials. These people have their own agendas to fulfill. Our churches are in a bigger turmoil because we have our own agendas we want fulfilled in a church. Some leaders of churches are the cause of the problem. If we want America to get back on the right track, pastors need to preach the gospel God called them too. Churches need to adhere to God’s Word and quit changing it to fit their lives instead of changing their lives to fit God’s Word. God’s way is the only way! That’s why Jesus said, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; TEACHING THEM TO OBSERVE ALL THINGS WHATSOEVER I HAVE COMMANDED YOU;’ Notice it didn’t say whatsoever man commanded you? We have to hold on to what we are taught from God’s Word. Pastors, preachers, deacons, evangelists and other Christians need to follow God’s direction and do what Paul encouraged Timothy to do in 2 Tim 4:2, “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.” There is a world out there that needs to know the truth of God’s Word and not some watered down version of it. It’s time for Christian people to get back to the basics of teaching and preaching the Word of God like God intended for it to be. Thank God for pastors and preachers who are not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and preach it boldly. Thank YOU Lord, for YOUR WORD that we may study it and grow thereby.
Not Bowing to Man’s Way
Galatians 1: 9 – 11
I’ve gotten accustom to listening to a radio station that promotes God’s Word to be taught and preached. Some of these men have great messages and others are more like lecturers. They give long speeches and put you to sleep at the same time. The apostle Paul was not a man who lectured people. He told it plan and simple, and if you didn’t like it, then tough.
In Galatians 1, we find that Paul said it as plan as it gets in verse 11, when he wrote, “But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man.” What a great statement! Today we are in a world in which men who are called to preach have to meet three criteria’s. First they must meet men’s approval. We know that this is not the way it should be, because God calls the man and when that man is man enough to answer that calling, God is the one that qualifies him. No person has the right to tell a man if he is qualified to preach or pastor; only God does. Second, the pastor or preacher must have at least a master’s degree, but a doctor’s degree qualifies him more. Resumes for pastoring are ridiculous. A man who is called by God to preach is not looking for a job, but for a church to lead as he follows Christ. Most churches can’t even pay a pastor a salary that allows him to concentrate on the church by itself. He usually has to get a secular job, and be available all the time. Third, and this is the most ridiculous and heart breaking thing of them all; he can’t follow the Holy Spirit’s guidance and preach. It must only be a 15 – 20 minute message and you better not go after 12:00 p.m. The pastor better preach a message to make me feel good, because that is what we need.
Okay, so I may have gone overboard a little, but that is what many of the churches seem to be doing now. Let’s give lectures on books that pastors, preacher or some so called Christian author wrote and not use the Bible. I often wondered what the apostles would do in this horrible world today. They would not fit into the mold of the churches in this world whatsoever. Can you even imagine what Paul would have said if the church at Corinth told him, “You preach too harsh, we want to feel good about ourselves! I am reminded of the time he was preaching and a man came to listen. He sat in the window and fell out of it and died. The amazing thing was Paul continued to preach. After he finished, he then attended to the man. What a heartless man, huh? Where was his heart? He was totally sold out to Jesus! Just like we need to be
The preaching of the gospel is the power of God unto salvation, I Corinthians 1:18. It is foolish to those who choose not to listen to it. Unfortunately there are many who claim to be saved that do not want to listen to the Word preached. It’s a waste of their time. There is a preacher I know, who was pastoring a church, and the deacons wanted him to prepare two sermons for Sunday morning. They wanted to look at them and if one of them was too harsh, they wanted him to preach the other. They wanted to dictate what he preached instead of God leading him in what to preach. The reason they had given this pastor was that visitors were being offended and that they wanted the church to grow. We need to remember, before a church can grow in number, it must first grow spiritually. Some of the spiritually strongest churches are small in number. The man did the right thing and resigned the church when he was told to do that, and he should have! God calls men to preach not men. Paul said, “I’m not preaching what you necessarily want to hear, but what God leads me to.” He went on to say in verse 10, “If I try to please men, in preaching, then I shouldn’t call myself a servant of Jesus Christ.” Of course, that’s in layman’s terms. If a man tells people he is called to preach you can measure that by what he preaches and how he preaches it. Many of the pulpits have been filled with men, and now women, who God did not call to preach, and their motives are totally wrong. John tells us, in 1 John 4:1, “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.”
America is in turmoil because many people have made the wrong decisions when voting for our elected government officials. These people have their own agendas to fulfill. Our churches are in a bigger turmoil because we have our own agendas we want fulfilled in a church. Some leaders of churches are the cause of the problem. If we want America to get back on the right track, pastors need to preach the gospel God called them too. Churches need to adhere to God’s Word and quit changing it to fit their lives instead of changing their lives to fit God’s Word. God’s way is the only way! That’s why Jesus said, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; TEACHING THEM TO OBSERVE ALL THINGS WHATSOEVER I HAVE COMMANDED YOU;’ Notice it didn’t say whatsoever man commanded you? We have to hold on to what we are taught from God’s Word. Pastors, preachers, deacons, evangelists and other Christians need to follow God’s direction and do what Paul encouraged Timothy to do in 2 Tim 4:2, “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.” There is a world out there that needs to know the truth of God’s Word and not some watered down version of it. It’s time for Christian people to get back to the basics of teaching and preaching the Word of God like God intended for it to be. Thank God for pastors and preachers who are not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and preach it boldly. Thank YOU Lord, for YOUR WORD that we may study it and grow thereby.
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