In this subjective age of feelings, there is a hungering for substantive preaching. We cannot build our lives, our nation, or the church on what “feels” good. We need the facts of God’s Word, the history of God and man, to be the foundation of our daily lives. Feelings are not a platform for life.
Consider Stephen’s sermon in Acts 7. He was preaching to an elite group of Jews who were opposing Jesus’ teachings. Stephen gave a complete history of the Israelites from Abraham to Moses to Jesus, quoting God’s word from Genesis, Exodus, Deuteronomy, Amos and Isaiah. He knew the history of God’s dealings with mankind up to that very moment. He did not discuss his feelings, the Jew’s feelings, or God’s feelings. He told of God’s covenant, God’s providential plans and how the Israelite people before and the Jewish people of late had resisted God all along the way. His sermon was a proper presentation and application of God’s Word, objectively given as God revealed it. It was the perfect sermon for that time and that audience.
Good preachers preach God’s Word! They tell what God tells, they apply what God speaks, without resorting to manipulating people through their feelings. By the way, Stephen was stoned to death for his preaching, to God’s glory. The Jews were all about their feelings.
Consider Stephen’s sermon in Acts 7. He was preaching to an elite group of Jews who were opposing Jesus’ teachings. Stephen gave a complete history of the Israelites from Abraham to Moses to Jesus, quoting God’s word from Genesis, Exodus, Deuteronomy, Amos and Isaiah. He knew the history of God’s dealings with mankind up to that very moment. He did not discuss his feelings, the Jew’s feelings, or God’s feelings. He told of God’s covenant, God’s providential plans and how the Israelite people before and the Jewish people of late had resisted God all along the way. His sermon was a proper presentation and application of God’s Word, objectively given as God revealed it. It was the perfect sermon for that time and that audience.
Good preachers preach God’s Word! They tell what God tells, they apply what God speaks, without resorting to manipulating people through their feelings. By the way, Stephen was stoned to death for his preaching, to God’s glory. The Jews were all about their feelings.
Rick Cunningham
RSS Feed