Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Preaching without Apology
Since God in his wisdom saw to it that the world would never find him through human wisdom, he has used our foolish preaching to save those who believe.
—1 Corinthians 1:21
God can be known—that is the message of the church. And God can be known and made known through preaching. Preaching is God’s primary way of reaching lost people. We are to declare a known God to a world that does not know Him.
That is not to say that we don’t have personal doubts. That is not to say that we don’t have our own struggles. But it is not our job to share those with a lost world on their way to hell. Our job is to point them in the right direction, to point them to Christ.
Preaching is what God has called the church to do. Jesus was a preacher of the Word. We read in Matthew 4 that when He began His ministry, He preached, “The Kingdom of God is near! Repent of your sins and believe the Good News!” (Mark 1:15) Then He sent His disciples out to preach as well.
Yet the trend today is for preachers to share their doubts instead of their faith. We need to teach the Word without apology. The apostle Paul, speaking at Mars Hill, didn’t stand up and say, “Well, I see you worship an unknown god. Hey, I worship an unknown God too, but we are all on a journey together. Let’s discuss. Where’s the coffee?” No, what Paul said was, “This God, whom you worship without knowing, is the one I’m telling you about” (Acts 17: 23). God can be known.
So don’t tell me that God is a mystery, that He cannot be known, and that it is actually arrogant to say otherwise. God can be known, God should be known, and God must be known. And it will happen as His Word is proclaimed authoritatively.
Copyright © 2009 by Harvest Ministries. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
For more relevant and biblical teaching from Pastor Greg Laurie, go to www.harvest.org
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