Dangerous Thinking, Huh?

The following is a recent comment I received from “Anonymous” regarding Bro. Lee Eclov’s article I posted last week. To be honest, I can’t find the quote this person is addressing (and then again maybe I’m blind or have Alzheimer’s)…but here it is: “When the people of the church (or community) start dictating the things the Holy Spirit is directing, fallacies ensue.”

“Anonymous” wrote, “This is dangerous thinking, please don’t forget that the Holy Spirit dwells within the church body too.”

With all due respect to “Anonymous,” I think he (I’m using the male pronoun for simplicity’s sake) misunderstood the substance of the article…perhaps he didn’t read the piece in its entirety. I’m not sure. But his comment prompted me to ask myself, “Is ‘Anonymous’ suggesting that what a pastor preaches should be the result of a majority opinion of the members of a church?”

Can you envision what Noah would have proclaimed if the message he proclaimed were left up to popular vote? How about Micaiah? Jeremiah? John the Baptist? Jesus?!?

I agree with “Anonymous” that the Holy Spirit indwells believers in a congregation…but that’s not even remotely close to the issue discussed in Eclov’s article. His comment was a challenge to pastors to preach the whole counsel of God (under the direction of the Holy Spirit) instead of giving pop psychology pep talks in the pulpit.

Can you imagine what the preaching would be like in an average church if the content of the sermons was left up to church members to decide? Hey! Can you imagine what my sermons would be like if I just preached what I wanted to preach?!? That’s not to disparage myself or my spiritual siblings, please understand. My point is that, by our human nature, we’re going to shy away from subjects or passages that contradict our lives in some way.

When we commit to “preach the word; [and to] be ready in season and out of season; [to] reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction” (2 Timothy 4:2), we’re guarding the prophetic voice of the church. We’re protecting the continued purity and viability of God’s message. We’re ensuring that true men of God stand to declare with holy boldness the true word of God with God-honoring, Satan-defying, sin-killing power on their lives and their lips! That means that we preach what the Word of God says…whether we like it or not.

Sometimes the most uncomfortable thing a pastor can do is to preach the Bible. I’m reminded of a cartoon from a few years ago in which a preacher had prepared the pulpit area like a fortress. He was peering through the crack of a machine gun nest. The caption read something like, “Today I’m preaching from 1 Peter 3:1—“Wives, submit to your husbands.”

That cartoon reminds us that people are not always going to like the taste of every sermon we preach. But regardless of the popularity or the response to a message, still the truth must be spoken.

The Apostle Paul warned in 2 Timothy 4:3-4—“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.” Left unto themselves, people will drift away from truth…never toward it. That’s why we must continue to call people back to the ever-constant standard of Scripture!

Peter James Lee was one of the 60 Episcopal bishops who voted in 2003 to approve the consecration of an openly gay bishop, Gene Robinson of New Hampshire. In the midst of that controversy, Lee made the statement: “If you must make a choice between heresy and schism, always choose heresy.” Never mind that such heresy causes divisions…the African and Asian branches of the Episcopal church want to expel the U.S. branch unless it promises to change its stand on moral standards and teachings!

There are some people who hear a pastor and a church declare that Jesus is the only way to God, so they go looking for a pastor who says there are many ways to God. Or some people reject the biblical teaching that those who engage in sexual relationships outside of marriage are “fornicators and adulterers” whom “God will judge” (Heb. 13:4). So they look for a teacher who says that the sexual standards in the Bible are not binding in today's world. This reminds us, incidentally, that the most popular preachers aren’t necessarily the most faithful preachers.

No, “Anonymous,” I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that you didn’t read the whole article…that you didn’t mean what your words seem to indicate that you were saying. We’re called to preach the Word. And I pray that God will give me strength to fulfill that calling until He calls me home…even when I don’t even like what I’m preaching! ;-)