How many people have also read the Bible, before us and seen the truths we can now read for ourselves? Millions? They have held God's word in their hands or they have heard it and memorized it. How many went to great lengths for a copy of it, even for a week, to be with it and memorize it. God's word is a powerful thing and many people in other countries know it. Why is it that we, in the US, take it for granted? We have the Word of God right here in our hands and we act like it is the programs in the church that will change lives or a great speaker that will save people. The Word of God is more powerful than any of these things. Yet in sermons it might be mention once or twice. It is not the focus of the message; it has become a supplement to it. Many times there are more stories told then verses read. Many preachers* believe that people need to be entertained, not convicted. Many want the big crowds to flock to their local church; because that makes them look good. Many (preachers, teachers and believers) have no fear of God. They do fear man. They fear what man might think of them if they don't give him something entertaining or something to make him feel good. They fear that the masses of people church hopping might leave their church and go to another because the message was not entertaining enough or they don’t have the right program. They fear man more than God.
If they truly feared God, they would preach God's Word and would not stop even if everyone left. Scripture would be the focus of their teaching, instead of entertaining stories. People would remember the message not because of a funny story, but because they were convicted and they desired to changed. The example of God fearing preachers would go out and create a fear of God in the heart of man.
Many think that if you don't have a crowd of people then you must be doing something wrong. If you don't have a crowd of people many times you are doing something right and you are preaching God's Word and you have a fear of God in your heart. (This is not the case for all places, there are churches that preach the Word that have big crowds)
All the music and the programs and the elegant speech might bring people in, but is that why you want people to come? Or do you want them to come, because they desire to hear the Truth being preached and they have a desire to grow closer to God, by knowing what His Word says? Do you want to be the latest flavor church for a couple of months or do you desire to follow Christ and fear God and preach His Word? This is the sad truth of “Christianity” today. Many have taken their eyes off of Christ and put them on man and what he desires, not on what God desires.(Hebrews 12:1-2) Our eyes should be fixed on Jesus in such a way that they do not move away from Him. This is God’s Word to us, not just a study guide or something that might be useful every once in a while. This is what everything we believe is based off of and if it is not the basis for what we believe then there is something drastically wrong with what we believe.
*Note when I say preacher I am not making a distinction between teacher and preacher in this particular article.
** Note I am making a generalization when saying that many churches use programs and music and elegant speech to bring people in. This does not mean that every church that does this does not teach the Word nor does it mean that those things are bad. Rather, if they take the place of God’s Word and push it to a secondary position it becomes a problem.
*** Note I am not saying that small churches without programs are preaching from the Word or that a small church is preaching the Word. I am simply saying as I said before we need to be careful about falling into the trap of pushing the Word of God into a dark corner and very rarely looking at it.
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