4 Keys to Unveiling His Reality at WCBC: 2. Unapologetic Preaching

4 Keys to unveiling His reality at WCBC: 2. Unapologetic preaching Last week we began a brief series on Unveiling God’s reality in our church. And we alluded to the fact that the one thing we have that the world does not have is the genuine presence of God. Although God is everywhere, you and I know that His presence can be more powerfully experienced in one place or time over another. Some days you hardly feel God with you or hardly feel His presence in a church service and at other times knowing His presence comes easy, you hear His voice more easily, you see lives changed, people healed, hearts transformed. An author and Pastor by the name of James Mc Donald identified 4 things, 4 keys in the Bible that if added or prioritized in your life and in our fellowship together will unveil the weighty presence of God constantly, so that lives are impacted constantly. So that when people hang out with us they will experience what they really need – an encounter with a living and powerful God. Last week we looked at the first key. 1. Unashamed Adoration. If you live with an attitude of gratitude and you worship privately and corporately with a desire to just love the Lord with your whole being, you and those around you will begin to experience more of the tangible glory of God. This morning we look at the second key; 2. Unapologetic preaching. Now before we launch into a 15 minute sermon I want us to watch a video clip. This is for those people who have been raised in a culture that says that the Bible is not special, that there are no ultimate truths, that the Bible is not reliable, that the Bible is just another religious book, that faith is what you subjectively create it to be. If you don’t truly believe that the Bible is unique then how can you share it with others without watering it down and trying not to offend them. The Bible Explored: can I trust the Bible? To 8:03 minutes from the Canadian Bible society. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPaeo19sQXw a) The Bible is ACCURATE b) The Bible is RELIABLE c) The Bible is RELEVANT I believe that the message of the Bible is that God loves us, that we are all sinners and fall far short of His glory, that we all deserve to be punished but Jesus has taken our punishment for us, that ONLY through Trusting in the finished work of Jesus we can be saved. This gospel is offensive. It upsets people. Our culture says “whatever works for you”, “whatever floats your boat” believe that, but don’t say there is only ONE WAY to be saved. Don’t say it’s all about Jesus. And if we allow our culture to conform us instead of the Word of God no one will hear the gospel and no one will be saved and transformed. Miracles won’t happen. We will have a form of Christianity that is without power. If we want to see God unveiled in our friendships and at work and in our church we must preach Jesus and the full, uncomfortable message of the Bible. 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 (CEV) Friends, when I came and told you the mystery that God had shared with us, I didn’t use big words or try to sound wise. 2 In fact, while I was with you, I made up my mind to speak only about Jesus Christ, who had been nailed to a cross. 3 At first, I was weak and trembling with fear. 4 When I talked with you or preached, I didn’t try to prove anything by sounding wise. I simply let God’s Spirit show his power. 5 That way you would have faith because of God’s power and not because of human wisdom. I really enjoy preparing sermons and delivering sermons. The thing is, I learn a lot myself in the preparation and I feel the presence of the Holy Spirit on me as I preach sermons. When I was first out of Baptist College and I wanted to have good structure and impressive quotes and a great choice of words, God was good to me but I didn’t feel His anointing the same. I find that if we preachers try to keep our opinions out of it, try to just teach what was intended for us to learn from the Bible, the presence of God comes. 1 Especially if you preach through the Bible as I usually do you have to say things, call sin, sin, say sex outside of marriage is wrong, you have to say that there is only one way to God, don’t be greedy, forgive that person who hurt you. If I or any other preacher teaches what the Bible says, there is an anointing that comes on us, and testimonies of how God has changed people in the week that follows. It would be easy to skip passages like “in this world there will be suffering,” or “all of God’s children will be persecuted” or “the tithe belongs to the Lord,” “pickup your cross and follow Jesus,” etc. It would be nice to skip those passages; people can get offended or feel that you are pointing the finger at them. But if you or I preach the whole Bible and say what it says unapologetically, God will turn up tangibly. I guess any person can get the facts from a Bible passage and stand up and give a lecture in a monotone. That is not preaching. Preaching is what Jesus commissioned the whole church to do. “Go into the whole world and preach” It’s accurately taking the truths of the Bible and under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit telling other people. Preaching is not giving your opinion or sharing your experience. It’s not even prophesying what God has just revealed to you. It’s taking what is in the Bible and speaking it out into the church or the community. The idea, or the origin of the word preaching is closely linked with the ancient role of a herald: someone who would go into the market place and passionately declare the king’s message. The message is an urgent conveying of what the king has said. Now I am not saying we should all go down to the mall and yell at people. What I am saying that every time you passionately declare God’s message, ie what the Bible actually says, you are preaching. It’s letting the Bible speak. Sometimes we find 20 verses on a topic and order them or choose the ones that fit what we are going to say. I don’t think that is preaching. Preaching is when Christian people say I won’t make this fit with my theology I will let this challenge me and challenge you and I won’t be embarrassed or ashamed of any of it. Isaiah 55:11 (CEV) 11 That’s how it is with my words. They don’t return to me without doing everything I send them to do.” Was it C.S Lewis who said I do not need to defend the Bible any more than I need to defend a roaring lion? The Bible speaks for itself and with power. One of the key signs that a person is preaching what the Bible says rather than what they think is that they will speak with authority. People continually commented on Jesus’ ministry. Man, this Rabbi speaks with such authority. The Pharisees and the Scribes would often challenge Him on His preaching and on the miracles that went with the preaching and ask, “on whose authority do you say and do these things?” Don’t apologise for anything it says that might be culturally offensive or hard hitting. It’s God’s Word. If you or I try to water down the Word or rephrase it in a less offensive way we are putting the emphasis, the priority on what the listener thinks. Our goal is not to be anxious about offending people; we should be far more concerned about offending God. If someone asks you “would a loving God send someone to hell?” you could answer with good theology around God’s Holiness and justice and give elaborate illustrations, but I wonder if a more simple answer would be “God is God and He can do whatever He wants.” Someone says to you, “what kind of Father would let His son take the penalty for someone else’s sins?” You could spend a lot of time trying to help the person make sense of this or you could just say “Thankfully a Father who is not at all like us, a Father worthy of worship.” When you declare the gospel, don’t lean on the social sciences like psychology or philosophy or sociology. The power of God supports, follows the preaching of the Bible. I will never forget a talk given to a group of pastors some 5 or so years ago on a moral issue. The guest speaker was a renowned Baptist orator. A real story teller. And entertaining speaker. He spoke for about one and a half hours on the topic. He began addressing the issues from his research into sociology. Then he moved to the science of psychology, then he shared what several doctors and medical specialists had said then about 10 2 minutes before he finished his 5 year journey to discovery on the issue he concluded, “I then read the Bible to see what it had to say and I concluded it was probably right.” I left that place entertained, I left it impressed with the man’s intellect and oratory skill.

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