Is A the most famous chord on the guitar? Probably not. I doubt there is a “most famous chord,” and yet, in the hands of one man in a particular setting, nothing can bring a crowd to life like an A chord. I’m learning the guitar, so when I play an A chord, it is not very enjoyable and doesn’t evoke excitement in anyone. However, in a packed stadium when Garth Brooks strums an A chord, people lose their minds. When Garth fans hear Garth Brooks pick and A chord, they know that he is about to sing Friends in Low Places.
But, that same A chord anywhere else might not have the same effect. Garth plays to his audience. He knows what they want to hear, and he gives it to them.
Pastors, when we aren’t careful, we do the same thing. We know what our people want to hear, so we tickle their itching ears with sermons that appeal to their comfort. We preach sermons about the sins out there, we rant and rave about society or the news media or politicians who are leading us further into moral demise. Our people love to hear those sermons. But there is one glaring problem when we preach to people outside of our church.
The people who need to hear the sermon are not there.
Our churches are filled with people who like to hear their pastor go on and on about the sins of others, but the sermons pastors need to preach are aimed at sin that lives within their own congregations.
We need to preach to the people in our pews. Those are the people we have been called to reach. Those are the people we might actually change with the power of the Holy Spirit.
Of course, it is scary to preach to those people. They pay your paycheck. But, the people in the pews are the people you have been called to serve. And, serving them as God’s man in the pulpit means preaching the whole truth of God’s word–especially the parts of it that are hardest to hear.
It is easy to preach about the Democrats or the Republicans and all of their evil. It is much harder to look into a mirror and preach about the sin in our own lives and in our own ranks.
It is easy to stand on the front steps of your church and throw rocks at the sinners “out there.” It is much harder to deal with the sin inside the church and to love those “out there” who might sin differently than you do.
The culture war mentality of our world has caused us to see those outside the church as enemies of the church instead of sheep without a shepherd. We hear opposing worldviews and see them as ideologies that must be overcome instead of spiritual strongholds that must be broken.
Pastor, your calling is to minister to your church and reach your community. But, it is possible that the best way to reach your community is by urging your church to look and act more like Jesus and less like a political activist or a television talking head.
Garth Brooks knows how to throw a party. He is the ultimate performer. Garth knows what his fans want to hear, and he delivers.
Pastor, you are not a performer. You are God’s man called to speak God’s truths in season and out of season–that means you must speak God’s truth, regardless of whether or not your people want to hear it.
When preaching becomes performance, it ceases to be prophetic.
Pastors are keen to regularly cite Paul’s words to Timothy as a warning to Christians:
3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.
1 Timothy 4:3-4
But, pastor, beware that you not fall prey to the temptation of becoming the teacher who suits the passions of this generation. When the people celebrate false teaching, it is easy to slip into the kind of teaching that brings celebration and acclaim.
It is easy to play to the crowd, but it is rarely faithful.
Pastor, preach the hard sermons. Preach to your people, and send them out, not to silence the opposition, but to proclaim the gospel and to see the lost delivered to Christ.
Photo by Adi Goldstein on Unsplash
Thank you Pastor Craig for the reminder. Self evaluation in progress. I’m sure this applies to me betimes.