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Spice It Up Man!

Do you spend more time watching T.V. than you do studying the word? Do you sometimes struggle engaging in the preaching you hear? Does the preaching just seem to drab or slow?


I have heard many say that so and so ’s preaching needs some spice. That they want something that's going to move them. Something thing that's just really exciting etc. Have you thought that yourself? Why is it so different for us? Our parents and grandparents didn't have that issue. Nor did the New Testament church.
 

It's Just Not Exciting Enough

Is there something that is effecting you? Yes! T.V. and electronics. There are countless studies that show the ill effects of such things. T.V. addiction is one of them. Many people have it and don’t even know it. How many times have you got home from work and just turned on the T.V. without thinking about it? Just like you log on your computer and somehow it always ends up on Face Book. Which by the way Web reading it effecting our reading skills making us skimmers and not readers. Also it hobbles us in the long term memory of what we read.
 

What's Wrong With Us

 Communication theorist say that T.V. is making people unable to listen to colorless, drab, dry, monotone-ish preaching. Its making you and me mentally lazy, intellectually uncritical, emotionally insensitive, and it lowers our moral standards. So many are leaving the public proclamation of the word, preaching. I mean that’s the only way to get people now. They have to learn by listening, discussion, watching, and discovering. So let’s give them that. We will all sit around and discuss what we read (without study). We will listen to others “testimonies”. Then we can watch what others do in person, or in a skit, or  in a video, and mimic it.  Then everyone can discover their own path as they walk in Christ. Which means will have to accept everyone’s own personal convictions.  Oh and when they do have to set all together let’s entertain them, but make it short. Is that really what we need to do?




Does that apply to the Word of God as it is preached from the pulpit, that many are saying is ineffective? No.




The Word

The Word has power (Luke 1:37, Micah 3:8). It empowers the preacher. His Word is manifested through preaching (Titus 1:3). The Word we have today is the same as what was preached then. The Spirit convicts men of sin through the preaching of the Word (John 16:8). Just like we see at Pentecost. Where the Spirit empowered the apostles to preach the Word (Acts 2:1-4). That Word convicted men of their sin (Acts 2:37). They were saved by such preaching (Acts 2:38-41; Acts 2:42-4; Acts 10:1-11:14). You must hear it to have faith (Rm. 10:17). You must hear it to obey it (Rm. 1:16; Rm. 10:14;  1 Cor. 1:21 & 2:4-5). His Word makes you come face to face with yourself (Heb. 4:12). It accomplishes God’s purpose (Isiah 55:11). It has power over false teaching (Jeremiah 23:29). It can break the harden heart of men to the saving of their souls. That’s why Christ says to preach the Word (Mark 16:15-16). It must be preached (Rm. 10:14; 2 Chronicles 36:12; 2 Tim. 3:16-17).
 

Preach the Word
2 Tim. 4:2

Let us not leave the God given pattern we see in the Word. Before you change the Word or the God given pattern change your self.  Let’s study the word and see what we need to change and grow in. Instead of making everything fit us, let’s fit ourselves to God.
 
 
What do you need to change and mature in so that you can appreciate the preached word?

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