“Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself?” Martyn Lloyd-Jones
I’m thankful that I get to preach God’s Word on Sunday. Preaching is about communicating God’s Truth as revealed in God’s Word. Preaching is not pep talks, motivational speeches, or make you feel good messages. Preaching is all about declaring gospel truths. Proclaiming truth about who God is, what God is like, what God has done, what God is doing, and what God promises to do in the coming days.
Just in case no one has ever told you this before, let me be the first. You are a preacher. We all are. You might not be called to preach on a Sunday morning and that’s ok, but that does not mean you are not called to preach. Remember, preaching is about proclaiming biblical truth. Preaching is about declaring the truths of the gospel as revealed in the person of Jesus Christ.
But don’t you need an audience to preach? Yes. Thankfully, the most important audience is with you every day – it’s you! The question is not whether you are a good or bad preacher, but whether you are a biblical preacher. Are you proclaiming gospel truths to yourself every day throughout the day? Are you declaring to yourself the realities of God; His character, His heart, His mission, or are you preaching something altogether different? If we preach to ourselves lies about God or ourselves, then in time we will live out those lies that often have devastating consequences. But preach biblical truth and as Jesus said, that truth will set you free.
The most effective and powerful preachers I know are not the ones who have the most dynamic personalities that can move you to tears when reading the phone book. Being dynamic is great, but better than that is the person who has allowed the Words of God to shape the words they preach. And the only way to be shaped by the Word is to be in the Word and allow the Word to be in you.
Be preaching everyday gospel, biblical truths to yourself so that those who watch you live out the message might catch a glimpse of the One you’re preaching to yourself about.
“Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits…” Psalm 103:2
