March 23, 2007
Too Much
How do you tell someone they talk too much about their family? More and more preachers and TV evangelists alike are using their family members as sermon illustrations and anecdotes. Trying not to sound critical, one woman told me, “I come to church to hear the Word preached. I’m tired of hearing the preacher’s self-indulgent boasting about his family.” Understandably a speaker connects better with his audience by telling them something on a personal level. Certainly preachers are proud of their children, as are those of us in the congregation, but then no one’s offering us a microphone.
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Gail;
-----Try reminding them that Peter thinks anyone who has been given the gift for preaching should do it as if he were speaking the very words of God. (I Peter 4:11) I think there are two messages in that verse. The first is about what is preached. God would not speak words to His children that were in any way deceiving. And from what we see in the gospels, Jesus made efficient use of every syllable. He did use many illustrations, but those illustrations were always vessels for His message. His message was never a vessel for an illustration.
-----The second message in that verse is about attitude. I think this is the more important message. For it is the attitude that makes falsehoods or truisms, relevancies or irrelevancies. It is the attitude that delivers a message, or delivers the pride of a family biography. It is attitude that makes the pulpit a place for moving people in the Lord, or for moving money into the pocket. Peter is saying that those who speak should do so with a most serious and sober attitude of a godly composed heart. Another saying of Jesus crosses paths with this gem from Peter, “…for out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him…” (Mat 12:34b-35a) I think a “family matter” kind of preacher has forgotten how discernable his heart is by any who have ears to hear.
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