Preach Like You Mean It

The only hope we preachers have for success in the ministry is the power inherent in the word of God. We can have no other confidence. The only things really worth happening in your church will only happen by the power of the word. The word may seem slow or foolish or irrelevant, but it will not disappoint. It cannot return empty.

Critics like to say about evangelicals, “You worship the Bible, a dead letter, words on a page, blah, blah, blah.” Don’t mind those critics. Satan uses their critiques more than God does. The devil wants you to think there’s no power in the word, that it’s not living and active, that it’s not sharper than any two-edged sword, that it’s not the imperishable seed by which men and women are born again. The devil wants you to believe you are fruity and fruitless for wasting your time in study and wasting your breath on Sunday. The devil wants you to voice your cynicism, your skepticism, and your sophisticated reasons for supposedly worshiping Jesus by revering the Scriptures less than he did. Don’t buy it. Look at every preacher worthy of emulation from any century and you will find a man preaching with authority.

So preach with confidence and conviction this Lord’s Day. Preach as if you were utterly and completely dependent on the word of God to do the work of God. “Declare these things; exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no one disregard you” (Titus 2:15). Preach like you mean it.