The Importance of Preaching

     In today's culture and even inside of the church, we have neglected the ordained means of grace that God blesses in the building of His church. In the culture, ambiguity is the law of the land. They are fine with allowing 5 different thoughts being under the same title. This itself has come into the church.

   Today, in the average church the worship in the worship service is the singing of songs. In other churches, it is prayer. These two things are worship, but the worship of a worship service is predicated upon the preaching of the Word. The most important thing we do as a church is sit under, hear, and have biblical preaching ring from the pulpit. Still, people will say that it doesn't really matter.

    It is in no way healthy for a church to relegate only about 20%-30% of the service to preaching alone. The old expression goes, "keep the main thing the main thing," and in this case keep preaching as the main thing. We cannot rely upon songs alone to say that we have worshiped God. This is faulty thinking. Preaching is the true sanctifying means of the church. It is the very thing God uses to correct, admonish, rebuke, encourage, teach, and call the believer to action (1 Timothy 3:16-17; 2 Timothy 4:2). 

    This also has affected how we view "revivals". For example, as many people have a view on Asbury, there is a takeaway we can see from it. The very thing that was not seen in any of the videos and accounts of people visiting was there was either no preaching or very little of it. This is not similar to Acts 2, where through the preaching of Peter, God convicted, and saved three thousand men (Acts 2:37-42). Specifically in Acts 2, the three thousand men were said to have devoted themselves to the teachings of the Apostles (Acts 2:42). For Asbury, in terms of what a revival is in the context of Acts 2, it does not fit. The preaching of the Word is the main focus in Acts 2, not singing. Truly, only with time will we know if Asbury was a work of God.

    Even more so today, preaching has become almost non-offensive. There is generally a fifteen minute time where the preacher will take his time to apologize for what the Bible is about to say. This needs to go. Instead of worrying about the crowds we can draw, we should worry about the whole counsel of God being preached. Spurgeon said it best, "The Word of God can take care of itself , and will do so if we preach it, and cease defending it." We have no need to apologize or sugar coat our preaching and we cannot let it be neglected in the time we meet. May God raise up men to preach the Word wholly