Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

By April J. Buchanan | Religion Columnist

We’ve likely heard of good sermons and bad sermons, but what effects are there from sitting under bad preaching? Put another way, what are the effects of sitting under unhealthy preaching?

Try as they may, no pastor feels he preaches his best sermon every week. But what is he preaching?

If he is preaching anything more than or less than the text, then those hearing may be temporarily satisfied but it doesn’t sustain them.

If he is preaching the Word then even if he feels his preaching was underwhelming, the Spirit of God still works through the Word of God faithfully exposited.

We must examine what we are being fed and if we desire what is spiritually healthy or if we pick off the healthy stuff and desire what is temporally satisfying.

It is not uncommon to find many false converts sitting under unhealthy or even poison-laced preaching.

Churches with doctrinally sound or healthy preaching, are often smaller in number (not always) as those who come desire what is good, healthy, and sound.

What do we desire? Those who are in Christ desire the Word of God opened and exposited. We want to hear truly what Thus Saith The Lord. We desire what is spiritually healthy. We desire the pure (free from error and falsehood; tried, tested and proven) Word of God.

Many of God’s sheep are starving for truth. Many pastors are stuck in bad programs and man-made methods that are clearly producing false converts, unhealthy growth, and malnourished Christians.

Not all growth is good. Not all statistics reflect the true condition of the visible church.

How can we examine ourselves? God’s Word!

Are we spiritually healthy? Are we deceiving ourselves because we don’t want to truly examine ourselves Biblically? Are we willing to admit where we’ve sought other things, replacing what God has given us – His Word? Is it really sufficient?

Not all who open the Bible or speak highly of it honor God in their handling of it. Many claim to love Jesus and love His Word, but prove otherwise in their handling of it and the lives they live.

Many have placed greater trust in man-made methods and programs than in the sufficient Word of God and it shows in what is being produced.

Many think in terms of good fruit simply by how much good someone does for others. We often fail to consider the progressive sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit in us through the preaching of God’s Word. When we hear God’s Word rightly exposited we don’t walk away with a sugar high, we often walk away pondering more deeply the Word. We are not all hyped up; we are changed and being changed.

Are we desiring temporal emotional (sugar) highs that lead to hard crashes or the truth whereby the Holy Spirit works in us, changing us more into the image of Christ, whereby our lives reveal outwardly the inward work of God?

Grace and Peace

Soli Deo Gloria