PBC: Why Preaching - 11th January 2026

You can turn in your Bibles to

Colossians chapter 1. That's where we're

Colossians 1 · chapter mention

going to spend most of our time this

morning. Colossians chapter 1. I love

Colossians 1 · chapter mention

singing that song right before we hear

God's word because we want God to speak

to us. Uh and he speaks to us through

his word. I wonder this morning uh if

you could think with me with what it is

that you are most practiced at. Uh and

so um some of you might be really good

at guitar and so you've practiced a lot

of guitar. Some of you might be really

good at soccer uh football. If you uh

maybe you've practiced that or maybe you

think that you're really good at it. Uh

some of you might have some hidden

talents that we don't know of. Um maybe

a bit of dancing here and there or

yodelling perhaps. Anyone really

practiced at yodelling? You can show us

later. Um well, I read a book years ago

called Outliers, uh the story of success

by a guy named Malcolm Gladwell. And

he's talking about these people that

have uh like a super high amount of

success in the world. And often we think

that it's because of just they were just

born that way. Um but he goes on to show

through research that there's actually

various factors that allow people to

kind of get the highest in their field.

Sometimes it is certain circumstances in

their lives that just uh help that along

the way. Um, in in Canada, uh, it's it

one of the ones was when you were born,

uh, determines how actually, uh,

successful you might be in hockey

because, uh, of the certain place that

you are, uh, in the leagues. Uh, but he

also talks about the 10,000 hour rule.

uh and he basically is arguing that

people that are really good at what they

do, a lot of those people are because

they've just practiced for a really

really long time. And if you practice

anything for 10,000 hours, you're likely

to be pretty good at it. In fact, if you

were to practice guitar for an hour a

day, so just an hour a day of guitar,

and you did that for 10,000

hours,

that would be about 27 years of

practicing guitar, one hour a day. And I

would hope that you'd be pretty good at

guitar at that point after 27 years of

practicing one hour a day. Uh, and you

would really grow in it. And there would

be this real sense that as time goes on,

you grew in your knowledge and skill in

that instrument. And so when we look

into the scriptures, we see that we are

commanded to grow in godliness.

We are commanded to grow in our

knowledge, to grow in grace. In fact,

Ephesians 4 says, "We are to grow up in

every way into him who is the head

into Christ."

Second Peter says, "But grow in the

grace and knowledge of our Lord and

Savior Jesus Christ." We are to grow in

these things. Now, do we simply do that

with 10,000 hours of practice? Well, I'd

say no. We don't grow with just

practicing godliness. We are like

sailboats. Uh a sailboat, you can sit a

sailboat in the water. You can do all

the right things on the sailboat. It

will go nowhere if you don't have wind.

And so we need the power of grace in our

lives. Grace is like the wind that

drives the sailboat along. And so we

grow by the power of grace. Grace is the

wind in our sails.

There's a lot of things that we are told

to do in the Bible.

These are commands and they don't save

us. They don't they don't make us get to

heaven. That is by faith in the Lord

Jesus Christ. And yet and yet there are

particular things that we are commanded

to do that help us grow in godliness.

It's the means by which we grow.

Theologians call them ordinary means of

grace. We we've talked about them before

and they're repetitive for a reason. We

we do these things over and over and

over again. And this this cyclical form

leads to a linear growth in our life.

What we do matters. How often we do it

matters. how we do what we do, it

matters. So you see that 10,000 hour

rule does connect. It does connect. I'm

commanded to pray. I'm commanded to

pray. And so the more I pray, the better

I get at it.

The more these prayers then shape my

thinking and my faith. And the more like

Jesus I become by the power of grace

through the means of prayer.

So there's means of grace in our lives.

And so church, if you haven't noticed,

is repetitive. We come and we do the

same things every week over and over and

over again.

And sometimes we might have this thought

like, man, that's just really boring.

It's just boring. But I would say if

it's feels boring, we are the problem.

It isn't the practices that are the

problem. Church is not boring. We're

just broken.

We're just broken. And so, as you've

already heard, we're starting this new

series kind of like why we do what we

do. The practices of the church. These

sermons will be a little different than

our kind of normal pattern, our normal

diet of going through a section of

scripture, a verse at a time. These will

be topical.

These are these are practices that you

are very well familiar with, but that

have been practiced in the church uh for

centuries that church history affirms.

Uh sometimes they might feel a little

more teachy. These sermons might feel a

little more teachy than preachy just

because we're we're kind of establishing

what we do and why uh we do it.

Questions like, "Have you ever wondered

why the sermon is so long?" Like, yes,

I'm wondering why the sermon is so long

even right now. Maybe why we sing the

songs we sing like why don't we just

sing like every song that comes on

Spirit FM or why are members expected to

serve in the church? Why do we why do we

limit who takes the Lord's supper? Why

do we have a pastoral prayer? So, some

of these things and more hopefully will

be answered along the way in these next

seven Sundays. But this morning, we're

going to focus, we're going to zero in

on PBC's practice of preaching. Why

preaching?

Why is this the center of our Sunday

morning together? We're going to look at

the who, the what, the when, the why,

the how, and then I'm going to end with

a bunch of applications for us. So, a

load of things that we can do knowing

how important preaching is. So, let me

pray for us one more time. Father, we

thank you that you have revealed

yourself in your word and that you have

given us the things that we need to do

to know you more. That that's not

something that we're blind to. And so,

as we look into the scriptures over

these next few weeks and to why we do

the things we do, show us, Father, show

us yourself. Show us Christ in these

things. Show us how these are means of

grace in our lives to know you more. We

need your help. We need your help even

this morning. We pray in Jesus name.

Amen.

So before we think about preaching, we

need to think about the fact that God

reveals himself. And God has primarily

revealed himself in two main ways. We we

think of general revelation as one of

the ways that he has revealed himself.

The heavens declare the glory of God.

You look outside. You go outside and you

look at anything created or look inside.

Look at yourselves and we see the

scripture tells us invisible attributes

of God and the things that were made. We

see the invisible in the visible. That's

general revelation. It's just out there.

It screams to us. I know the world will

twist that and say, "No, no, this was

just random accident." No, it screams

creator. That's general revelation.

But God also has revealed himself to us

in a special way,

special revelation,

primarily in the person of the Lord

Jesus Christ. He came onto this planet

and lived a perfect life and died the

death that we deserve to rescue us from

our sin. That's a special revelation

from God. And then

we had the word become flesh and we have

the written word of God. This is a

special revelation from God. It shows us

who he is. It shows us all about him and

it's glorious. And this is how we know

God. We wouldn't know God fully from

general revelation. We need special

revelation to know him fully.

Hebrews 1 says God speaks through his

son

Jesus Christ. That was something that

was preached to us a few weeks ago. 2

2 Timothy 3:16

Timothy 3:16 says, "All scripture is

breathed out by God and is profitable

for teaching, for reproof, for

correction, and for training in

righteousness." So, if you want to know

God, you need to read his word. I mean,

that's the only way to know him fully is

you must read his word. Psalm 119, I

have stored up your word in my heart

that I might not sin against you. So, we

personally should be in the scriptures

knowing God. But we are also called to

hear and obey the preached word of God.

Romans 10,

how then will they call on him in whom

they have not believed? And how then are

they to believe in him and whom they

have never heard? And how are they to

hear without someone preaching?

1 Corinthians 1 says, "For since in the

wisdom of God, the world did not know

God through wisdom, it pleased God

through the folly of what we preach to

save those who believe."

In second Timothy, Paul tells to

Timothy, he writes to Timothy, he says,

"Preach the word." We are called to

listen to the preached word. And so when

we look at this text in Colossians that

you should be in in chapter 1, it this

section that I'm going to read is is

about Paul's ministry to the church as a

preacher.

He is a preacher. He's an apostle, yes,

but he preaches all the time.

And we saw even earlier or last month in

Colossians that Christ is preeminent. uh

that was part of our Christmas series.

He is the image of the invisible God.

And so Paul explains his work as a

minister right after that. Like this is

who Christ is and this is what I'm

proclaiming. Look at verse 24 of chapter

1 of Colossians. Now I rejoice in my

sufferings for your sake and in my flesh

I am filling up what is lacking in

Christ's afflictions for the sake of his

body. that is the church of which I

became a minister according to the

stewardship from God that was given to

me for you to make the word of God fully

known. The mystery hidden for ages and

generations but now revealed to his

saints. To them God chose to make known

how great among the Gentiles are the

riches of the glory of this mystery

which is Christ in you. the hope of

glory. Him we proclaim, warning everyone

and teaching everyone with all wisdom

that we may present everyone mature in

Christ. For this I toil, struggling with

all his energy that he powerfully works

within me. And so Paul is describing

himself as a minister uh the image of

the invisible God made peace through the

blood of his cross. Paul's preaching

that verse 28 him he proclaims he's

preaching that and this this sec this

this first verse there filling up what

is lacking in the sufferings of Christ

that can be a little confusing when you

first read it. I want to be really clear

that has nothing to do with the fact

that somehow Christ's sacrifice wasn't

sufficient. Paul's not making Christ

sacrifice sufficient. We know that from

the rest of the teachings of scripture.

That is not what he's saying. In no way

does it indicate that it shows when Paul

says, "I rejoice in my sufferings for

your sake and in my flesh I am filling

up what is lacking in Christ's

afflictions for the sake of his body,

the church." He's saying that as a body

of Christ, we suffer like Christ

suffered. And as a minister of the

gospel, he's suffering for the church

just like Christ suffered for the

church. So what's lacking is all the

suffering through the ages that the

church has endured and that ministers of

the gospel have endured.

It's not that Christ's sacrifice wasn't

sufficient. It's that being a Christian

is a life of suffering because this

world is against the gospel. So Paul as

a minister, as a preacher is showing

that these sufferings are to be

expected.

But they reveal how close we are to

Jesus. We're his body. He's the head.

We're that close. Do you remember in

Acts nine when when when Paul is saved,

when Christ comes to him and he says he

says, "Paul, Paul, why are you

persecuting me?"

Christ's in heaven. How is Paul

persecuting Christ? Because he was

persecuting his people.

So, that's what he means when he says

he's lacking or or filling up what's

lacking in Christ's suffering. And so

the first question is who is preaching

for? Let's think about the who of

preaching. And I start there because you

might think, well, shouldn't you start

with what is preaching? Well, the text

starts with who it's for.

Verse 24. It's for the sake of his body,

that is the church,

of which I became a minister according

to the stewardship from God that was

given to me for you to make the word of

God fully known. Paul's linking his

suffering and his preaching as good for

the church. Preaching is for the the

church. It's the gathered together

in-person community of God's people. We

gather together to experience God

through his word. Do you remember Ryan

Fullerton? He came to us in March. He

was preaching at our day away. He wrote

a book on preaching. Uh and this is his

definition of preaching. He says,

"Preaching occurs when a holy man of God

opens the word of God and says to the

people of God, come experience God with

me." In this text,

preaching occurs when a holy man of God

opens the word of God and says to the

people of God, "Come experience God with

me in this text."

Preaching is for the people of God.

Well, who does the preaching? Well,

verse 25

says, "Of which I became a minister

according to the stewardship from God."

It's done by men appointed by God.

God appoints his people to preach

through his church, through the people

of God.

Holy men.

You're like, "Holy?" Well, you have a

high view of yourself, Steve. You're up

there preaching. Are you holier than

thou? Just the idea that it's people who

are set apart.

Not because we're special, but there is

a sense in scripture

from 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 2 when Paul

lays out the qualifications of an elder,

those qualifications are all character

with the exception of able to teach. And

so, who is preaching? It's men of

character.

that are held accountable by you.

And so someone who does not have

character should not be preaching.

And the scripture says that clearly. And

so that's what that definition means

when it says the holy men. Someone who's

set apart, someone whose character

hopefully is seen, not perfect.

Ask my family, they will tell you that I

am not perfect.

Ask Shane's family. They will tell you

that he is not perfect.

That's not what that definition is

saying. It's just saying that men set

apart for a task to preach.

Who is preaching for? The church. Who

does the preaching? Men set apart by

God.

What is preaching? What is preaching?

What are we doing? Verse 25, that the

second half of it, making the word of

God fully known.

Preaching occurs when a holy man of God

opens the word of God and says to the

people of God, "Come and experience God

with me in this text." Making God fully

known. That's what preaching is.

What do we preach? We preach the Bible.

Preaching is making God known. How do

you make God known? By preaching this

book. It is inherent. It is infallible.

It is the authoritative word of God.

Every word inspired by God. It is

powerful. The word of God is powerful.

Genesis 1, we saw the word of God speak

everything that you have ever seen into

existence

by the word of his power.

That spoken word of God is no more

powerful than the written word of God.

Hebrews 4 says, "For the word of God is

living and active, sharper than any

two-edged sword, piercing to the

division of soul and of spirit, of

joints and of marorrow, and discerning

the thoughts and intentions of the

heart."

What do we preach? We preach the Bible.

Verse 28, what else do we preach? But

Paul says him Jesus we proclaim

him Jesus we herald we cry out the name

of Jesus.

He's the whole purpose of preaching to

make him known to proclaim him. We are

not preaching rules.

We are preaching a person. We're

preaching the good news of the gospel

that Christ was crucified for you. If

that's not you this morning, if you

haven't believed that, that's what this

book is about. That's why we gather.

We preach Christ crucified. It's not

what the world expects to hear. The

world wants to have things that tickle

their ears

because the gospel is offensive. The

gospel is offensive because it says

you're a sinner and you need help. I'm a

sinner and I need help. That's why it's

offensive.

the world's offended by. It's not what

you'd expect to hear and it's

mysterious. Verse 26, there's a there's

a mystery in it. It's not a mystery like

like a confusing I have to guess. It's

something that was hidden in the past

and then all through time God has

revealed it in the person of Jesus.

And what has he revealed? Christ in you.

The hope of glory.

That's what he has revealed. And that is

what we preach. Does that mean that we

never preach law or commands? No.

Of course we preach law and commands.

The law is beautiful. It is a reflection

of the holiness of God. That's what Abby

read this morning. The law of the Lord

is perfect. Reviving the soul.

Every single bit of it. Every jot and

tit as Jesus said about the Hebrew

language. All of it. None of it will

pass away. It's beautiful.

And we preach an exclusive message. It's

an exclusive message because Jesus says

it is.

John 4, Jesus says, "I am the way, the

truth, and the life. No one comes to the

father except through me." This is what

we preach unashamedly.

What does preaching accomplish?

What does it accomplish? What

accomplishes salvation? In Romans 10

says, "So faith comes by hearing and

hearing through the word of Christ."

It doesn't just accomplish salvation,

though. It accomplishes transformation.

Jesus himself said in John 17, "Sanctify

them in the truth. Your word is truth."

Sanctify them. Set them apart. Transform

them. Do you want to be transformed? You

sit under the teaching of the word of

God.

Just like the nothingness that wasn't

even a universe was transformed into

this amazing thing that we see when you

look out into the sky at night or you

look into the forest or you look at one

another.

Nothing transformed into something.

That's what the word of God does for us.

It takes our heart and it continually

transforms us

so that we look like Jesus.

There's nothing more beautiful to look

like than the Lord Jesus. It's also one

of the benefits of having the kids in

our service with us. I know it's hard

sometimes. We know it's hard sometimes,

but it is powerful. The word of God is

powerful. And it it in its purpose, it

will never ever return empty.

Never. So having our kids in is it's not

a second best. It's not like things are

going over their heads. The the word

preached brings salvation and

transformation. And don't we want that

for our children?

I want that for my children.

What about the why of preaching? Well,

look at verse 28.

him we proclaim,

warning everyone and teaching everyone

with all wisdom that we may present

everyone mature in Christ.

Why is this the priority? Why is the the

whole service on a Sunday centered

around these minutes? Why do the songs

hopefully bring us to this moment?

It's God ordained. It's his ordained way

to

allow humanity to be saved, transformed,

and matured.

Why is it central? It's the it's it's a

primary means of disciplehip in your

life. Is one of the pri one of the

primary ways

that you become more like Jesus. Think

of the millions of hours preached

through the centuries across this world.

Millions of hours preached.

If the word of God has power,

proclaiming it changes lives.

Why do we preach?

To present the church mature in Christ.

To present you mature in Christ.

To present me mature in Christ.

We want to be mature. Growing up, uh, we

we had a church building and at the and

at the front of the building

way up high, it just had the words that

I may know him. It was Paul writing in

Philippians 3, that I may know him. To

know God is to be mature.

That's what makes a mature Christian is

knowing God.

Ultimately, therefore,

why do we preach? Because God is worthy

to be known.

God is worthy to be proclaimed. There

isn't anything worth more

than proclaiming God.

What is worth more than God? What is

greater than God? What is more beautiful

than the triune God of the universe?

Nothing. the greatness of the father,

the sacrifice of the son, the

transforming power of the holy spirit.

Why do we proclaim? Why wouldn't we

proclaim?

Why wouldn't we stand up here and do

this? Why wouldn't we spend our time

hearing

of the great God who has created and

rescued us?

Why would we not do that?

What about the when of preaching?

We'll divert from Colossians for a

second. 2 Timothy 4,

Paul writes to Paul and he says, "You

preach in season and you preach out of

season." That's 2 Timothy 4:2.

2 Timothy 4:2

Why do you do that? Because people will

not always endure sound doctrine. You

preach when it's convenient and when

it's inconvenient.

You preach when the world is saying

you're an idiot

or when people are happy to hear what

you have to say.

Church, we always we always want to be a

church that endures sound doctrine,

don't we? We want to be a church that

endures sound doctrine,

even when it's hard. Because some

doctrines are hard. They're hard to

swallow. is that might be hard to

sometimes understand. That might be hard

to live out. That might be hard to obey.

But we want to be a church that endures

that.

And so we will preach even when it's

inconvenient

and even when it's frustrating. We

preach when the church gathers. The

church is called to gather in Hebrews

10. We see the church gathered uh in in

in in Acts all the time.

And when they gather, the word is

preached. It's modeled for us. I I love

in in in chapter 20, Paul Paul was uh he

was leaving the next day. And so he he

was preaching late into the night and

the people were just gathered and they

just were so hungry. And then you have

poor Udicus who was sitting a window and

he falls asleep and he falls to his

death. He was dying for more preaching.

Literally dying for more preaching. Paul

goes and raises him from the dead.

May we be a church that's dying from

more preaching where it isn't laborious

to somehow sit here and be like, "Oh,

where's my watch? When like when is it

going to be done?"

May we just be hungry for it.

What about the how of preaching? Look at

verse Well, I'll get there in a second.

How should the Bible be preached? We

believe the Bible should be preached

expositionally. That's a fancy word for

basically verse by verse, chapter by

chapter, book by book, the whole council

of God's word.

Expositionally means like to draw out

the meaning of the text. Preaching

occurs when a holy man of God opens the

word of God and says to the people of

God, "Come experience God with me in

this text."

We believe in the verbal plenary

inspiration of the word of God. I don't

know if you've heard that phrase before.

Verbal just means words. Plenary means

complete. So that every word in the

scripture was inspired by God. One p one

portion of scripture is not more

inspired than another. You might have a

Bible that has like those red letters,

you know, in the Gospels where Jesus was

speaking. That's nothing wrong with

that. But those red letters are not more

inspired than the rest of the book.

Every word matters.

The ladies were were just led uh in a

way to think about studying the

scriptures looking at all the words. We

look at words. You see this happen on on

Friday night when we study. You see this

here when we look at different words

because the words matter and that is

hard work.

So preaching that way is hard work. It

takes study. It's a labor of love.

So what's happening today is that we

we're looking at 1 Corinthians 24 1:24

to 29. We're drawing out the aspects of

preaching in there. We were looking at

Romans 8 at the end of last year. We

looked at Acts the previous year. And on

Friday nights, we we're looking at uh at

2 Samuel right now. We've gone through

it chapter by chapter. The the the the

youth are looking we looked at Hebrews

last term. Chapter by chapter the the

whole council of God's word.

How else do we preach? We'll look at

verse 29.

Paul says, "For I for this I toil

struggling with all his energy that he

powerfully works within me." How do we

do it with the power of Christ?

for if if people aren't preaching with

the power of Christ, who who cares.

My words mean nothing without the power

of Christ behind them. How do we do it?

We do it with imperfect men. Like I

already said, men who make mistakes,

sometimes we'll get the illustration

wrong and it won't hit.

Sometimes we will be unclear.

Sometimes we'll say something uh that

felt insensitive. May I may have done

that today. We're imperfect.

But that's not an excuse for us not to

try hard and to study well. But it's

just the reality. And that's the grace

of God that he uses imperfect people to

proclaim himself.

And that's true for all of you as you

proclaim Jesus to your friends and your

family and your co-workers. How else do

we proclaim the go word of God? How else

do we preach? We herald it. It is

something to be proclaimed, announced.

It's like a town crier. Hear ye. Hear

ye. The king has something to say.

Let's hear it. It should be preached

with joy and anticipation and excitement

and conviction,

but also with purpose and organized. It

should be clear.

It should not be dull or lifeless. That

should not be preaching. It's the word

of God.

should be something that builds

excitement in us.

How else do we preach? Verse 28,

warning everyone and teaching everyone

with all wisdom.

Warning.

Sometimes there's warnings. They're hard

things to hear. Teaching is so much of

the scripture that we I mean, you just

never would have enough of it. It's

living and active. You can always learn

more with wisdom. Wisdom is like applied

knowledge. So there should be

application to the preaching. There

should be something that you take away

with where I need to respond in this

way.

Sometimes the spirit of God does that to

you individually, but the preacher

should also be doing it.

Should be helping you with application.

How do we apply this? How should you

respond? How should I respond to the

preached word? I should respond

expectantly that God is working in my

heart, transforming. I should respond

obediently. I should obey what I'm told

from the scripture and I should do that

joyfully.

It should be a joy.

So, we've looked briefly at the who,

what, when, why, how of preaching. I'm

just going to give you a load of

applications now. How do we take all

that and live

with it. Well, first preaching is

worship. Sometimes we come together and

we call this bit of the service the

worship. It's the whole service. The

whole service is worship. When we are

worshiping God, we're doing it through

song. We're doing it through prayer. And

we are doing it right now as we hear his

word proclaimed,

the glories of Christ declared. That is

worship. So we should come prepared. We

should get enough sleep the night

before. We should do our best to remain

focused during the sermon.

Secondly, I've already said this, it's a

primary means of disciplehip in your

life. So if the preached word on Sunday

is that, if it's one of the if it if

it's a primary, not secondary, not

tertiary, but primary means of

disciplehip in your life, we should be

here. We should be present. We should be

excited to come because watching a

sermon on YouTube is not the same thing.

It's not that it's not valuable and that

you can't learn something from a sermon

that's pre-recorded,

but being present with the people of God

to experience God together in the text

is not the same as YouTube. So, we want

to be present and we want to respond to

the teaching. James says, "If anyone is

a hearer of the word and not a doer, he

is like someone looking at his own face

in a mirror. for he looks at himself,

goes away, and immediately forgets what

kind of person he was. We don't want to

be that.

We want to respond to the word of God.

If it's the primary means of disciplehip

in your life, you should expect to be

pricricked by it.

It should sting sometimes.

It should sting sometimes. It sometimes

hurts. If there's never any

controversial thing that's ever said

from up here, it's probably very little

content to our preaching

because like I said, the world and often

our hearts are against God.

And so there's wounding that happens,

but that wounding shouldn't stay there

because the gospel of grace should come

in and heal the wound.

We see ourselves and we see Christ and

we say, "Praise God."

If it's the primary means of disciplehip

in our lives, it probably is a good idea

to maybe take some notes. Take notes.

That's not required,

but to be actively engaged

instead of passively listening. Research

shows that we just remember things

better when we take notes.

We remember things better. It's not an

academic experience,

but it's certainly not less than that.

It's way more than that, but it's

certainly not less than wanting to sit

here and learn together.

If it's the primary means of

disciplehip, we should be talking about

it. Let's talk about the sermons with

with one another over tea and coffee

throughout the week. When we meet up,

make a phone call. We should be talking

and discussing what's going on in our

hearts as relating to this text.

If it's the primary means of disciplehip

in your life, when or if you move town

or country, don't move until you have

found a church that prioritizes the

preached word. You should ask yourself,

does the preaching distinguish the

church I'm going to, not the programs,

the preaching, because that is primary.

Another application,

we should be patient with ourselves.

And we should be patient with others as

we hear the word of God preached. We do

not change like that.

It's those 10,000 hours

that move us towards Christ. And so, be

patient with yourself, but be patient

with one another.

And that's another application. Don't

hear sermons with other people in mind.

You're probably all guilty of this. I

am, too. Like, oh, I wish so and so were

listening right now.

You want to turn around. Is are they

here today? Or you think about it for

your like, oh, I hope my wife is hearing

this. She can really She can really hear

this. Don't do that.

Don't do that.

Does it apply to you?

How is the word of God speaking to you?

Fifthly,

pray for the preacher.

Pray for the preacher.

The role of the preacher is one of

suffering.

Pray for endurance.

It's a joy to preach,

but it's also really hard

suffering through seeing my own sin as I

prepare to preach.

It's really hard sometimes to know that

I need to say something that I'm really

weak in and call you to something that

I'm struggling with myself. It can feel

hypocritical at times.

So, pray for your preacher. It's also

suffering because you know there's

there's there's sometimes

where people don't respond and don't

listen.

Think we are a growing church that

responds to the word of God and that is

a joy to watch. It's also really hard

when you see people that don't respond

to the word of God. So pray.

It's also uh a suffering role because

the culture is at odds with the gospel.

And there are preachers all around this

world that go to jail. And if you think

that could never happen in Ireland, I

think you're wrong. And so preaching

what the Bible says is completely

contrary to what the world says.

And there may be a day,

there may be a day, I don't know if it's

in five years or 20 years, where

declaring truths of this book are seen

to be hateful and illegal.

So pray for your preachers.

Sixly, don't idolize a preacher. Uh

preachers are sinners. I've said that

multiple times. Just like you, uh all

men are different.

All men have different personalities,

training, giftedness. Uh so we all have

our favorite sermon or our preferred

preachers, but we should be listening to

God's word

because it's God's word, not because of

the person who's delivering it.

So just guard yourself in that. I would

say just be careful before you start

critiquing the preacher. Have you heard

what God said?

Have you heard what God said?

Seventh, just a couple more. Appoint

elders who prioritize the word. Appoint

elders who prioritize the word. We are

an elder congregational church. The

congregation appoints the elders.

If you're not a member, become a member.

Become a member to help safeguard the

future preaching of this church. That is

a responsibility that is held with the

congregation. The congregation elects

elders and removes elders.

And so that's important. If you want

this church to prioritize the preached

word,

do something about it.

Eighth, have the right expectations.

Your your pastors and elders elders

where primary task the primary task is

to teach and preach the word of God. And

if we are freed, particularly if Shane

is freed, we as elders are freed to do

that

and to preach and to teach faithfully,

the other responsibilities that come

with eldership

will balance themselves out as the word

of God does its work in the body. So,

for example, if you expect a text or a

call or a visit like every week

from one of your pastors, but then you

choose not to be present for the

preaching of the word of God on Sunday,

you're putting your hope in the wrong

thing. You're putting your hope in a

person rather than the transforming

power of God. So, just be mindful of

that.

Ninth, I've said it. I'll say it again.

Celebrate the children in our midst.

celebrate the children are mates. Kids,

we're so glad you're here. We are so

glad you're here.

What can you do to help your child?

Well, maybe prepare them before you

arrive. Pray with them. Give them

expectations on what the service is

going to be like. Remind them of why

this is valuable. Model for them the

singing and the and the and the

engagement with the sermon. Talk about

the sermon with them. Maybe on the way

home, we talk about the sermon on Sunday

at dinner together. There's a quick

conversation on what did we hear from

God today?

And then I would just say to you,

embrace the distraction.

It is actually a short season even

though it doesn't feel short, but it is

a short season that will reap eternal

rewards

for your family.

What can others do if you don't have

kids? What can others do? I would say

greet the children. Help them know

they're welcome. Don't don't turn around

when there's noise. You know, you know,

like you hear the noise behi be behind

you and people are glancing behind and

wondering who it is and just help

parents because they already are knowing

their kid makes noise. Okay, just help

them by not highlighting that by turning

around. That would be super helpful. And

maybe if you don't have children,

purposefully sit next to a family with

smallies. Ask them say, "Can I just

help? Can I help your kids during the

service

so that they parents don't feel alone in

that? I think that those are those are

ways that we can help.

Last application. If if preaching is

that important,

if if all that I am saying is true, if

God transforms us, saves us through his

word, transforms us through his word, if

all of that is that vitally important,

we should be paying a pastor. We should

be moving as a church to paying a pastor

by ourselves.

Paul writes to Timothy, "Let the elders

who rule well be considered worthy of

double honor, especially those who labor

in preaching and teaching. For the

scripture says, 'You shall not muzzle an

ox when it treads out the grain, and the

laborer deserves his wages."

Brothers and sisters, you are a generous

church.

You are a generous church. And by God's

grace, we are actually fairly close to

being able to do that in the not too

distant future of paying a pastor and

paying him well. So, let's pray that we

would do that. Let's continue to be

generous so that that can happen because

if this is so important,

if I want I I'll pay I'll pay good money

for a good plumber,

why wouldn't I pay to be fed by the word

of God?

Think about the situation in the first

century.

They did not have the freedoms we have.

They did not have the protections we

have. And you know what they did

anyways? They gathered to hear the word

of God preached. That's happening in

China right now and in Indonesia and in

North Korea, in Nigeria,

brothers and sisters in Christ are

gathering together to hear a holy man of

God open the word of God and say to the

people of God, "Come experience God with

me." in this text. You are so blessed to

have unhindered regular access to the

preaching of God's word.

What are we going to do with it? What

are we going to do with it?

Remember, church isn't boring. We are

just broken. And so, let us always

be a church that endures sound doctrine.

pray that that this would delight us

and that we would be transformed and

give glory to God in all that we do.

Let me pray. Father, we thank you for

your word. We thank you that we do have

these freedoms that we can hear it.

Father, thank you for preaching.

Thank you, Father, that you reveal

yourself and you've called uh this

imperfect way as the means by which we

can know you and be transformed. That's

just grace. That's just your redemption

on display. And we praise your name for

it. And may we be a church that always

endures that. Always endures sound

doctrine. Always endures biblical

teaching. Help us, Father. We pray in

Jesus name. Amen.

Let's stand together and sing.