The Subtle Temptations of Preaching
Stuart Briscoe
How we're tempted to bend the Word to fit our words! It is a most devious temptation: to preach selectively, to avoid a lot of subjects, to slide by passages we don't want to talk about, to manipulate Scripture to say what I would have inspired it to say had I been the Holy Spirit.
—Stuart Briscoe
Whereas, preaching is a valuable gift of God, and
Whereas, the proclamation of God's revealed truth is a major aspect
of pastoral ministry, and
Whereas, through the preaching of the Word, people come to faith,
and
Whereas, the Enemy of souls, the Enemy of the divine plan, will
oppose our preaching, and
Whereas, the Enemy will attack preaching first through the
preacher,
Therefore, let all be warned that the Enemy will use his most ancient
method: temptation.
Like everyone else, preachers are susceptible to the notorious temptations. We need say little about that. There are enough contemporary illustrations of preachers falling into conspicuous sin.
However, Satan utilizes his delicate tools along with the blunt. In fact, subtle temptations can be the more dangerous, especially for one charged with the authority of proclaiming God's Word. We do well, then, to examine the discreet temptations that catch even alert preachers off guard.
Pride
A woman came up to the pastor at the end of the service and said, "That was a wonderful sermon. Pastor, absolutely wonderful." She gushed on about the brilliance of the sermon.
The pastor, a little embarrassed, demurred softly, "Well, it wasn't me. It was the Lord."
"Oh, it wasn't that good!" the woman replied.
This old story pinpoints one area of pastoral vulnerability: pride. "Buttering up the pastor," as the British would say, is practically a custom in America—a way, perhaps, for people ...
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