Where did that come from?

Where should preachers find sermons? Where does your pastor get his sermons? Have you ever wondered about that? If you are a church-goer, and as such, you regularly sit in attendance as someone stands and preaches, I suggest it is vital that you have some idea where your minister gets their messages. Since there is indeed a heaven to gain and a hell to shun, you and your family deserve to hear eternal truth that is gleaned from no other source than the pages of God’s Holy Word.

Sadly however, if you were to peruse various congregations on any given Sunday, you’d hear preachers claim all sorts of random places from which their sermon originated. Let me list just a few examples I have personally heard or read about.

One pastor claimed God gave him a message while he was sitting in a tree stand deer hunting. Another church leader stated his sermon came to him while he was watching television. One speaker boldly maintains God gives him sermons in dreams and night visions. While yet another preacher said “God spoke to him” and gave him that message. Once I heard a preacher say, one morning while he was trying to decide what to preach, he unfolded the morning newspaper and there on the top-fold was his answer … a current event that just demanded a pulpit response.

I don’t mention these past examples to shame anyone. Nor is it my intention to be overly critical. I am a preacher and I love preachers and preaching. However, words matter. Truth matters. What someone claims matters. Especially as the eternal souls of men and women teeter on the edge of eternity.

Now to be perfectly honest, early in my ministry I made some of the same silly assertions as those listed above. Truth is, in my ministerial arrogant adolescence I just didn’t know how dangerous it is to make such unsubstantiated claims. The trouble with each instance cited is this – there is simply no way we can actually verify what this person is alleging is true? Seriously, think about that. As I mentioned last week, just because someone is standing behind a pulpit, “dressed like a preacher” and holding a Bible, doesn’t necessarily mean they are accurately speaking in God’s behalf. Just because you like the man, doesn’t mean God is speaking through him.

Let me ask a question … If a preacher is allowed to simply declare God gave them a message, hence they speak with Divine authority, even though no one can confirm such a claim, are the hearers still expected to listen and obey? As if God Himself had told them what to do? Frankly friends, I think not. This is one (of many) issues that arise when pastors profess to have some innate authority to speak for God based solely on their calling or position. Regardless of what some preachers assert, God doesn’t gift men with supernatural sermon receptors that flash red when messages are sent to them hot off the altar in heaven.

Without apology I submit, there is only ONE place from which sermons should originate — that is from God’s Holy Word. Of course, every preacher I have ever known claims to preach the Bible. But folks, there is a vast difference between preaching the Bible and preaching about the Bible. Those two things are not the same and you should learn the difference. Biblical preaching starts with the text, stays with the text and says what the text says. No more and no less.

Forgive me if this sounds harsh, but if someone stands to preach and doesn’t accurately declare what God has said in His Word, their message did not come from God. This is true, no matter what super spiritual claims they make. If a pastor is not preaching what the Bible is teaching, then you can be sure God did not give them that message. Nor are you required to obey said sermon … even if the speaker maintains it came straight from God Himself.

At the risk of redundancy, let me say again, preachers have been commanded to preach the Word (2 Timothy 4:2). Church leaders are not to be political pundits nor are they required to address every current event. Pastors should not employ the vain philosophies of fallen men or lean upon the counsel of self-help gurus when trying to decide what to preach. Instead, they should preach the Word!

Let me address my fellow pastors for a moment: Brothers, with 39 Old Testament books and 27 New Testament books, why are you spending hours searching for sermons? Pick a book, read it and study and then get in the pulpit and preach it! Start at chapter one, verse one, and when you get done, start over with another book. Sheep need sheep food. No matter how clever you may think you are, you simply cannot improve upon the healthy spiritual diet God inspired in His Word. Pastor, I implore you, stop claiming God speaks to you in some unique manner that elevates you above the average Christian. It simply isn’t so. Preacher, if you will intentionally and consistently walk your people through the text, then they don’t have to wonder where your sermon came from. Plus, you don’t have to feign some holy hotline to heaven that feeds our overinflated egos.

Church member, I challenge you … the next time your pastor gets up and says, God gave him this message … if they do not accurately teach you what God has revealed in His Word; after the service, humbly ask them where that message really came from?! Cause it didn’t come from God.

Friend, be leery of preachers who feel the need to make eccentric claims. Instead, value those who faithfully effort preaching the Bible as the Almighty gave it. God’s Word is sufficient to save sinners and sanctify saints. Although it isn’t flashy, when a preacher systematically walks you through the Biblical text, you will learn eternal truths and you won’t have to worry about where the message came from!

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