What is the secret to preaching? Is it being funny? Or telling a good story? Or having four points that begin with the letter “P”? How about rightly interpreting a passage of scripture? That is important, but there is more: preachers should explain scripture—AND it should be the passage God placed on their hearts for that day and time.
—Yet even that may be an incomplete picture of great preaching.
Do you remember Jonah? He preached to the idol-worshipping Ninevites and a city of 120,000 repented of their sins and fasted and prayed and turned to Yahweh, the One true God. And remember, Jonah did not WANT to preach to Nineveh. He hated those people and hoped God would destroy them. He ran from God’s calling because he WANTED God to destroy Nineveh.
Consequently, his preaching must have been lackluster. No jokes, no stories. No illustrations. No parables. No charm. No charisma. The man probably just rattled off the words “in forty days Nineveh will be destroyed,” hoping no one was listening. But they listened and the entire city repented, put sackcloth on man—AND beast—and fasted, both man and beast taking neither food NOR WATER, and God changed His mind and the city was saved. –And Jonah was furious! He said to God, “Please take my life! I would rather die than live!”
In other words, Jonah wanted to preach in such a way that he would be ignored. He wanted to be ineffective. He wanted to preach a terrible sermon to which no one would respond. But He could not. Do you know why? Because Jonah’s preaching was ANOINTED BY GOD.
You can’t preach badly with God’s anointing—and you can’t preach well without it.
Pray God will anoint your words.
“Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed David in the midst of his brothers. AND THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD RUSHED UPON DAVID FROM THAT DAY FORWARD” 1 Samuel 16:13.
God, may we obey You and follow You and may our words be anointed by Your Holy Spirit.
ΑΩ
Household Words: 