The Words Of A God And Not A Man

They are the words every pastor wants to hear as the parishioners exit the sanctuary: “That was a great message.” However, maybe most preachers deserve to be eaten by worms like Herod.

God did not think much of Herod when he soaked it all in, you know, the jubilant crowd praising him like a little demigod.

Everyone loves to be stroked. When the preacher puts it all out there, he craves to be praised. He wants to know his time and effort made a difference. He wants to know someone agreed with him.

We are so very fragile aren’t we? However, is this about us?

If God indeed gave us our message, why do we want people to tell us it was from Him? Is that really necessary? If no one walked the isle, no one said ‘amen,’ no one shed a tear, does that mean that the message was fleshly?   Do we really need congregational reinforcement for something we prayed over days before we delivered it? We certainly don’t need that kind of pat on the back week after week.

People love to shout at polished rhetoric. They love to affirm the divine nature of oration. God is not impressed, however. He might even judge us for it.

We don’t need to be deified. We are God’s children. We don’t have an identity crisis; we are children of the King.

Additionally, the New Testament seems to value power that accompanies words, not words that are delivered with polished force. We all want to be Spurgeon, but the reality is, most of us are like the unschooled Galileans. People should recognize us because we have been with Jesus.

If anything, when people want to praise us, we should be like Paul and Barnabas, running through the streets of Lystra shouting, “Stop, stop. We are men just like you.”

When we accept praise from people, we contradict our own conviction that it is Christ who has made us who we are. We need to affirm what the hymn-writer composed: