Pastor Speech

2 Timothy 4:1–4 NASB95

I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.

Last time we met, Joe asked me to give the little devotional and I agreed, I am not sure why.

Last time we met, age was brought up and Joe asked would you listen to a pastor in his 20’s, and then apologized when he looked at me.

Back then i was a young and naive 29 and half year old, and now that i am in my late 29’s I asked, what could I possibly offer to a group of.... seasoned pastors.

I am being humorous but i am serious about that thought, what do I have to offer a group of men who have been doing ministry a long time.

Well my former pastor came and visited us in Leadville and joined us for service. This man is well known in this state for his long years of pastoring. He is now 60 years old i think or at least close to it.

He was amazed that we had so many young families, he came up to Leadville before they called me and seeing it now he was greatly encouraged. He asked how did I do it.

I never really thought it about it before but he explained that he has been struggling to get young families and asked what I was doing different. I don't know.

So he decided to ask about it with a ma about my age and that man said, I have never been to a church where I have recieved verse by verse teaching. This was something this pastor has heavily criticized me for just the day before that.

So I started to pay attention to what people like about Mountain Crest. We have a great congregation who enjoys to laugh and joke. That helps a little I guess. But I started to pay attention to what people were responding to and I found that people respond to sound doctrine.

Yes I am an expository preacher but that is not what people are actually responding too, it might be a little part of it, but what people are responding to is sound doctrine.

Now all of us here may shake our head yes we know this already, I don't think I have met a pastor who admits to teaching bad doctrine and yet… it happens far too often even within our own denomination.

What usually happens is that we dont deny sound doctrine, we just give it the backseat treatment. We should all already know this so lets just place that in the back seat and talk about something else.

We have the tendency to do that with the gospel and over time, we are no longer gospel centered with sound doctrine.

What ends up being said in the pulpit is nothing more than some creative motivational speech with scripture tossed in. I have been a part of several ministries like that in the SBC, and know a few pastors who still do this, but wont admit to it.

And our ministries never change because we can never get these pastors to see that they are actually preaching the same message the world is preaching.

Walk into any christian book store, if there are anymore opened, go down the christian living section and then when you are done, go to barnes and noble and walk down the self help section. Not much of a difference.

Listen to how many famous preachers willing say this doctrine does not concern me as much as this one. Andy Stanley, and I apologize now if there are any adndy stanley fans here, but he famously said this last christmas that the christianity does not hing on how christ came into the world, christianity hinges on the resurrection.

Sounds good, to some, but you will never get me to undercut the incarnation, because doctrine matters. He also said in an interview with Russel More that we as christians need to stop saying the bible says because that has no sway with unbelievers.

Sounds good to some, but you will never get me to undercut the doctrine of the word and the authority of the word. And many of my good friends and perhaps you too, take their ministry advice from Andy. Because he has the numbers.

I did not have this intent of getting young families in the church and when I stepped into Mountain Crest my goal was not to grow that ministry numerically. Our success is not how many are in the pews and then come together to compare who has more.

Our success is found in feeding Gods sheep. I think that was the intent of many of my pastor buddies when they began, i think that is their intent today, but somewhere along the way they got desperate and the message started to change, and fellas, that is an easy temptation to fall into.

Here is my question, if we begin to preach a message that is not much different than what our friends say, or what Dr. phil says, or what they can watch on ellen, or hear from their parents; if we are saying nearly the same thing, then how do we expect to keep people here.

Sound Doctrine matters, it transforms and renews. That is what we need, transformation. I don't need a message of 7 steps for a better prayer life. Things i can do now to increase my spirituality.

More important than that, is i don't need lazy christian cliches when things are not going good for me. I don't need to hear just pray about. Its not bad advise, But I know that is a lazy muscle memory response.

I dont need to hear, well i am praying for… that reminds me of the hang in there kitty poster. During those times, I need sound doctrine.

I need to hear about the incarnation. I need to know that Jesus is fully man. Because Jesus wept now makes sense to me, now makes sense to me.

Hebrews 4:15 NASB95

For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.

Sorry Andy stanley, but God in flesh does matter, my very life and faith does hinge on this. How would I get through. This verse alone Has so much meat for us to bite into. first of all, this verse is meaningless if Jesus were not fully man and fully God.

But we can take a trinitarian approach as well, well then, we better have our trinitarian theology down. The Son is now at the right hand of the Father and we have the holy Spirit in our hearts who brings then brings christ to our hearts. Add the three offices of Jesus and focus on His priestly role.

Jesus is our high priest who intercede for us, so we have a high priest who can sympothize with us because he has been tempted in all things. This high priest is at the right hand of the father interceding for us which means that no matter what you are going through, the Son is telling the father I know.

I know what they are going through, I know your pain, I know your struggle, I know. I am being extremely brief on this, I spent 45 minutes on this topic in the past.

The two natures in one person also called the hypostactic union is essential doctrine for salvation. Because there was a debt that was owed by man that man could never pay. The righteousness of is the only thing sufficient yet God did not owe the debt, man did.

I am being brief, but hopefully the point is made. Dont be afraid to preach sound doctrine, if you think its too difficult for people to grasp, dont worry, if you are a good preacher they will learn. You dont have to go through all the technical theological titles, but dont ignore it out of fear that the masses dont want it, they actually do.

And it takes a pastor to show the that. Sound doctrine is not meant to stimulate our intellect; if that is your approach then yeah you might burn yourself out and bore everyone to tears. So it doesn't stimulate our intellect, but it reminds us of Gods promises during the times we don't feel them.

I can hear just pray about it, or I can reflect that in my saddest and lowest state, I have a high priest who knows how I feel and prays for me too.

I don't do anything fancy in our church. Our music ministry is not some loud band. I don't have a single person who plays an instrument so, I’m not rocking the church out and i would never care too.

I offer a people a hope and a message that the world will never preach. I make sure that I don not sound like what they can get on tv. I preach Christ and him crucified. I don't have time for super creative speeches, I don't use my family as sermon illustrations.

I just preach sound doctrine. We are called to stand and say, Thus saith the lord. And I have watched seniors mature, you families mature. We have a woman who was raised Roman catholic, whose dad is demanding she leave our church, and she told him I cant.

Bring back the fundamentals of our faith and show the people why it matters and why everything else fails in comparison.