Beautiful Feet

I am tired of hearing about men with the "courage of their convictions." Nero and Caligula and Attila and Hitler had the courage of their convictions--but not one had the courage to examine his convictions, or to change them, which is the true test of character. — Sydney Harris in Bits & Pieces, October 1991.

Why preach?

Really?

This reason:

help people

examine convictions

and change them

to biblical convictions

PRIVATE CONVICTIONS

When I worked in Toronto for a food processing plant, I believed we had the best products on the market. I would tell my customers that my products were worth the twenty cents a pound more than my competitors, because they were better, and I really believed they were.

Then one day we were having a sales meeting, and the national sales manager brought out a tray of cold cuts. He said, "Here are five different brands, including our own, and I want you to see if you can pick our product out from the rest." We all tasted them and picked the same one, because it was the best. And do you know something? It was our major competitor, and their product was twenty cents a pound cheaper than ours. Until then, I had a private conviction that we were the best, but reality showed me different.

You can have

strong conviction

but that doesn’t prove

they are correct.

Preaching allows

an outside source

(scripture)

to analyze your convictions

Then,

gives you the chance

to change them.

Mark 16:15 NKJV

And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.

Why?

this is an eternal issue!

Nothing more important!

D.L. Moody told the story of his conversion this way: “When I was in Boston I used to attend a Sunday school class, and one day I recollect my teacher came around behind the counter of the shop I was at work in, and put his hand upon my shoulder, and talked to me about Christ and my soul. I had not felt that I had a soul till then. I said to myself, ‘This is a very strange thing. Here is a man who never saw me till lately, and he is weeping over my sins, and I never shed a tear about them.’ But I understand it now, and know what it is to have a passion for men’s souls and weep over their sins. I don’t remember what he said, but I can still feel the power of that man’s hand on my shoulder tonight.”

Romans 10:13–15 ESV

For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”

and

Romans 10:17 ESV

So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

Preaching is eternal issue.

Why do it???

God requires it.

2 Timothy 4:2 ESV

preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.

Paul Tells Timothy:

always be ready

to preach truth

Paul Speaks of himself:

1 Corinthians 1:17 ESV

For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

Life Calling

Preach the word

Jesus Calling:

Mark 2:2 ESV

And many were gathered together, so that there was no more room, not even at the door. And he was preaching the word to them.

Other’s Calling:

In the 1840s, John Geddie left the pastorate of a church in Canada to take his wife and two small children to the South Sea Islands to begin a mission work there. After a voyage of more than 20,000 miles, they arrived in the New Hebrides Islands at Aneityum. The island chain was filled with cannibals, and more than twenty crew members of a British ship had been killed and eaten just months before the Geddies arrived on the mission field.

They faced the difficulty of learning a language that had no written form and the constant threat of being killed. Slowly at first, a few converts came, and then soon many more received the Gospel. Geddie continued his ministry faithfully, including translating the entire Bible into the native language and planting twenty-five churches. For many of those years, Geddie labored with little help and little word from home, but God was faithful to His servant. In the pulpit of the church Geddie pastored for so many years stands a plaque in his honor which says: “When he landed in 1848, there were no Christians here, and when he left in 1872 there were no heathen.”

You may not be a preacher.

Then...

Your Job:

invite them to hear.

Help encourage them

to have opportunity

to change life:

Leading to Baptism

Acts 8:12 ESV

But when they believed Philip as he preached good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.

Transformation Preaching

or

Words

Samuel Clement (Mark Twain) attended a Sunday a.m. sermon. He met the pastor at the door afterward and told him that he had a book at home with every word he had preached that morning. The minister assured him that the sermon was an original. Clement still held his position. The pastor wanted to see this book so Clement said he would sent it over in the morning. When the preacher unwrapped it he found a dictionary and in the flyleaf was written this: "Words, just words, just words."

Every Day Every Way

Acts 5:42 ESV

And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that the Christ is Jesus.

Every Opportunity

The Cycle

Love

Relationship

Connection

Support

Friendship

Information

Bible Studies

Conviction

Indecision

Struggle

Decision

Preaching

Truth

In the sixteenth century, there was a protestant reformer in England by the name of Hugh Latimer. He was known as a great preacher of his day and as a result he had many opportunities to speak. Once he found that he was to preach before the King Henry VIII of England. As he thought about his great responsibility to bring a message before the king he realized that the message that God laid on his heart was not the message that the king would want to hear.

As he began his sermon he said, “Latimer! Latimer! Do you remember that you are speaking before the high and mighty King Henry VIII; who has power to command you to be sent to prison, and who can have your head cut off, if it please him? Will you not take care to say nothing that will offend royal ears?”

He then paused and continued, “Latimer! Latimer! Do you not remember that you are speaking before the King of kings and Lord of lords; before Him, at whose throne Henry VIII will stand; before Him, to whom one day you will have to give account yourself? Latimer! Latimer! Be faithful to your Master, and declare all of God’s Word.”

Latimer faced the choice: would he preach what man wanted to hear or would he preach what Christ would have him preach. Latimer did take his stand for truth and preached boldly. Eventually, he was martyred by Henry’s daughter Queen Mary.

Appeal

Preach the Word

Invite Others