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Love in the Supreme Ethics

Tuesday, 20 February 2018

Itching-ear Preaching

2 Timothy 4:3
For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.
I remember an incident happened years ago when I was invited to speak in a church and pastor asked me “kindly speak something only positive and inspirational because a preacher who spoke on sin and judgment previously was never invited again”. Funny isn’t it?
Very few of us actually wanna move from blessing and grace to hear messages on sin and judgement. Not every preacher can be as eloquent as Charles Spurgeon, but I’d rather have a boring preacher who preaches the Bible than an interesting one who simply entertains. Jim Jones was an interesting preacher, but in 1979, he led 900 people to Guyana and they committed mass suicide following him.
So if you feel you aren’t getting fed by your pastor’s sermons, let me ask you a question: Is he preaching the Bible? If so, are you bringing a fork/spoon for feasting?
Yeah it’s true and I agree that preacher should always feed green grass (solid word) to his believers but it’s equally important that believers should behave as sheeps and flocks not as junk eaters. There are many believers who have developed hunger for junk food like our new generation foodies. Which includes excessive jokes, stories, humour and emotionalism not sheer, unadulterated, solid Word of God. There are folks in the church who come to entertain themselves by the oratory skills of the speaker. They are not as hungry for God’s voice and conviction of the Holy Spirit as for the pagan myth mixed comedy performance with outright audacity. And that in result has caused the emergence of preachers who are great entertainers with immense popularity. They are more concerned towards pleasing the audience than God, they make sure that their sermons have enough jokes so that people don’t find difference between stand comedian and a preacher, they make sure that everyone after the service must feel spirited than spirit-filled, they make sure to tell people that God is loving them than God is angry with them, they get obsessively busy preaching blessings and grace than coming judgement and sin, they give little/no admonishment so that they are not left uninvited for next turn. Today many churches have found preachers of their will and kind.
Bringing our forks/spoons to the church simple means coming with a heart to hear and accept God’s word alone. Many a people come to church ⛪ as they go to theatre ðŸŽ­ expecting leisure and amusement. A broken heart is near to God.
Let me tell you that if you have a pastor who doesn’t know how to make people laugh or cry and drive you to the brooks of emotionalism but only preaches plain word with simplicity “you are blessed indeed”.
Now correcting this widely spread unbiblical practice is the task of both hands; preachers and hearers.
In earlier mentioned verse Paul warned Timothy to be careful about preachers who preach according to itching ear (interest/desire of the people).
As believers we must question ourselves that does it take something more than the plain word of God to satisfy our souls? Have we distorted or perverted our sense of hunger so much that unadulterated plain Word doesn’t sound ample? Is junk food the only thing we come church for?
And on the flip side as preachers we must question ourselves that are we standing there to glean well done commendation from audience or looking at God’s broken heart for final say? Are we men-pleasers of God-pleasers?