Not For the Timid

When the preacher has such a regard for preaching that it is viewed in the same spirit as the Old Testament prophetic formula, "Thus says the Lord....,"  it means that the preacher is actually convinced  that such is what is happening in preaching.  While this is the Biblical viewpoint, it is not necessarily the viewpoint embraced by a majority of those preaching from the contemporary pulpit.  The first hindrance to this happening is the preacher.  It must first be the preacher's fundamental belief about preaching, or it will not happen.     

It is easy enough to understand why the preacher would seek a lesser definition of preaching.  It requires a certain amount of boldness to preach as one who stands in the name of the Lord and as one who speaks in His behalf.  It is not a position for a timid soul who would rather be seen as one who is simply offering a personal opinion about spiritual matters and theological understandings.  What seems to have been lost in many places is the Biblical understanding of the role of the preacher.     

Preaching is not going to win anyone a popularity contest.  It will at times put the preacher in a place of preaching a word that no one wants to hear including the preacher.  As we remember the prophet Jeremiah, we remember him lamenting, "If I say, 'I will not mention Him, or speak any more in His name,'  then within me there is something like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I am weary with holding it up, and I cannot."  (Jeremiah 20:9)  When God calls the preacher, He calls the preacher to stand where the sensible ones dare not go.