Seven Things I Can’t Do As A Preacher

INTRODUCTION:

1.              1.  Recently when going through some old stored books in my office at home I found an old journal that I had kept while on my first mission trip to Murmansk, Russia.

a.              As I read through the three weeks of that journal I actually was very sad. There were two reasons I became sad while reading the journal.  First, because some of those people I worked with on that trip I have never seen again, and won’t likely ever see again on this earth.

b.              But the second reason I was sad is because I saw an attitude of a young preaching student that was very naïve.

2.              2.  Let me illustrate it by the idealistic thoughts of young adults who do not have children.  You remember when you would see a two-year-old throwing a fit in the floor of Wal-Mart, and you said “When I have kids, that will never happen?”

a.              You remember saying “My kids will never need a spanking because we are going to talk things out together.”

b.              You remember saying “When I am a parent I will give my children all of the time they want.”

3.              3.  I had that kind of attitude in preparation for preaching.  I would see congregations struggle because of the unfaithfulness of their members, and I would think “when I’m the preacher in a congregation it won’t be like that.”

a.              I would see people who were not Christians, and they would refuse to obey the Gospel, and I would think “When I’m the one teaching, I’ll do a better job and they’ll be unable to refuse to obey the Gospel.”

b.              I would see a divided congregation and think “That won’t happen when I’m preaching.”

4.              4.  Do you see the youthful arrogance?  Thankfully I’ve grown out of that kind of arrogance, but unfortunately many Christians have caught it.

a.              You see, there are many who are Christians who think like I did, only backwards.

b.              Many Christians believe, if we only had the right preacher, the church would grow, my faith would be stronger, everything would be perfect – everything isn’t perfect right now so we must not have the right preacher.

c.              Many Christians believe, if we only had the right youth minister our kids would all want to be involved, they would all become Christians and all be tremendous examples to their friends at school.  They aren’t all involved, nor are they all Christians or great examples, therefore we must have the wrong youth minister.

5.              5.  What I’m going to confess to you in this sermon, is that there are some things that I just can’t do as a preacher.  I’m not a superhero.  So I want to identify 7 things that I wish I could do, but I cannot.

DISCUSSION:

I.               I.  First, I Can’t Love God For You.

A.             Now that may seem to be an odd starting point for this sermon, but it is very much the case that preachers wish they could make people love God, and some who claim to be Christians act like the preacher can love God for them.

1.              In 1 John 5:3, John tells us this:  “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments.”

2.              Clearly, then, claiming to feel a certain way toward God, and actually backing up that claim, are two different things.

B.             Remember the account of the rich young man in Matthew 19?

1.              This young man came to Jesus for the stated purpose of inheriting eternal life – that inheritance is only available to those who love God, are therefore keeping His commandments, and as a result are “in Christ” (Ephesians1:11).

2.              When Jesus responds to the rich young man, He tells him to keep the commandments of the law of Moses – the law under which he was living.

3.              The young man points out that he has been doing that since he was even younger, so Jesus says:  “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me” (Matthew 19:21).

4.              Then we immediately read this:  “But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions” (Matt 19:22).

5.              The problem with this young man was not his wealth, the problem was his heart – he loved his possessions more than he loved God.

C.             Now here’s the point – If Jesus couldn’t make this young man love God enough to follow Him, then I certainly can’t make anyone love God that much either.

II.              II.  Second, I Can’t Make You Love Your Brethren.

A.             I mentioned in the sermon last Sunday morning that if there was one sermon I wish I could figure out how to write successfully it would be this one – I am often surprised and sickened by how brethren treat each other.

1.              In 1 Corinthians 13, writing about what true love looks like, Paul says this:  “Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  Love never fails.”

2.              Does that sound like the love that you see when you watch brethren bickering over carpet and copiers, paint and parking lots, bulletins and buildings, announcements and attitudes?

3.              I sincerely believe that in the last 22 years of preaching I have heard more people say “I’m leaving” because they were mad at a brother or sister than I have heard people say “I want to become a Christian.”

4.              “Well, they treated me bad.”  “Well, they called me a name.”  “Well, they corrected one of my kids.”  Etc.

B.             Let me just read off a few verses that might be important for us to keep in mind on this point.

1.              1 Peter 1:22:  “Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart.”  This is not a suggestion.

2.              1 John 3:14:  “We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren.  He who does not love his brother abides in death.”

3.              1 John 4:7-8:  “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.  He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”

4.              1 John 4:11-12:  “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.  No one has seen God at any time.  If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us.”

5.              1 John 4:20-21:  “If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?  And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.”

C.             Oh how I wish I had the power to make people love each other, but unfortunately that is one of the things I just don’t have the power to do as a preacher.

III.            III.  Third, I Can’t Worship For You.

A.             It is clear throughout the Scriptures that God desires worship from mankind.  Worship is occurring in Genesis 4, and it is still occurring in Revelation 4.

1.              In the account of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness, Satan challenges Jesus to fall down and worship him, but Jesus responds with these words:  “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve’” (Matthew 4:10).

2.              This is not only a statement about “Who” we are to worship, but it is a statement “That” we are to worship.

3.              Back in 1994, I was studying with a woman in Mountain Home, Arkansas.  During this study, we spent some time in Acts 16 with the account of the Philippian jailer.

a)              At one point we came upon Acts 16:31:  “So they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.”

b)              At this point the woman said “This verse is the reason I am who I am, and the reason I worship – because even though my husband is a terrible man, I know that he is my household, and that as long as I am faithful, he will be saved.

c)              That is a terrible misunderstanding of the verse, yet many Christians act like they believe it to be true today.

B.             We know we are supposed to partake of the Lord’s Supper on the first day of the week (Matt 26:26-28), but we’ll go boating, or some other hobby, while the preacher partakes of the Lord Supper for us – the preacher can’t miss worship to go boating.

1.              We know we are supposed to teach and admonish one another in songs (Col 3:16), but we’ll let those who are better singers handle that while we just sit back and enjoy the entertainment.

2.              We know we are supposed to give of our means individually (1 Cor 16:1-2), but we would rather live off the giving from others who make more money than we do.

3.              In other words, we may know how foolish it sounds to believe that someone else can worship for us, but sometimes we act like we can anyway.  I can’t worship for you, any more than you can worship for me.

IV.            IV.  Fourth, I Can’t Mediate For You.

A.             Have you noticed that even though the Scriptures tell us to call for the elders when we are sick (James 5:14), we still call the preacher, because we believe he has some kind of special connection with God to get things done (James 5:16).

1.              So we call for the preacher when we are sick, we call for him when we are in trouble with the law, we call for him when our marriages are in trouble, and we call for him when we are caught in our sins.

2.              I’m not saying we shouldn’t call out to those who can help us when we are in need, but what I am concerned about here is the belief that the preacher has some kind of magical power to solve our problems in life.

B.             The only one who can mediate to God on our behalf is Jesus.

1.              Job understood this when he pleaded for one to stand between him and God – he knew it couldn’t be a man (Job9:33).

2.              In a passage about public worship, written to the young evangelist Timothy, potentially making sure Timothy didn’t have the arrogant attitude I had as a young preacher, Paul tells Timothy “For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all…” (1 Tim 2:5-6).

3.              Timothy can’t mediate for man, Paul can’t mediate for man, you have to go to the One who died for you.

4.              What that means is the preacher can’t absolve us of our sins, only God can do that through Jesus Christ.

C.             Remember the account of the paralytic man in Mark 2?  Jesus was teaching in a home, and some friends let this paralytic man down through the roof in the hope that Jesus would heal him.

1.              Jesus did heal him, but He did it with these words: “When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the Paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven you’” (Mark 2:5).

2.              Whether or not the man was a paralytic because of his sins doesn’t matter, the point Jesus was making was that the power to heal this man could only come from God, just like the power to forgive sins – only God can forgive sins.

3.              Jesus is God (John 1:1-3, 14).  I can’t mediate – I can’t forgive your sins – only God can do that.

V.             V.  Fifth, I Can’t Spread The Gospel For You.

A.             In Matthew 28:18-20, right before Jesus ascends into heaven, He says this:  “…All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.  Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

1.              We rightly call this the Great Commission – but somehow, over the ages, this has become a preacher passage, or a missionary passage, rather than a Christian passage.

2.              And yet we don’t have a single example of a congregation in the first century depending on the preacher to fulfill the Great Commission.

3.              In actuality, we have just the opposite.

B.             The first congregation of the Lord’s church, that existed in Jerusalem, had the apostles as the preachers – now that would be some great preaching.

1.              Interestingly, when the persecution in Jerusalem grows to the point that Stephen is killed for his faith, we read this:  “As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering every house, and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison.  Therefore those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the word” (Acts 8:3-4).

2.              But then when you skip down to Acts 8:14 you learn that the apostles stayed in Jerusalem-they were not scattered.

3.              What that means is that the spread of the Gospel outside of Jerusalem, as was promised by Jesus in Acts 1:8, happened not at the hands of the apostles (or preachers if you will), but at the hands of the Christians who were scattered.

4.              The same is true today – the Gospel will be spread to the people in your life when you spread it there – not when the preacher does.

VI.            VI.  Sixth, I Can’t Live Righteously For You.

A.             In 2 Peter 2:5 we are told that Noah was a preacher of righteousness – that means he taught people to live their lives in ways that God said was right.

1.              Yet, if you were here last Sunday when we studied through Genesis 5, you know that his grandfather, Methuselah, and his father, Lamech, were both unfaithful, and that Methuselah died in the year of the flood.

2.              So Methuselah and Lamech listened to Noah preach righteousness, yet neither one of them were faithful when God pronounced to Noah that a flood was coming, and Methuselah evidently had no plans to be on the ark with his grandson – the preacher of righteousness.

B.             I have a hard enough time living righteously myself, I certainly can’t do it for someone else.

CONCLUSION:

1.              1.  In conclusion let me offer the seventh thing that I can’t do as a preacher – I can’t make you go to heaven.

a.              In Romans 9:1-3 Paul writes these words:  “I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart.  For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh.”

b.              I know what that sorrow feels like.  I know the sorrow of trying to figure out what to say to convince someone that you care about to obey the Gospel, but failing.

c.              I know the sorrow of pleading with someone you care about, trying to get them to change the direction of life, but failing.

d.              I know the sorrow of having those that you love walking on the broad way that leads to destruction, but being unable to convince them to get on the narrow way that leads to life (Matt 7:13-14).

e.              I also know what it feels like with some in this congregation.  You don’t know how strongly I wish I could force people to go to heaven – even to force some who are here this very morning.

2.              2.  But, thankfully, the choice as to where you are going to spend eternity, as well as where I am going to spend eternity, is our own choice – no one else’s.  So all I can do is plead with you.

3.              3.  But I want you to listen to these words.  “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him” (Rom 5:8-9).

4.              4.  If that won’t cause you to choose heaven, I can’t do it for you.