Jump to content
  • Welcome Guest

    For an ad free experience on Online Baptist, Please login or register for free

Preaching Preference


...

Recommended Posts

  • Members
8 minutes ago, Jim_Alaska said:

I prefer preaching inspired by The Holy Spirit and at the instigation of The Spirit. Preaching at the preference of either a pastor or the hearers whims can be left out as far as I am concerned.

Forgive me; I think my question was worded inappropriately.  My intention was not to inquire about preaching preference like a preference of ice cream flavor. What I should have asked was if people embrace preaching if it is hard and admonishing or if they avoid such preaching in favor of preaching that comes across less harshly. 

The reason for my inquiry is because I am having a difficult time finding a church with a preacher that will issue admonishments; in general as well as to the members when it is needed.  It makes me wonder if I am looking for something that no longer exists.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Moderators

They exist - although they may not look exactly as you think they might. My pastor will warn when necessary, and will speak to members (privately), but he is very meek and gentle and will work to encourage and redirect as much as possible before directly admonishing (if that makes sense?). He won't bang people over the head, so to speak, and his preaching is not generally what one might consider 'hell fire & brimstone' (it is in content, but not in volume). He speaks hard truths gently, so as not to wound those for whom one must 'make a difference', and will work hard and long to bring back the hard hearted before being 'tough' with them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

God can use even the simplest of preacher.  The conversion of Spurgeon in his own words.

Charles SpurgeonC. H. Spurgeon, of the Metropolitan Tabernacle, London, was born at Kelvedon, Essex, in 1834; converted Jan., 1850, at the age of 15, at Colchester; gave his first Gospel address at Faversham when he was 16, and for thirty years declared almost weekly, to audiences numbering five or six thousand, the glorious Gospel of the blessed God; millions of his sermons have been scattered in all parts of the world. He quietly passed from Mentone to Heaven, Sunday, January 31, 1892.

Would you like to know how such a man got saved? Here is his own description of it:

"I sometimes think I might have been in darkness and despair now, had it not been for the goodness of God in sending a snowstorm one Sunday morning, when I was going to a place of worship. When I could go no further, I turned down a court and came to a little Primitive Methodist Chapel. In that chapel there might be a dozen or fifteen people. The minister did not come that morning: snowed up, I suppose. A poor man, a shoemaker, a tailor, or something of that sort, went up into the pulpit to preach. He was obliged to stick to his text, for the simple reason that he had nothing else to say. The text was, 'Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.' He did not even pronounce the words rightly, but that did not matter.

"There was, I thought, a glimpse of hope for me in the text. He began thus: 'My dear friends, this is a very simple text indeed. It says, "Look." Now that does not take a deal of effort. It ain't lifting your foot or your finger; it is just "look." Well, a man need not go to college to learn to look. You may be the biggest fool, and yet you can look. A man need not be worth a thousand a year to look. Anyone can look; a child can look. But this is what the text says. Then it says, "Look unto Me." 'Ay,' said he, in broad Essex, 'many of ye are looking to yourselves. No use looking there. You'll never find comfort in yourselves.' Then the good man followed up his text in this way: 'Look unto Me: I am sweating great drops of blood. Look unto Me; I am hanging on the Cross. Look: I am dead and buried. Look unto Me; I rise again. Look unto Me; I ascend; I am sitting at the Father's right hand. O, look to Me! Look to Me!' When he had got about that length, and managed to spin out ten minutes, he was at the length of his tether.

"Then he looked at me under the gallery, and I daresay, with so few present, he knew me to be a stranger. He then said, 'Young man, you look very miserable.' Well, I did; but I had not been accustomed to have remarks made on my personal appearance from the pulpit before. However, it was a good blow struck. He continued: 'And you will always be miserable — miserable in life and miserable in death — if you do not obey my text. But if you obey now, this moment, you will be saved.'

"Then he shouted, as only a Primitive Methodist can, 'Young man, look to Jesus Christ.' There and then the cloud was gone, the darkness had rolled away, and that moment I saw the sun; and I could have risen that moment and sung with the most enthusiastic of them of the Precious Blood of Christ."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

The morning I got saved, the title of the message was "The Lord is my Shepherd".  Bro. Billy Parsons spoke with tears in his eyes and a choked up voice. He never got loud or red-faced. It's impossible to be real if one is full of self, instead of the Holy Ghost. I made a beeline for the altar and gave my heart to Jesus.

Edited by heartstrings
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...
  • Members

I don't think fire and brimstone is the way to get someone to see the love that God had so much for us. From experience, people that tend to 'get saved' by being scared to death, tend to 'git themselves saved' then run on into the world 'safe' because they 'called upon the name of the Lord' and are set for life, no matter what lifestyle they then choose. I know they didn't get saved, but they are now set in steel, steel that nobody can bend. The fire and brimstone melted their need away.

But that's from my experience, you may see otherwise.

Also, are there any fire and brimstone sermons from the disciples or the Lord Jesus?

Edited by Genevanpreacher
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Unless I've misunderstood your meaning...there is no "set" circumstance.

What is one part of the gospel?

That Christ died for sinners.

What is the end result for being a sinner?

Eternity in the lake of fire.

Fire and brimstone will bring some to Christ, while a "still small voice" or the love of God may bring others. "Fire and brimstone" de facto is the end result; therefore, it is part of bringing others to Christ...and a truth that shouldn't be shunned.

Not to rely upon a worldly example, but "for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction". Accept Christ as Savior = saved and joy. Reject Christ as Savior = unsaved and burn.

I've heard sermons about the fallacy of using fear to bring others to Christ. My word...people should fear! When the Holy Spirit reveals to them the truth of God's word, many will fear and tremble...while realizing the love that God has bestowed upon a world that doesn't deserve it.

Edited by No Nicolaitans
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members
24 minutes ago, Genevanpreacher said:

I don't think fire and brimstone is the way to get someone to see the love that God had so much for us. From experience, people that tend to 'get saved' by being scared to death, tend to 'git themselves saved' then run on into the world 'safe' because they 'called upon the name of the Lord' and are set for life, no matter what lifestyle they then choose. I know they didn't get saved, but they are now set in steel, steel that nobody can bend. The fire and brimstone melted their need away.

But that's from my experience, you may see otherwise.

Also, are there any fire and brimstone sermons from the disciples or the Lord Jesus?

The exact opposite is true in my experience and that of our Lord. I have never met anyone truly convicted (scared to death) from the real Gospel that did not follow the Lord in Baptism and service. "But i forewarn you whom ye shall FEAR: FEAR HIM, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into HELL; yea, I say unto you, FEAR HIM".

Without FEAR there is no salvation.

Jesus preached on condemnation and hell more than any other single topic and He commanded us to preach to the same. So don't for one second believe the apostasy that claims the disciples did not preach condemnation and hell. Try Acts and Romans for condemnation and hell.

Once again, there is no Gospel without condemnation and hell.

Anyone who speaks differently is more often than not a tare spreading the same false "gospel" they were "saved" by.

So GP, what were you saved from?

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.



×
×
  • Create New...