September 26

Written by Bill Grandi on September 26th, 2019

My title for this devotion is Preaching Myself vs Preaching Christ.

If you have had a chance to read my other blog you can read between the lines and see I’ve been asking myself about my role, my purpose, as a pastor. Even though I am 66 and in less than two weeks will turn 67, I still love what I do and do not see retirement on the horizon any time soon. So I think its healthy to ask questions and do introspection upon occasion. Guilty as charged. You’ve caught me voicing my questions.

I’m reading Job right now, which can be a challenge on its own. 🙂  But I’m also reading Remaining Faithful in Ministry by John MacArthur. The following quote from his short little book caught my attention this morning. In the Introduction he wrote these words:

The gospel is a message about Jesus, and at all times He is to be the singular focus of the message we proclaim. False apostles and hirelings always seem to find a way to shift attention to the themselves. They make themselves the central character of every anecdote. They point themselves as the hero of every story they tell. Thus they make their preaching little more than a display of their own egos. Pulpits today are full of men who constantly preach themselves. (p.15)

Ouch! That is a rather sobering and scathing observation and rebuke. Sadly, it is true. I wish I could say I was innocent of that. I shudder when I think about how often I preached and it was more about my ego, my impressiveness, than it was Him and the fame of His Name. That’s enough to give even the most hardy person nightmares. I know I cringe when I reflect back over my years of ministry. Ugly.

But its not too late! With what remaining years I have left it needs to be all about Him. What about you?

“Father, my prayers this morning is for my life to be all about You. My preaching. My teaching. My talking. My laughing. All about You and the fame of Your Name.”

 

3 Comments so far ↓

  1. Crystal says:

    Been thinking about that a lot lately. Where is my focus? What is my “why”? I am only in mid-life yet but I am also not 20 anymore. Easy to get hung up on regrets – but then I loose sight of the now and the future. Easy too to hear all the clammering voices of those around who are not Christ followers, the voices of the media, the voices of the enemy of our souls – then I find myself with “clouded me/now vision” and my choices begin to reflect the “pride of life”, etc. I long for 20/20 vision and the courage of Paul to journey the rest of my life with eternity in view.

  2. It’s all too easy to allow ego to trip us up, Bill. We need to recommit ourselves daily in service to Jesus.
    Blessings!

  3. floyd says:

    I respect that you still strive to learn and gain wisdom for the sake of The kingdom. Again, way to lead by example!