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A sobering call to pastors, preachers, and teachers.

Wheelchair

Recently at the convalescent home where we conduct church services for the elderly, I was unable to attend and a dear brother gave the sermon in my absence. After the service one of the residents retired to her room with a headache. An hour later she was dead.

That woman’s last opportunity to hear the gospel came from this man’s lips who was filling in for me. That is a sobering realization.

Dear preacher, what would she have heard if that was you preaching that day? Another joke? Another cute little story about one of your camping trips? Another plea for money for the building fund? Another toot of the horn on how many kids attended your VBS?

People are dying every day and spending an eternity in Hell. It’s because of this very urgency I plead with you pastors, preachers, and teachers who are spending your time behind the pulpit telling humorous stories and telling jokes. STOP IT!

You never know who that person in your congregation is that will not return next week and instead will be standing before God. On that last Sunday before their death will they have heard the truth of the Word of God from you or your own self-edifying stories?

I am begging you, for the sake of the gospel, quit trying to please men and preach Christ and Him crucified! Quit planning all your parties, pic-nicks, and potlucks and preach the whole counsel of God!

There won’t be anyone in Hell laughing at your jokes. They will be cursing your name for your lack of courage.

By preaching your non-offensive, watered-down, gospel-light sermons on how to enjoy your life on earth (all 70 years of it) they will now spend an eternity in torment, suffering the very wrath of God that you refused to tell them was coming. Their best life now won’t seem so appealing to them then.

Turn from this false social gospel and begin preaching as a dying man to dying men!

Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in these things, for as you do this you will ensure salvation both for yourself and those who hear you.

1 Timothy 4:16

See also: Thank you. An open letter to faithful pastors.

5 thoughts on “A sobering call to pastors, preachers, and teachers.”

  1. Excellent and timely!

    Speaking the truth about Christ’s hard demands and preaching the whole uncompromised counsel of God is the very essence of “speaking the truth love”, anything less is hate.

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  3. I agree with Coram.

    Here in Omaha where I am from we have nothing but pastors such as Curt Dodd and Steve Moltumyr and Scott Shreve and Mark Zehnder to name a few pastors that anger me for their actions

    who preach nothing but watered down sermons and are more obsessed with parties, pic-nicks, and potlucks or auto shows to even care about the lost.

    The lost are still dying in Omaha and all the pastors in Omaha Nebraska seem to care about is acting like Joel Osteen clones and I am sick of it

    and I wish the pastors herewould start preaching the gospel and wintessing to the lost

    instead of being obsessed with parties, pic-nicks, and potlucks or auto shows

    and:

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  4. Woe unto us if we preach not the cross of Christ – and all the entire counsel of God. Lord, help us (and especially me) stay faithful till the day we breathe our last on this earth!

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  5. “I take whatever particular text I am in, and I make a beeline for the cross.”–Charles H. Spurgeon. I take this particular quote to heart in preparing every week.

    Then, I keep this thought in mind: If this is the only sermon someone in the audience will ever hear, what would I want them to hear? A stupid joke? A funny story? Or how they are lost in their sins, without hope apart from Christ, and in desparate need of His blood for their salvation?

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