I read a sentence the other day that unsettled me a bit. I don’t remember much about the context, I just remember that it was a man ranting about how what we need in our day is God-inspired preaching. That caused me to pause because I’ve never considered my sermons to be inspired.
I suppose some of it has to do with what exactly one means by being inspired. Do you mean that what we need are sermons which are influenced by our study of God’s Word and the way in which the Spirit works on the soul of the preacher? If so, then yes. We need sermons which are “logic on fire”. We need sermons which are forged in the furnace of not only rigorous sermon prep but also time spent wrestling with God.
But there is another way in which I’ve heard preachers and congregants speak which makes me all together uncomfortable. They speak of inspiration almost on par with the Scriptures. “God gave me a word”. Or they’ll say, “God told me to preach this particular thing”. As if this sermon is also “God-breathed”.
We should not limit God anymore than He has limited Himself, certainly he can communicate to the preacher the way in which he desires the preacher to communicate His unchanging Word. In fact, I certainly hope the sovereign Lord of the universe is directing the steps of my feeble mind and hands on a weekly basis. But I dare not speak as if my sermon is on par with Holy Scripture.
Consider what we are saying if we believe the sermon is inspired in the same way that Scripture is. I’d be saying that my shelf of Puritan Paperbacks (old sermons written by Puritans) are on about the same level as the Scriptures. Ah, the Puritans themselves would be rolling in their graves if they heard such talk. We are men. Weak and feeble men, pointing to a majestic and holy God. In as much as we stay true to the Scriptures then we are being faithful and the Spirit will often attend our work and shine a light on the glorious savior. But inspiration? Inspiration on par with Scriptures? I cannot go there.
God does not contradict himself. Preachers do. I’ve preached sermons which came from my heart. And they were terrible. Not in a “boy, that wasn’t eloquent” type of terrible but a “boy, I’m going to hate to stand before God with that one”. I passionately said things which either weren’t true in themselves or weren’t applicable in the given situation. At the moment I really felt they were driven by the Spirit and my time in God’s Word. Now, I wouldn’t want to lay that blame at the Lord’s feet.
There needs to be a way in which we responsibly speak about what we are doing on Sunday morning. A way in which we are honest about the way the Spirit at times really does take over—and we really do have this thing called unction. But we also need to be honest with the fact that on occasion we are just rambling about. Our words should never bind the conscience of our hearers but the Word of the Lord always does.
Here, then, is how I would answer the question. My sermons are not inspired but the Word of God which I am hopefully expositing is inspired. Therefore, in as much as I am faithful to God’s Word you can walk out of that sermon believing that God has indeed spoken to you—and he did it through the work of a feeble man, whom the Spirit decided to use as an instrument to help shine a light on the glory and wonder of Jesus. But there are also times when I’m just a preacher who isn’t preaching but merely talking. In those dastardly moments when something becomes about me—I’m not preaching, I’m speaking. And in those moments you aren’t getting some “new word” the Spirit has given to this preacher, you are getting ripped off.
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