“Keep one thing in view forever- the truth; and if you do this, though it may seem to lead you away from the opinion of men, it will assuredly conduct you to the throne of God.”
— Horace Mann
This is so true. We think because a man has graduated from seminary that he is the authority when he speaks to us from the pulpit. But I heard once that treasury agents learn to spot counterfeit money, not by looking at the bad bills, but by studying the real thing.
You can't know if you are being "fed" sermons that may have started out wonderful but the longer you listen, the more uncomfortable you are with the whole sermon. But, if you study the word for yourself, you will be able to discern truths of man vs. God's truth. (And this can only happen if you believe the Bible as God's inerrant truths.) Press on.
Amen! This is so true! My husband and I are in youth ministry. We've been at our current church for a year. We like the minister, however, his sermons are just weak, and we catch errors all the time, things that either came out the wrong way, or were wrong all together. The congregation holds him in high esteem, and I think for the most part, they take his sermons hook, line, and sinker.
ReplyDeleteHere's the thing. We've been here for a year, and my husband has not preached once. Our minister holds that you have to have attended seminary to preach or, you have to be an elder. Truth is, my husband did go to bible college for 6 years, though it wasn't seminary. We've been in other churches, and of course you dont have to have a seminary degree. Although its strongly encouraged if you're taking a full time pulpit position. We determined after talking to the elders that our minister is insecure in his preaching, and knows it! He knows that from time to time his sermons aren't life changing, but just something he threw together. And he fears that someone else will do better. My husband's not pushing things, just praying that God will give him the opportunity to preach when the time comes.
We dont see it as a competition. But of course we're concerned that here's a man who has the right degrees, the right experience, and everyone deeply respects his preaching because they haven't studied the Bible enough on their own to know the difference. Meanwhile every Sunday we're frustrated by his sermons either because of subtle doctrinal mistakes, or because his message is irrelevant to life and lacks any sort of form or organization. We're not in a position to say anything, and so we just sit quietly. What a shame!
So I agree with you completely. If you dont know what you stand for, you're gonna fall for anything, and just because someone seems "qualified" doesn't mean that you're lazy and you just let him tell you what God's all about. That's why its a personal relationship with God.