If one day God grants me to have children, one thing I look forward to is reading to them. Children love stories. Let's say one night I read them Green Eggs and Ham. They know the story from beginning to end, since it's rather short. But let's say they want to hear it again the next night...imagine if I continued reading them the book, not from cover to cover, but rather I told them topics that the book brings up and use parts to show how it fits. And imagine I did this every single time they wanted to hear it...they would be bored after awhile, and would soon just say, "Daddy, let me just the read it myself."
Unfortunately, in our time, most preaching our day has become simply topical--taking an idea, and then just going to the Bible to prove it. Now, is there anything wrong with this method? No, because if a pastor wants to talk about prayer, he can go to various scriptures to talk about it. But, what's become of our day is taking this method to the extreme...in some churches this method happens every single Sunday--and just like my little example in the beginning, I believe it eventually just bores the listeners.
In his autobiography, George Muller said "The expounding of the Scriptures is in general more beneficial to the hearers than if, on a single verse, or half a verse, or two or three words of a verse some remarks are made, so that the portion of Scripture is scarcely anything but a motto for the subject." Here's what I'm trying to get at:
I heard a pastor in Georgia use 1 Corinthians 2:9 as his text for the sermon "But, as it is written, 'What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him.'" And he used this text to talk about why we should be passionate about life. Now, go and read all of 1 Corinthians 2--you will not find Paul talking about why we should be passionate about life--but you will find Paul discussing the work of the Spirit:
- verses 1-5: Paul is telling them he didn't preach to them with eloquent speech to try and seduce them into believing the Gospel, but it was the Holy Spirit speaking through him.
- verses 6-16: Paul explains the wisdom that comes from the Spirit. Christians gain understanding, wisdom, and are led by God through the work of the Spirit. Those who aren't Christians do not have the Holy Spirit, and thus cannot understand the things of God.
Now how in the world does a pastor think he can he get his congregation passionate about life, yet use the Bible incorrectly to do so? Everything in me wanted to go up to the pastor and explain why I believe he misused the Scriptures...but I think I was too hot-headed at that particular moment and didn't want to say anything I'd regret and/or hurt a fellow brother. But this type of preaching is just wrong, and this is when topical preaching is too relaxing.
Preachers, please refrain from this and look at every verse in context to make sure that you are applying them correctly. Everyone else, be on guard to make sure what you're hearing from the pulpit is actually biblical. Acts 17 records a particular people group, Bereans, examining the Scriptures to see if Paul and Silas were teaching correctly. Let us all have the mindset of the Bereans.
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