Chapter 3: Listen with Discernment

We’ve all experienced it—when a preacher reads a passage of Scripture and then proceeds to teach any number of correct or erroneous things that have nothing to do with the passage he just read. Unfortunately, this happens more often than we think. Many churchgoers don’t even realize it’s going on. They have not learned to practice discernment. In some churches, the Bible is not even opened. But even if it is, man-centered preaching is too often supplied to gatherings of churchgoers who aren’t asking the right questions. They should be asking: Is that really the mind of God? Is that really what the Bible teaches? Is that what the passage actually says? Has that verse been understood in its surrounding context? Has the preacher’s interpretation and message been proven by the Bible?

Let’s be honest. If you visit a new church in order to determine whether it might be a good place for you and your family to attend, and you walk in and ask the question: “Does this church teach the Bible?” No church member or leader is going to reply: “Oh no, we don’t teach the Bible here!” My point is that every evangelical church believes it teaches—and listens to—the truths of Scripture. No church would claim otherwise. So it’s not enough to simply trust the testimony of those who are in the church. You must do your own evaluation. You must be discerning.

The Apostle John gave the following command: “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God” (1 John 4:1). Jay Adams explains:

In 1 John 4:1 there is an exhortation to ‘test [the word for proving something to be genuine by means of testing] the spirits.’ As the passage continues, the test is applied to heretics in the early church who denied that Jesus Christ came in the flesh (verse 2,3). The test is doctrinal. There is no direction to consult your feelings about these persons or to expect any subjective prompts or checks. It is their teaching that must be examined. . . . The general test . . . is found in verse 6; ‘Whoever knows God listens to us, but whoever isn’t of God doesn’t listen to us. From this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.’ There is no other test. Either someone’s teaching matches the teaching of the apostles and the prophets (now found only in Scriptures) or else it is false.[1]

One example of this kind of discernment is found in Acts 17, where those Berean Jews who listened to Paul’s and Silas’s sermons are described as being “more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily, to see whether these things were so” (Acts 17:11). The discernment the Berean Jews displayed tells us they wanted to hear from God alone. They knew God’s Word was the measure by which sermons should be judged. Simply stated, if the preacher claims to be God’s spokesman, but teaches something not supported by Scripture, then he should be questioned—and sometimes silenced (Titus 1:10–11).

This means our sermon-listening cannot be passive. Listening to a sermon is not like watching a movie or a game of rugby. It requires active involvement, participation, and discernment. In his very helpful booklet on sermon-listening, Christopher Ash warns: “Listening ought to be an activity rather than a ‘passivity’. Unless we want to be brainwashed, we ought never to hear or watch anything without engaging our critical faculties.”[2] He continues: “We need to check that the preacher is actually using the only available authority, which is a borrowed authority that only comes from teaching what the Bible passage teaches. So, we need to listen carefully to the passage and ask whether what the preacher says is what the passage says.”[3]

The question to ask is: “Where did he get that from?” If the preacher can show he got it from the Bible, then we must humbly submit to the authority of the Word of God. But if not, then it’s just the opinion of one human being against another.[4]

This is what makes preaching a community affair. Everyone is involved. There’s a mutual accountability that comes in listening to a sermon in the context of a church. We’re all responsible to maintain the integrity of the pulpit. We help the preacher in that regard—we must be modern-day Bereans.

Second Timothy 2:15 says, “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the word of truth.” Don’t treat this instruction as if it only applies to preachers. All believers are responsible to handle God’s Word correctly. Thabiti Anyabwile writes:

If churches are to be healthy, then pastors and teachers must be committed to discovering the meaning of Scripture and allowing that meaning to drive the agenda with their congregations. There is an important corollary for every member of a local church. Just as the pastor’s preaching agenda should be determined by the meaning of Scripture, so too should the Christian’s listening agenda be driven by the meaning of Scripture.[5]

Now don’t get me wrong—I am not advocating that an immature or unregenerate congregation should dictate what happens in the pulpit. Martyn Lloyd Jones saw this sad practice in his day and lamented that sermons were being dumbed down to make listeners more comfortable.[6] This is a big problem in the church today, but I am not advocating that. I am simply showing that genuinely converted Christians in mature congregations ought to expect (and demand) that the preacher preaches the Bible accurately.

We need to check to see the preacher says what the passage says. We must listen with discernment. If we find that the preacher has indeed proclaimed God’s will and has proven the source of his message is God’s Word, then we are obliged to respond with action. Next week, I’ll show you that faith and obedience go hand in hand.

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[1] Jay E. Adams, A Call for Discernment: Distinguishing Truth from Error in Today’s Church (Woodruff, SC: Timeless Texts, 1998), 65.

[2] Christopher Ash, Listen Up!: A Practical Guide to Listening to Sermons (New Maiden, Surrey, England: The Good Book Company, 2009), 9.

[3] Ibid., 9–10.

[4] Ibid., 10.

[5] Thabiti M. Anyabwile, What Is a Healthy Church Member? (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2008), 19.

[6] Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Preaching and Preachers (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing, 1971), 122.

Chapter 2: Listen with Humility

David sat in the front row of church, directly in front of the pulpit, back straight, chin raised, arms crossed, smile inverted, and eyes defiant. He didn’t seem to enjoy church very much. His conversations never focused on the sermon. He never spoke of his personal walk with God. He didn’t engage in spiritual discussion.

Stephanie, on the other hand, was excited to get to church. She wanted to hear God speak. After the sermon, she always talked about what she had learned. She spoke of ways in which she could apply biblical principles. She asked her friends to pray for her and she offered to pray for them. There was a humility to her that allowed the preached Word of God to play a big part in her Christian experience.

Who are you more like—David or Stephanie?

The wonderful Welsh preacher, Martin Lloyd-Jones [1899–1981]—affectionately known as “The Doctor”—wrote, “If a man can listen to such a sermon without being touched or moved I take leave to query whether he is a Christian at all. It is inconceivable to me that a man who is a true believer can listen to a presentation of the exceeding sinfulness of sin and the glory of the Gospel, without being moved.”[1]

Humility is the trademark of a Christian. Since brokenness over sin is what drives a sinner to confession and to Christ for salvation, and since confession is the result of saying, “God you are right about my sin and I was wrong,” and since that attitude of self-correction and submission to God continues throughout a Christian’s life, then humility will be the heartbeat of every Christian. Humility means that we acknowledge we are not yet perfect—as Christ is perfect—and therefore we continually wash ourselves in God’s Word so that we may become more like Christ. That means that when we listen to a sermon, we do so wanting to be challenged—wanting to be transformed—wanting to be changed.

We don’t want to be like the lawyer who complained to Jesus saying, “Teacher, when You say this, You insult us too” (Luke 11:45). The lawyer’s words reveal a prideful heart that couldn’t stand the truth of Jesus’ message. He preferred an easier, less confrontational message. Paul also warned that a “time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths” (2 Tim 4:3–4). If we’re going to avoid this wrong response to preaching, then we need to cultivate a heart of humility—the same kind of humility that was required to become a believer in the first place.

James, the half-brother of Jesus, instructed believers: “Putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls” (Jas 1:21). How do you approach the sermon event in your context? Do you have an open heart that says, “I need correction. I need to learn God’s ways. I need to have my mind realigned to Christ’s mind. I am here to be changed”? That’s genuine humility.

There ought to be a longing for personal Christian growth—a willingness to say, “I’ve not yet arrived. I need to hear and heed this sermon in order to be more like Christ.” In doing so, we are living out the Apostle Peter’s instruction: “Like newborn babes, long for the pure milk of the word, that by it you may grow in respect to salvation” (1 Pet 2:2).

Martyn Lloyd-Jones wrote of the believer’s desire for the Word of God: “Wanting to listen to the Word is inevitable if men and women are born again and have become Christians. A babe does not understand, but he has an instinct for milk. He wants it! . . . He is alive and wants the mother’s milk, and rightly so.”[2] His point is clear: “One simply cannot be a Christian and have no desire for a knowledge of this truth—it is impossible.”[3]

Now, you may not listen to sermons like David does, with arms crossed or with an angry disposition, but maybe an indifference towards the sermon constitutes an equal amount of pride on your part. Indifference kills spiritual growth. That’s because genuine humility is not just the absence of anger toward the message or the preacher but also the presence of openness, transparency, and a willingness to engage in spiritual discussion after the sermon. Humility means that we will be attentive and responsive.

We ought to approach the sermon experience knowing that God's wisdom is infinitely better than ours. We admit that if left to ourselves, our minds become entangled with earthly concerns and worldly mindsets. We admit that our thinking often sinks to levels of foolishness, and we need God's wisdom to be preached to us, so that we can be reminded of God's will and design. The fact is that biblical preaching will assault our worldly passions and sinful practices and will challenge us to change.

Listening to that kind of preaching is hard, but we admit that God's Word is right.  It’s the best medicine for our souls. It’s what we need to hear. Don’t run away from biblical preaching. Run towards it. Run to that kind of preaching which calls you to repent and live in a counter-cultural way—a Christ-like way. Develop an insatiable appetite for preaching.

Next week I’ll explain how we must be careful listeners because not everything we hear from a pulpit is necessarily true. We need discernment.

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[1] D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Preaching and Preachers (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing, 1971), 150.

[2] D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Authentic Christianity (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2000), 105.

[3] Ibid., 106.

Chapter 1: Listen to God

When a preacher preaches, he must preach the Word of God (2 Tim 4:1–4). Unfortunately, we know that’s not always the way it goes. From the beginning of time, false teachers have taught their own ideas instead of God’s. Jesus confronted the Pharisees and scribes of His day, quoting the prophet Isaiah, saying, “This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far away from Me. But in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.” And the Lord added, “Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men" (Mark 7:6–8). False teachers are present throughout the entire New Testament. Sadly, in the book of Revelation, followers of Balaam, the Nicolaitans, and Jezebel were allowed by the churches in Pergamum and Thyatira to teach their false doctrine from inside the churches (Rev 2:14, 15, 20).

Today, there are so-called preachers who continue to neglect the Word of God and instead peddle self-help tips, moral lessons, ecstatic experiences, political and social agendas, pseudo-Christian practices, and health and wealth promises—none of which have anything to do with the gospel of Jesus Christ which is a message of reconciliation between man and God. At best, they are distracting, man-centered talks. At worst, they are damning heresies taught by wolves in sheep’s clothing.

There are of course many faithful preachers who have as their main goal the reading, interpretation, explanation, and application of the written Word of God. I trust you’ve settled into a gospel-centered church and submitted yourself to a pastor and church leadership who faithfully teach and preach the Scriptures each and every week. If your pastor is a faithful preacher of the Bible, your right response is to acknowledge that what you hear from his pulpit is in fact God’s Word, not just a man’s. In other words, when we listen to a sermon, we are not listening to the word of a man—we are listening to God Himself, through the agency of that man. Biblical preaching necessitates that we understand whose mind is actually being revealed—it is the “mind of Christ” (1 Cor 2:16).

Several months after preaching the gospel in Thessalonica, Paul wrote to the newly established church in that city. In that follow-up letter, the Apostle was constantly thanking God that when the Thessalonian believers received his message, they “accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God” (1 Thess 2:13). They didn’t dismiss Paul’s message as if it was his own manmade conception. They accepted his words as God’s words. We need to be like this when we go to church. Assuming our preacher’s goal is to correctly interpret and explain Scripture, then when we hear his sermons, we are listening to God’s Word not a man’s. We need to acknowledge this reality every Sunday.

Martin Luther comments:

My dear friend, regard it as a real treasure that God speaks into your physical ear. The only thing that detracts from this gift is our deficient knowledge of it. To be sure, I do hear the sermon; however, I am wont to ask: ‘Who is speaker?’ The pastor? By no means! You do not hear the pastor. Of course, the voice is his, but the words he employs are really spoken by my God. Therefore, I must hold the Word of God in high esteem that I may become an apt pupil of the Word. If we looked upon it as the Word of God, we would be glad to go to church, to listen to the sermon, and to pay attention to the precious Word.[1]

To be sure, Christians can and should have a steady intake of God’s Word in their personal Bible reading. We have the privilege of owning our own copy of God’s written Word, and we do well to saturate ourselves with it. James calls it looking “intently at the perfect law” (Jas 1:25). But personal Bible reading does not replace the exercise of listening to God’s gifted representatives when they preach His Word. There’s a dynamic in the preaching event that God has determined to be necessary for every Christian. That’s why preachers must preach God’s Word, and listeners must humbly listen and respond to it.

The Apostle Peter makes the case that believers “have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and abiding word of God” (1 Pet 1:23). He then explains, “The word of the Lord abides forever. And this is the word which was preached to you” (1 Pet 1:25). It’s through the faithful preaching of the eternal Word of God that sinners are regenerated. Something supernatural happens when the Word of God is preached. God is at work in that moment. Submitting ourselves to that preaching will have a life-changing effect on us because “the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Heb 4:12).

So, to avoid preaching—to relegate the preaching event to an optional extra—to regard our pastor’s words as simply his own, and not God’s—is to undermine the purposes of God. We must approach the sermon event expecting God to speak.

Not only should we anticipate God’s voice in the preaching event, but we should demand it from our preachers. We must provide the context and support for our pastor to prepare a message from God. First Peter 4:11 says, “Whoever speaks, let him speak, as it were, the utterances of God . . . so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ."

I graduated from a seminary that had one goal—to prepare men to preach God’s Word. For ten years, I was involved in a Bible college training program in New Zealand that did the same. We believed we were doing a good job of training preachers to minister the gospel to the unsaved and bring the Word of God to bear on the lives of Christians. But one thing we came to realize is that the supply of Bible preachers needs to be matched by a demand from listeners. If churches don’t want their pastors to preach God’s Word, those pastors will soon be out of a job. If a church doesn’t demand that their pastor preaches God’s Word then that pastor is not encouraged to do God’s will. Over time, that lack of support and accountability will bring about laziness in the pulpit. Instead, we must demand a message from God. The preaching event is the high point of our week. We need to hear from God. Our pastor must be encouraged to preach in this way. Oh, that more churches would say about their pastor:

Fling him into his office, tear the office sign from the door and nail on the sign: Study. Take him off the mailing list, lock him up with his books—get him all kinds of books—and his typewriter and his Bible. Slam him down on his knees before texts, broken hearts, the flippant lives of a superficial flock, and the Holy God. Force him to be the one man in our surfeited communities who knows about God. Throw him into the ring to box with God til he learns how short his arms are; engage him to wrestle with God all the night through. And let him come out only when he is bruised and beaten into being a blessing. . . . Shut his garrulous mouth forever spouting “remarks” and stop his tongue always tripping lightly over every nonessential. Require him to have something to say before he dares break silence. Bend his knees in the lonesome valley, fire him from the PTA and cancel his country club membership; burn his eyes with weary study, wreck his emotional poise with worry for God, and make him exchange his pious stance for a humble walk with God and man. Make him spend and be spent for the glory of God.

Rip out his telephone, burn up his ecclesiastical success sheets, refuse his glad hand, and put water in the gas tank of his community buggy. Give him a Bible and tie him to the pulpit and make him preach the Word of the living God. Test him, quiz him and examine him; humiliate him for his ignorance of things divine, and shame him for his glib comprehension of finances, batting averages, and political in-fighting. Laugh at his frustrated effort to play psychiatrist, scorn his insipid morality, refuse his supine intelligence, ignore his broadmindedness which is only flatheadedness and compel him to be a minister of the Word. . . .

Form a choir and raise a chant and haunt him with it night and day: “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” When at long last, he dares assay the pulpit, ask him if he has a word from God; if he does not, then dismiss him and tell him you can read the morning paper, digest the television commentaries, think through the day's superficial problems, manage the community's myriad drives, and bless assorted baked potatoes and green beans ad infinitum better than he can. Command him not to come back until he's read and re-read, written and re-written, until he can stand up, worn and forlorn, and say, “Thus saith the Lord.” Break him across the board of his ill-gotten popularity, smack him hard with his own prestige, corner him with questions about God, and cover him with demands for celestial wisdom, and give him no escape until he is backed against the wall of the Word; then sit down before him and listen to the only word he has left: God's Word. Let him be totally ignorant of the down-street gossip, but give him a chapter and order him to walk around it, camp on it, suffer with it, and come at last to speak it backwards and forwards until all he says about it rings with the truth of eternity. . . .

And when he is burned out by the flaming Word that coursed through him, when he is consumed at last by the fiery Grace blazing through him, and when he who was privileged to translate the truth of God to man is finally transferred from earth to heaven, then bear him away gently, blow a muted trumpet and lay him down softly, place a two-edged sword on his coffin and raise a tune triumphant, for he was a brave soldier of the Word and e’er he died he had become spokesman for his God.[2]

Encourage your pastor in this way. Develop this kind of appetite for the preaching of God’s Word in the church. The key is to anticipate that God’s voice would be heard from the pulpit. We must demand it both for ourselves and for our pastor’s sake.

But, as we will see next week, to be an effective listener, we also need to develop a humble heart.

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[1] Martin Luther, Sermons on the Gospel of St. John: Chapters 1–4, vol. 22 of Luther’s Works, ed. Jaroslav Pelikan (Saint Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 1957), 528.

[2] Floyd Doud Shafer, "And Preach as You Go!" Christianity Today 5, no. 13 (March 27, 1961): 8–9.

SECTION TWO: Sermon-Listening in the Bible

We cannot play at preaching. We preach for eternity.[1]

—Charles Haddon Spurgeon

If you agree with Spurgeon’s words above, then you will also agree that we cannot play at sermon-listening. We listen for eternity.

Some people talk about church activities such as preaching without making reference to the Bible. Don’t they know that God has something to say about these things? He created and ordained preaching. He also determined that people would listen to preaching. Surely then, He would provide instruction to both those who preach and those who listen? Indeed, He has.

The Bible says a lot about sermon-listening. The next few blog posts will summarize the responsibilities each and every Christian has before God whenever we listen to a sermon. Don’t be frightened by the word ‘responsibility.’ Embrace listening and responding to God’s Word as a privilege. We are blessed that God would reveal Himself to us in the pages of Scripture. There’s a joy in knowing that He wants to communicate with us. And, of course there are appropriate responses to God’s shared blessings. Call them responsibilities—call them privileges—but there are right ways to listen. What does God say about sermon-listening?

It’s not a subject we think about a lot. How do you listen to a sermon? Jesus said, “Take care how you listen” (Luke 8:18a). It’s a familiar Bible text, but maybe we too quickly assume that we’ve got it down. I mean, we keep going back to church, don’t we? Surely that means we inherently know what to do when we get there? But, how do we learn to be effective sermon-listeners? Do we just pick it up from others by osmosis? Are all Christians naturally good sermon-listeners?

Watching a television show or a movie is quite easy. You can zone out while the plot unfolds. The story pulls you through. Listening to a sermon is different. It takes sustained effort. It requires discipline. We need to put our brain into gear. We need to engage our cognitive skills. We need to open our hearts. Listening to a sermon requires preparation. It’s a skill that needs developing. It requires practice. It requires instruction. That’s where this blog come in.

Over the next few weeks, I will review what the Bible says about sermon-listening. Then, I will add some practical pointers on how to maximize your sermon-listening experiences as an individual.  These are going to be helpful and encouraging posts.  We’ll start next week with the first of four biblical sermon-listening principles.  Catch you then. . .

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[1] As cited in Steven J. Lawson, Famine in the Land (Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2003), 56.

Sermon-Listening Trends - Summary

Over the last ten posts, I’ve tried to show that we live in a world that reacts badly to authority—especially God’s authority. The fact that you’re still reading means that you are interested in knowing how to better submit to God’s authority manifested in the preaching of His Word and in the context of Christian fellowship. You probably already have a high expectation for your pastor; he must preach God’s Word; he must preach expositionally; he must be committed to the truth; he must preach with God’s authority. You don’t want to be entertained by the latest trends. You’re not interested in the latest wave of new ministry innovations. You want to hear from God! You want to be challenged and equipped to serve. You want to answer to God’s authority in humble submission with the help of fellow Christians. This blog is for you.

The digital explosion has brought with it significant societal shifts. Tim Challies correctly advises: “Our task is not to avoid technology but to carefully evaluate it, redeem it, and ensure that we are using it with the right motives and for the right goals.”[1] These introductory blog posts are not meant to be a complete evaluation of the new sermon-listening trends and church practices, but it is necessary to understand their past, present, and future impact upon church. Actually, this blog is not directly related to any of these trends, but rather a subsequent and related change. Let me explain.

We’ve all been subtly influenced by our culture and our world. Whether we’ve bought into any of the aforementioned trends or not, they have had an impact on our church-experience—maybe unknowingly. Think about it. How vital to you is your weekly sermon-listening experience in your local church? How essential is it that you are there to hear a Word from God delivered by your local pastor? Could you take it or leave it, knowing that you will still be spiritually fed from another source during the week? Maybe, that supplemental preacher is a better preacher? You don’t mind your pastor’s preaching, but there are superior preachers whom you have come to respect. From their library of sermon listings, you can even select the topic or passage that interests you. How great is that!?—a personalized study program just for you—just the way you like it. But you see, that’s the problem—it’s all about you. There’s no body-life in this scenario—no interaction with someone who is not under your control. Your mouse-clicking index finger is in control. “But,” you argue, “I’m involved in a good church. I attend faithfully every week.” Sure, but is that weekly worship experience at the heart of your spiritual life, growth, and sustenance? Are your spiritual inputs integrated with the local church, or are you looking elsewhere for that self-styled stimulation?

Today’s individualism has changed the way we listen to sermons even when we are in church. We’ve been so influenced by ideas of anonymous autonomy that even if we sit in a congregation, we are still alone. We might as well be at home viewing the service on a digital screen, in our car listening to a sermon on CD, sitting at the extension campus of a multi-site church, or hiding in the back row of a mega-church.

This blog is about the relationship between the sermon and fellowship. It will highlight biblical principles which will help you to navigate the trendy, virtual, digital, avatar-enamored, sermon-avoiding, church-hating, naively and ignorantly selfish world in which we live. Both the church and the sermon are under attack. Some people don’t want to endure a sermon. Some don’t want to endure the church. The Bible says we need both.

Next week, I’ll begin to explain principles from the Word of God on the importance of listening to sermons. For now, here are some discussion questions you might use with your friends this week . . .

• Think back over the past ten (or more) years. What changes have taken place in your sermon-listening convictions and practices, individually and corporately?
• Discuss the pros and cons of listening to sermons in community versus individual contexts.
• Some Christian resources supplement local church ministry. Some replace it. Discuss how you might be able to determine which does what.
• What is your current commitment to your local church? How are you pursuing genuine Christian fellowship?
• Are there ways you can better connect your sermon-listening experiences with Christian fellowship within your local church context?

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[1] Tim Challies, The Next Story: Life and Faith After the Digital Explosion (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing, 2011), 32.

Chapter 8: The Unknowable Pastor

One of the dangers of audio and video media, avatar projections, mega-churches, multi-site campuses, and conference attendance is the relational distance between the speaker and the listeners. Let’s be honest—we really don’t have a personal relationship with the popular preachers we’ve come to love. We kid ourselves if we think we know them. What kind of person are they really? Do we actually know? How do they treat their wives and children? Are they godly? Do they live a life that is consistent with their own teaching? What does their family look like? Do they have personal integrity?

The same questions ought to be asked of me. Do you really know me? Some of you do. Some of you don't. But, you see, that is my point. Resources like Christian books, blogs, CDs, and online downloads ought to be supplemental to your regular local church teaching and involvement where you can know your pastor and elders personally, not a replacement to them. The tricky side of printed and digital publication is that you cannot really know the one(s) who produced it. The author or speaker becomes your unknowable pastor. And yet, this is commonplace today.

Tim Challies warns:

There is a danger in relying on other people’s discernment and especially that of people we don’t know. The most natural context for discernment is the local church, where issues particular to a congregation can be dealt with. Those charged with discernment are known to be godly, discerning people. When we go looking to books and the Internet as our primary source of discernment, we risk being unduly influenced by people who are not discerning. We risk exposing ourselves to people who seek to destroy rather than edify, and who are, perhaps inadvertently, heaping scorn upon the church.[1]

Similarly, those popular authors and speakers don’t know you either. They don’t know your situation. How can they minister to your particular need and context? Some missionaries go out to their particular field only to mess things up because they weren’t aware of subtle cultural differences. Their words, their tone, their demeanor, their humor just didn’t go over—it was offensive—and as a result, the truth they were trying to communicate was lost in cultural translation—let alone language. The same happens when you divorce preaching from your local context. That super-preacher on the other side of the continent or on the other side of the globe will never be able to bring the Word of God to you with the same applicability as your local pastor who knows you because he’s been in your home.

And yet, we still have our preacher-preferences and still value the input from distant-theologians who add so much to our local church experience. That’s okay, but be careful that you still value the preaching which comes from your own pastor in your own backyard. He is the one who will confront you when you need it. He is the one who will encourage you when you’re down. Don’t take your pastor—a blessed gift from God—for granted. Learn from his preaching and his fellowship. He’s the one who can provide both.

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[1] Tim Challies, The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2007), 147.