I stood beside a grave at a committal service on a cold December day. I looked at the family and realized that one of two things was true: I was about to tell fairy tales to people in one of their most difficult moments, or I was about to speak the most profound truths.
I began to read Scripture. “Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die’” (John 11:25-26).
You can cling to words like these. They give us truths you can’t find anywhere else, truths that help us trust God in life’s greatest trials.
The Bible is a practical book. Proverbs, for instance, offers counsel on all kind of practical issues. Scripture speaks to our relationships, our work, and more.
But the Bible is not primarily a book that offers practical advice on how to live. It’s a book about God. “God reveals Himself in the Scriptures,” writes Haddon Robinson. “The Bible, therefore, isn’t a textbook about ethics or a manual on how to solve personal problems. The Bible is a book about God. When you study a biblical text, therefore, you should ask, ‘What is the vision of God in this passage?’ God is always there. Look for Him…”
We should give practical application, but what people need more is something the world can’t match: an encounter with God. The world gives us tips on managing stress, leadership principles, and political commentary. Scripture offers us something we need more: God himself.
The world can give us tips on managing stress, leadership principles, and political commentary. Scripture offers us something we need more: God himself.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones was one of the greatest preachers of the last century. When he became ill, he had “the opportunity, and the privilege, of listening to others” instead of preaching himself.
Reflecting on the sermons he heard, Lloyd-Jones said:
“As I have listened in physical weakness this is the thing I have looked for and longed for and desired. I can forgive a man for a bad sermon, I can forgive the preacher almost anything if he gives me a sense of God, if he gives me something for my soul, if he gives me the sense that, though he is inadequate himself, he is handling something which is very great and very glorious, if he gives me some dim glimpse of the majesty and the glory of God, the love of Christ my Saviour, and the magnificence of the Gospel. If he does that I am his debtor, and I am profoundly grateful to him.”
That is the kind of preaching we need.
“Preaching is the most amazing, and the most thrilling activity that one can ever be engaged in,” Lloyd-Jones continued, “because of all that it holds out for all of us in the present, and because of the glorious endless possibilities in an eternal future.”
If you’re a preacher, don’t settle for the kind of advice the world can give. We’ve had enough of that. We don’t need more life hacks or leadership principles. Be practical, but aim for more.
Give people truths that will sustain them when facing death. Give them a vision of God. Help people encounter him and the gospel. Give them something great and glorious they can’t find anywhere else.
