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Why Preaching Matters
Why Preaching Matters
“How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? How will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good things.’” (Romans 10:14-15). As I sail through the sky on my way to Texas at 11,000 ft., I ponder the value of my task. A precious treasure in an earthen vessel (2 Cor. 4:7). A pure gold bar in a Tupperware container. How can I communicate such glory? I’ve seen my feet; they’re not very beautiful. Adam’s probably aren’t either. What gives our feet beauty is the powerful, soul-saving gospel message we bring to the world (Rom. 1:16) and the soul-equipping message we bring to the church (Eph. 4:15). In the book “Deep Preaching,” J. Kent Edwards nails the reason preaching will always matter.
“‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.’ The fundamental assumption of Scripture is that God is. The Bible does not try and prove God’s existence; it simply presents God as a reality—like dirt and air—and moves on. God is not presented as a debatable item; He just is. He looms over the lives of all humankind in the same way that Mount Everest towers over the Himalayan Mountains, and you cannot successfully navigate through the Bible—or life—without recognizing God’s presence. Our lives depend upon an awareness of God’s existence. When people live as if only the physical is real, they doom their lives to total failure.
To be ignorant of God’s existence is like residents of Vancouver Island being ignorant that they live surrounded by water. It is impossible to live successfully on an island without a conscious awareness that you are bounded by water. Ignorance is not bliss. It is the precursor to catastrophe. Without a knowledge of the water that surrounds them, it’s only a matter of time until an unknowing resident will blissfully drive their car into the Pacific Ocean and drown. The undeniable existence of the ocean demands that the island residents modify their lives.
The existence of God demands similar life-modifying decisions. But you cannot adjust for what you do not know. Successful living begins with a knowledge of the God who surrounds and permeates every element of our lives. God exists. He is the elephant in everyone’s room. And those who try to ignore Him will be crushed by His enormous reality. Without a knowledge of God, you will make monumentally stupid and fatal decisions. Like driving your life into the ocean. Or opening your soul to massive moral infections. It is impossible to live successfully without understanding that He exists. All those who try, fail. I preach because knowledge of God is the most important knowledge a person can have. People cannot live without it. They MUST learn about God.” (Edwards, p. 13).
