Canned Sermons

“Have you understood all this?” They answered, “Yes.” And he said to them, “Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.” When Jesus had finished these parables, he left that place.   (Matthew 13:51-53)

The scribe or preacher has been entrusted by God to be good stewards of his treasure, which is the inspired Word of God recorded in scripture. The preacher must bring out new understandings of the Word without losing any truths of the Word that have been taught before. The breadth and depth of God’s Word are without limits.

How does a preacher fulfill the task that God has called him to do when the preacher merely resurrects old sermons that he or she once preached? A lazy preacher is unwilling to do the study and prayer time required to preach and teach a fresh word from God. When this happens the congregation is being cheated. When the Word of God is no longer interesting or exciting, Satan can fill-in the gap with his own brand of excitement.

It is a terrible thing to twist the Word of God for our own purposes as does Satan. What is almost as bad is the neglect of the requisite steps which ensure that the Word is preached faithfully with power and authority.

Once when the apostles were imprisoned, an angel of the Lord released them at night and gave them this instruction:

“Go, stand and speak to the people in the temple the whole message of this Life.” Upon hearing this, they entered into the temple about daybreak and began to teach.   (Acts 5:20)