A lady in a former church once said, “Craig, you think out loud.” I don’t think of myself as an intimidating person. In fact, I like to think that I’m a pretty fun guy. However, the way that I view myself and the way that others perceive me isn’t always reality. I don’t hide my emotions well. My wife sat behind me during a contentious meeting one time and said that she could read my mind by looking at the back of my head. In other words, my tone, my body language, and my facial expressions often communicate things that I don’t want communicated.
There have even been times when people have interpreted my response to particular situations as angry when I was actually broken-hearted.
PREACH WITH CARE AND CONCERN
Obviously, these miscommunications can be a problem in many settings, but nowhere are they more troubling than in my preaching. Preaching is a long and arduous process, and I’m not speaking only of the work of preparation for each sermon or the time spent in the pulpit each week. Preaching for change in individual lives and in the life of a church is a years-long process of starts and stops. At times, it seems that every step forward is followed by two steps back. Pastors can be broken-hearted by the realization that the preaching often falls on deaf ears, and frustrated when the teachings that seem to be most common-sense and necessary are not followed.
In these times of annoyance, it can be very easy to preach out of frustration instead of care and concern. I know from experience. In a sermon on tithing, for instance, I once referred to church members who didn’t tithe as “stingy jerks” who were robbing God.
But, God has called us to the ministry of Jesus who cared for the sick and the hurting. He brought the outcast in and made the unclean whole. The people to whom you preach often return to their sin as a dog does to his own vomit, but they don’t normally do it out of spite. They are sheep who have been separated from the hope of the good shepherd. There is a time for rebuke and correction, but there is also a time to preach with tenderness and compassion.
HOPE FOR THE HURTING
One of my favorite salvation stories came from a sweet woman who was brought to our church by a neighbor. After visiting in our services for several weeks and getting to know other folks in our church, she was ready to receive Christ as her Lord. I sat down with her as she wiped her tears and prayed to receive Christ. She sobbed with joy and conviction, but her refrain is one that I can’t get out of my mind,
I don’t know all of the details of her past life, but I know that she had lived far from Jesus. I know that her sin had ravaged her body and her life. She was estranged from many friends and family members. She had limped into our church captive to the enemy. Her soul was emaciated by sin and hard living.
She didn’t need a pastor to beat her down. She was low enough already. She needed the tender words of her Savior, “Come to me, all who are weary, and I will give you rest.” She needed to know that there was forgiveness and hope. She needed to drink of the living water of Jesus Christ.
AN EYE TOWARD THE BROKEN
We must preach with the broken in mind. There are prideful men and women in every congregation that need to hear the stinging words of rebuke directed toward Pharisees, but there are also men who have been destroyed by demons and women who have been abused by men. Jesus met a woman by a well in Samaria.
She was an outcast who bounced from house to house. We don’t know her whole story, but it is possible that in our day and time she might be known by a different term: abuse survivoror even trafficking victim. We know is that as Jesus looked at this woman, he saw something different than everyone else who looked at her.
Jesus saw her as a broken person in need of a savior. He didn’t paper over her sin as though it didn’t exist, but he didn’t discount her struggles and pain either. Jesus was honest and forthright, but he was compassionate and kind. He preached the gospel to her with tenderness and compassion. The Shepherd of Israel found a wayward sheep and lovingly brought her into the fold.
Does your preaching offer hope springing up from the eternal well of Jesus’s living water? Are you careful to select texts that speak to the hope and joy found in Jesus? Do you work to craft not only your words, but your tone and body language to speak with compassion, joy, and hope?
It has been said that the church is the only organization in the world that shoots her own wounded. In Isaiah 42:3, one of the prophecies given about the Messiah is this, “A bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice.”
Our preaching must be filled with more than fire and brimstone, it must overflow with the message of Christ who ministered carefully with many of the most broken people in his society. From tax collectors to prostitutes to lepers, Jesus was seen mingling with the untouchable and the outcast. He was a friend to sinners who saved his most stinging rebukes for the religious leaders of his day.
A LESSON FROM JESUS
In fact, it was precisely those religious leaders who seemed to work most diligently to separate society from the unclean. But Jesus was different. He didn’t see lost causes, he saw image-bearers of God in need of make-overs. He saw prisoners of sin in need of a rescue. He saw sheep without a shepherd. And, he invited them to his banqueting table. One of his parables illustrates this story well.
Jesus was invited to eat with a ruler of the Pharisees one time and shared a story about a great banquet. Speaking to the Pharisees (who were obviously invited to the blessing of Jesus’s arrival), he told how all who had been invited created excuse after excuse to explain why they could not attend the banquet. Angry at their absence, the master of the house sent his servant into the streets with this command, “bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame” (Luke 14:21). Why were they invited? “that my house may be filled” (Luke 14:23).
What a person is or has been is of little regard when compared with what he may become in Christ. Jesus sees the poor, crippled, blind, and lame of the world and has compassion. But he doesn’t just feel bad for these people, he offers them salvation and a place in his Father’s house. So too must we see the hurting around us and offer them hope and peace.
The gospel of Jesus is given not only to save people from their sins, Jesus died to rescue people even from the sins that have been committed against them. He is the savior for all, and our preaching must be tender preaching for all people.
HOPE IN THE HARD TIMES
Early in my ministry I served on staff in two small Southern Baptist Churches. One Saturday night was called on to go to the hospital late. My pastor was on his way back from vacation and asked me to go sit with the elderly husband of a faithful church member who was dying. About 1:00 in the morning, the doors to the waiting area flew open and my pastor walked in wearing a jacket and tie. He ignored me and moved quickly toward Mr. Walter who stood and embraced his pastor and wept.
I learned a lot in that moment. I had been with that family for several hours, but I had not offered the ministry that my pastor offered in just one minute. This man was hurting and scared. He needed comfort and consolation, and he knew that it could be found with his pastor. My pastor didn’t quench this weakly burning flame. He went to his hurting people and loved them in the name of Jesus.
He didn’t preach with words that night, but his actions spoke loudly. He was tender and compassionate. Even with the smell of death lingering in that waiting room, this pastor brought life and the hope of Jesus. I pray that your sermons do the same.
