In 1 Corinthians 3, Paul speaks to the church at Corinth once more about the divisions that are raging within the church. Some of the people are evidently not very pleased with his style of preaching, perhaps they weren’t “getting fed” and wanted more “meat” to their sermons.
Paul defends his preaching, however, by pointing out that he gave them what they needed even if it wasn’t exactly what they wanted.
But, I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh.
Oftentimes, what we want is not what we need. This is true in the sermons that we hear. We may often desire to have our ears tickled and our egos stroked, but more times than not, that is not what we need. We need to be challenged and changed. We need to be bathed in the word of God, even in those passages that we do not consider to be our favorites.
This is also true in the sermons we preach. We must preach what is needed, not what we want. We, as preachers and pastors, are tempted to preach flashy sermons with big words, bright illustrations, and scholarly exposition. None of those things are necessarily bad, but they may not be what is needed. We must preach the sermon that is needed, needed to help our people glorify God and enjoy him forever. Our people may respond best to farming illustrations instead of Tolkien quotes. Preach what is needed, not what you want.
And let us remember when we hear a sermon we do not like but we need or we preach the needed sermon instead of the one we wanted to preach…Jesus was the savior we needed, but he was not the Savior that the world wanted.
