Falling On Deaf Ears? Why So Many Churches Hear So Little of the Bible

[Yahshua]

“It is well and good for the preacher to base his sermon on the Bible, but he better get to something relevant pretty quickly, or we start mentally to check out.”

Cutting down on the number of Bible verses “would save time and, it was strongly implied, would better hold people’s interest.”


Don’t spend a lot of time in the Bible, we tell our preachers, but be sure to get to personal illustrations, examples from daily life, and most importantly, an application that we can use.


.............many congregations expect the preacher to start from some text in the Bible, but then quickly move on “to things that really interest us.” Like . . . ourselves?




How can so many of today’s churches demonstrate what can only be described as an impatience with the Word of God?



In the end, an impatience with the Word of God can be explained only by an impatience with God



LINK

Good OP.

The flesh will ALWAYS have enmity with God. The proof is in the fruit of the mouth.

Matthew 15:18

But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man

Luke 6:45

A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.

What people often say proves what's in their hearts.

I can honestly say this was me in my early years....until the seed of Christ started taking root and springing from this carcass/soil. Now I'm addicted and study on my own; not waiting for a sermon.

 

[RedTent]

I think the "just teach Jesus and Him crucified" is pious sounding without piousness. We are to learn and grow. What does Jesus mean in the spiritual realm? Who created us and the world? What does sin have to do with us, how does Jesus enter into our understanding of this?

We are told in scripture that at first we get milk, but then we need to progress to food. Church needs to do this, and also explain what it means by spiritual milk and spiritual food.

Many of our churches are still giving the milk, saying everything is in the word "only". It is "only" faith. It is "only" grace, it is "only" through the spirit. They need to give us all of scripture, and each Christian needs to dig and dig in scripture until they get rid of the "only" and find the whole story.

 

[Cobus]

Crossie, would you say your church has no division? Is there no heresies in your church? I have prooved many times your doctrine to be in great error. So if there is even one person like me in your church, there is already division. And that is why I said, that the church in Corinthians and your church are EXACTLY the same. This church here in CC are exactly the same...

Some in this church have the Truth and they live it, obey it, and preach it, but the division is still there.... WHY? ... The ones that do not want to be UNITED IN TRUTH.... UNITED IN FAITH... ARE STUBBORN and the TRUTH PREACHERS WILL BE MANIFEST amongst us...

There is not a single concept in error in what I preach, and I am still to be reproofed with the Word of God. NOT ONE reproof came my way from the Word of God, NOT ONE....

Every reproof I gave you was cpoied and pasted from e-sword. Every false statement you made I reproofed from God's Word. I have NEVER reproofed with my doctrine but with God's Word. I know the Word of God as good as God wants me to know it. He is the One that taught me His Word. AND ONLY HIM... I went into 14 years solatary isolation with ONLY the Word of God, and the repenting heart to GOD....

Jesus said COME TO ME.... I DID! I did try human churches, PLENTY. Some of them the sin was running before them, others you had to scratch a bit deeper... but they were ALL AT FLAW.... I just wonder how long I will sit in your church before i will see the SIN IN YOUR CHURCH? Oh when it comes to the LIGHT, the WORD of God, the FALSE DOCTRINE...(SIN INCLUDED) quickly shows up. And when I see it as GOD REVEALS IT, I CANNOT keep my peace.... If I do, I will be ASHAMED! I do not, EVER keep my quiet, when the Spirit give utterance.... NEVER.

God says.... REBUKE WITH ALL AUTHORITY... AND HE DOES.... Oh it lands me in many persecutions, but then it is still TRUTH. And God will NOT be silenced....

Do you know why a TRUTH preacher REBUKE WITH AUTHORITY? He LOVES GOD AND TRUTH AND HOLINESS.... If I love God, how can I love sin? If I love God, how can I hate a sinner? God loves the sinner, but HE ABSOLUTELY HATES HIS SIN. So why would God not TAKE THE SIN AWAY FROM THE SINNER, IF THE SINNER WANTS TO BE WITH GOD?

And now, if God did take away the sin, burnt it in a FIRE BAPTISM TO NOTHING, and then HE BAPTIZE THE SINNER TO BE A PERFECT HOLY TRUTH PREACHER.... WHY would god not send that sinner to save more sinners? Is that not what God is about?

Jesus being preached by Jesus? If God sends a Holy Spirit filled to the brim TRUTH PREACHER to REBUKE sin, not the sinner, the sin in the sinner, who is doing the rebuking? Remember this Crossy, the sinner that man was, IS DEAD! The man that stands there in your church REBUKING the EVIL IN THAT CHURCH... Like Paul to the Corinthians, who is doing the REBUKING?

Is it Paul, or Jesus in Paul? Why is it that I am your enemy when I bring you the TRUTH?

CROSS WHY DO YOU CONSIDER ME THE ENEMY WHEN I BRING YOU THE TRUTH? I have NEVER lied to you, because I bring you the TRUTH.... Every idea, every WORD, every concept, every Truth I spoke to you is STRAIGHT from GOD'S WORD. And John 17:17 says God's Word is the Truth.

I have not twistes a single word, not a single verse or chapter or the whole Bible. What I share with ALL people, is the TRUTH, God's Word, and God's Gospel, and God's doctrine... the only True gospel. Why am I still considered the enemy?

Paul had EXACTLY the same. So did Jesus.... but the ones that are in the light, THEY accept what I preach as the LORD'S SUPPER. As the DAILY bread God gives us. As the LIGHT on their path. As the TRUTH and LOVE and WORD of God. And they are enriched in love, wisdom and truth unto PERFECT MEN.

God truly did give us a Word that takes us right into His light, into His holiness, and into HIMSELF... Here is my suggestion to you... If you read the Bible.... Accept it exactly as it is written, and you will notice, that God writes is EXACTLY as He wants it on your heart.


I accepted the Word of God as HE HAS GIVEN IT..... PERFECTLY... If you think there is anything written in the Bible that does not agree with you, then you are wrong, not the Bible.... I do not have to tell you anything that is wrong with you, your church and your life. God does that all the time... you just ignore it, that is why it is not working. The moment you LISTEN to GOD, like Saul did.... Saul did go to the house in Straight street.... You should do the same.... Go to the Word of God, and ASK GOD TO SHOW YOU.....

I will give you one GODLY TRUTH.... If you love God, you will be PERFECT! Right here in this present world. Why? That is what the LOVE OF GOD DOES.... It is a GODLY PROMISE.... IF YOU KEEP HIS WORD HE AND THE SON WILL MAKE YOU PERFECT WITH THEIR MAKING THEIR ABODE WITH YOU.....

Here is the promise.... But do not disregard a single verse. Do not edit, do not add, do not leave out.... ACCEPT THE TRUTH AS HE GIVES IT TO YOU....
Accept the WORD OF GOD WITHOUT EDITING.... AND BOTH FATHER AND SON WILL LIVE IN YOU....


If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.

 

[Nick01]

Paul says "For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified", but then also speaks to the Greeks at the Areopagus about the Unknown God that they worshipped, and quotes pagan poets.

To preach God's word only, and to preach Christ only, is not to only preach those things. It is that everything you say is directed to the that knowledge, and to making it know.

The problem in our culture is that we are so far removed from the time and place of the Scriptures. People do not understand the significance of sin, or the significance of the atonement, or what it was like for Jesus to preach and teach, the struggles of the people that he met, the women, the tax collectors, the Pharisees. It is not enough to simply speak the word. It is to do as Paul did, and even as Jesus did, and apply it to the lives of the people we speak it to.

How do we apply the live of Jesus to the lives of everyday people? How do we help people experience the gravitas of the atonement, and to then feel the eternal weight of glory? Head knowledge is not enough, we must also, by the power of God, seek to MOVE people with the Gospel. And that includes moving ourselves as we preach. I often see people who claim to be preachers, who preach the Bible faithfully to the letter, but do not preach it faithfully in their own lives, and in how they commend it to others. Anyone can quote Scripture - only the Spirit working through His people can apply it to people's hearts. Which one of us can write the words of Christ on peoples' hearts?

All that to say, to simply speak more words of the Bible is not enough, although God is gracious and will do what we will not. But we must also LIVE it, and when preaching, we must also APPLY it and show that the gospel of grace and peace preached 2000 years ago is relevant for that young teen listening who has become pregnant and is wondering what to do about it, the old man who has spent his whole life angry at God botherers, but contemplating the end of his own life, the bank CEO oblivious to anything outside the end of year balance, the mother fighting cancer and angry at a world that could allow such things to happen. It is not only important WHAT you preach, but HOW you preach it, and keeping in mind WHO you are preaching it to.

 

[Cobus]

Nick, when we LIVE the Word of God, God gives us insight and the knowledge of the Son of God himself.... I find when I talk to a person and God is my witness, I see the person's life, without him uttering a single word.

Let me share one of these experiences....We had a youth-week for Christ in Vanderbijlpark, and I was the head of the councellors if any young man or young lady would want to confess of needed council. The evening went well with Louis Brittz as the singer for that session.

Just before the program closed for the night, a woman of around 38 and a girl of 17 came walking to me. When they were around 10 yards from me, I saw in a vision, the insid of a house I have NEVER seen. I could see the room of the stephfather and mother. I could see the hallway and the painting on the wall. I saw the young girls bedroom, and exactly what happens there. I could see both the stephfather and the moter's faces.

The worst is the mother knew, that is why dhe is at this Christ-week with a trusted older friend, and not her mother. I did not know any of the four people. Never met ANY of them ever, but I knw EXACLY what God wanted me to do. After we talked and God gave me the wisdom to council this troubled girl, I could already see how the advice God gave her would REBUKE SATAN in both the mother and the stephfather.... This girl was set free from abuse even before she went back home.

God not only showed me the events as it was BFORE God intervened, but He also showed me what He is going to do to the guilty, the moment she walked into her home.... Believe me, they will NEVER harm that child again...

I do believe that as Jesus knew the hearts and mysteries in every one He preached too, so do we when HE SENDS us to witness HIM to the world. May HIS will be done in our lives....

 

[crossnote]

Acts 2:41-47 Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.
And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.
And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles.
And all that believed were together, and had all things common;
And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need.
And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart,
Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.

My kind of Church! !

 

[p_rehbein]

If someone preaches Jesus, he is preaching ALL THE WORDS written in red.......IF THAT IS ALL THAT IS EVER PREACHED, it will be more than enough........but, now, that's just my thoughts......

 

[Hizikyah]

If someone preaches Jesus, he is preaching ALL THE WORDS written in red.......IF THAT IS ALL THAT IS EVER PREACHED, it will be more than enough........but, now, that's just my thoughts......

I believe we need a revitalization of Yahshua's words in every gathering. His words are so pure and simple to understand.

Revelation 22:12-15, "And behold, I come quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give every man according as his work will be. I am the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. Blessed are those who keep His Laws, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. For outside are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and worshipers of gods and everyone who professes to love, yet practices falsehood."