Let me be blunt. Out there in church–land there are two types of preaching. Good preaching and bad preaching. Preaching that brings life, and preaching that sadly, heads off in the other direction. Preaching that's clearly coming from God and preaching that ain't. And it's the preaching that God anoints, that He uses to speak His will into our lives. One enduring memory of being dragged to church when I was a child was the droning of the preacher. I can honestly say he never said one thing, not a single thing back in my childhood that impacted my life for good. Perhaps there was one thing. I was so bored one particular Sunday sitting on these hard wooden pews as a young lad that I took the time to learn to wiggle my ears. That was it. An incredible waste of time when you think about it and really sad. Because there's something really powerful about hearing the Word of God preached and receiving God's wisdom that way. Over the course of this week we've been talking about how we can hear God speaking, you and I. I mean, if God is God and we're meant to have a relationship with Him then shouldn't we be able to communicate with Him? Of course we can pray. That's communication in one direction. But what about communication back in the other direction? And in fact, as we've already seen God is still speaking today. We've chatted so far about hearing speak through His Word and during times when we get still before Him and pray. Well we're going to chat today about hearing God speak in another way – through His providence of preaching. Now the idea of preaching – some guy getting up and speaking about God's Word, teaching what's in the Bible – to some people, it seems like a pretty old fashioned concept. Pretty dull. And the other problem with it is, let's be honest, there's quite a lot of bad preaching going around as well. I've sat and listened to a lot of people talk about the message they get from their pastor on a Sunday morning, and I have to tell you in many, many cases the news is not good. There's a lot of dead preaching out there, people droning on with irrelevant boring messages. Not everywhere of course, not every pastor, not every church, but a lot. And if someone's getting offended, I'm sorry; I'm just stating the obvious. A.W. Tozer in his classic book, "The Pursuit of God" put it this way. He said: It is a solemn thing, and no small scandal in the Kingdom, to see God's children starving while actually seated at the Father's table. Sound Bible exposition is an imperative must in the Church of the living God. Without it no church can be a New Testament church in any strict meaning of that term. But exposition may be carried on in such way as to leave the hearers devoid of any true spiritual nourishment whatever. For it is not mere words that nourish the soul, but God Himself, and unless and until the hearers find God in personal experience, they are not the better for having heard the truth. It's sad but it's true. And it's nothing new. This is how Luke records the reaction of people listening to Jesus preaching. Luke Chapter 4 Verse 31: He went down to Capernaum, a city in Galilee, and was teaching them on the Sabbath. They were astounded at his teaching, because he spoke with authority." And Matthew. Listen to what he records. Matthew Chapter 7 verse 28: Now when Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes. In other words, this stuff Jesus was teaching and talking about is not the sort of preaching that they'd been hearing down at their local synagogue or down at the Temple on the Sabbath from the scribes and the synagogue leaders and the priest and the rest of the religious establishment. In fact quite to the contrary. Again, listen to what Jesus had to say about the teaching of the scribes and the Pharisees. Matthew Chapter 23 beginning at Verse 2: The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat; therefore, do whatever they teach you and follow it; but do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others; but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them. So I guess what I'm saying is, that there's good preaching and there's bad preaching. It's in the Bible and you see it around today. Let's just call a spade a spade here. Preaching that brings life and sadly, preaching that brings death. And people who sit under dead teaching, well their faith and their passion for Jesus is going to ebb away. And little by little they grow in their faith, little by little, their faith dies and they wither. Does that mean good preaching is all hype and motivation about success and earning a lot of money? No! That's not what makes good preaching. Good preaching speaks the things of God into our lives. There's an authority, a gravitas, a weight, a power that reaches into our hearts. The people who listened to Jesus were amazed because He spoke with authority. They could just pick it. They knew that this was the truth. Remember what Jesus said to His disciples when He was telling them how He was the good shepherd? The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers. (John 10:2-5) I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me. (John 10-14) See you just know. My friend, seek out the sort of preaching and teaching that you know comes from God, the sort with authority, the sort through which the power and the grace and the truth and the love of Christ just rings out. Clear, pure, and unmistakable. It's this sort of teaching that God uses to change lives. It's astounding and amazing because you can feel God reaching out through the speaker into the realities of your own life. And that's the Holy Spirit doing that, not the preacher – the Holy Spirit. Listen to those sorts of teachers. Don't sit under dead teaching. Scribes and Pharisees, my friend, are alive and well in God's church today. How sad it is to sit there and just learn to wiggle your ears as I did as a lad and miss out on the bread of Life. Tozer was right. This is no small scandal. Let me leave you with this story today. There was a time just before my wife, Jacqui and I were married. We were engaged to be married. And it seemed as if just everything was going against us. I mean, we were really, really, really low. We had a great church and a great pastor and a great teacher but we were just low. So we decided to go down the hill on Sunday evening and visit a different church. Just on a whim. The preacher wasn't a regular pastor whom we knew, but a visiting guy from some surfing ministry. He preached on Matthew Chapter 14 Verses 22 to 33. This is quite a long time ago and I still remember it. The bit where Jesus walks on the water and Peter steps out of the boat in the middle of the storm. As we listened to his message we looked at one another because we realised that God had put this message and this preacher there for us to strengthen us and encourage us. Over the coming weeks we persevered through the challenges we faced with a new courage and it all worked out. And to this day I remember that message even though it was decades ago. To this day when I'm facing challenges and my faith is being challenged and I need courage, I go back to that passage. God still uses that message in my life today. Friend, God is still speaking today. Inspired, anointed preaching and teaching is one of the ways we hear from God. It's mighty, it's powerful and God can target needs and issues in our lives with pin point accuracy. Let me encourage you to find and receive that sort of teaching and preaching in your life. Not the stuff that necessarily entertains you or tickles your ears and tells you what you want to hear, but the sort that tells God's truth with power and authority.

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