by David Gibson<\/p>\n
Have you ever heard someone say, “Don’t preach to me!” Preaching is not always appreciated. The rebellious inner self, the Bible says, must be put aside. In its place, there must be childlike humility. We must be willing to yield control of our lives to God and make Christ our Lord in every area of our lives. When the preacher tells us we’re wrong, he may be doing us a tremendous favor, even if it hurts at the time. “Have I therefore become your enemy by telling you the truth?<\/em>” Paul asks (Galatians 4:16 NASB).<\/p>\n Paul, who at one time was the violent persecutor of the church, had to realize how wrong he was before he could get right. And so must we.<\/p>\n If the preacher is true to God’s word, then those who resist the message are resisting God Himself (Luke 10:16). The preacher is simply the messenger.<\/p>\n It’s been said that preaching should comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. Sometimes we need to be afflicted. Paul urged Timothy to “preach the word…reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction<\/em>.” The time will come, Paul says, when people will reject the truth and turn to those who will tell them what they want to hear (II Timothy 4:2-4; see Isaiah 30:9-11).\u00a0Does this happen in our day? A lot!<\/p>\n So what do we want? Pleasant words that make us feel good, or the truth we so desperately need? To receive God’s marvelous grace, we must renounce our sins, then humbly submit to God’s revealed will in trusting obedience (Acts 2:36-38; 22:16).<\/p>\n If truth is what we need most, can we afford to accept anything else?<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by David Gibson Why some won’t listen Have you ever heard someone say, “Don’t preach to me!” Preaching is not always appreciated. The rebellious inner self, the Bible says, must be put aside. In its place, there must be childlike humility. We must be willing to yield control of our lives to God and make…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[536],"class_list":["post-89679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-preaching"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":51035,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-preacher-and-his-study\/","url_meta":{"origin":89679,"position":0},"title":"The Preacher and His Study","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 1, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"by Hiram Kemp The preacher of God's Word is to speak with all the authority God has given him (Titus 2:15). He is to speak as the oracles of God (I Peter 4:11). He is to proclaim the gospel as the power of God unto salvation (Romans 1:16). However, all\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":20246,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/hard-preaching\/","url_meta":{"origin":89679,"position":1},"title":"Hard Preaching","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 21, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Guy F. Hester Recently someone told me that I am a hard preacher. This could be either good or bad, depending on what is meant by hard preaching. In the context of the conversation, I took it as a compliment to my firm stance for my convictions. Many people\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/02\/hammer-and-rock-300x300.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":42038,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-aim-of-preaching\/","url_meta":{"origin":89679,"position":2},"title":"The Aim of Preaching","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 17, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"by Frank Himmel Churches that are all about numbers gladly alter their activities to accommodate popular demand. While music usually gets special attention, preaching is no less targeted. Perhaps it would be timely to remind us all what God intends preaching to accomplish. Preaching is to Instruct In His wisdom,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/arrow-and-target-203x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":84557,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-beautiful-are-the-feet-romans-1015\/","url_meta":{"origin":89679,"position":3},"title":"“How Beautiful Are the Feet” (Romans 10:15)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 14, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Tom M. Roberts via Truth Magazine, Vol. 43, 1999 God did not entrust the gospel to angels, to supernatural beings, to higher life forms without foibles and feet of clay. Indeed, he entrusted the gospel to men. As an objective fact, this is rather astounding. The message of salvation\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/feet-225x300.avif","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":49220,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/tent-making-preachers\/","url_meta":{"origin":89679,"position":4},"title":"Tent-Making Preachers","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 4, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"by Andy Sochor God's design is that those who dedicate their lives to preaching the gospel receive full support for that work. Paul told the church in Corinth, \"So also the Lord directed those who proclaim the gospel to get their living from the gospel\" (I Corinthians 9:14). However, one\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Acts_of_the_Apostles_Chapter_18-2_Bible_Illustrations_by_Sweet_Media-300x220.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":86006,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/ezekiel-and-preaching-truth\/","url_meta":{"origin":89679,"position":5},"title":"Ezekiel and Preaching Truth","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 24, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton Ezekiel had a most challenging job, preaching the truth to people who were not ready to appreciate it. God gave Ezekiel the vision of God's awesome greatness, and when a preacher preaches because he has a great concept of God, he can preach the hard truths\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89679\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Why it makes sense to listen<\/h2>\n
The choice we make<\/h2>\n