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PLACEBO PREACHING

 Entertain me, please! This seems to be the mantra of American congregations to preachers. In a capitalistic society if you can be an entertaining preacher you can keep that paycheck going from week to week. Maybe better yet you can get a TV show to jump around in front of your audience with all sorts of props and offer free glow-in-the-dark crosses for only a seed offering of twenty-five dollars. Free? This Placebo preaching is just to please people and get their wallets open but it does not teach them sound doctrine.

Sadly, what is really lost is the preaching of solid Biblical doctrine. This creates just feel-good Christians with no sound understanding of their faith or what Jesus truly is requiring of them. The slightest problem or crisis that comes along and it knocks them off their spiritual feet like a leaf on a branch in a Fall breeze. How can a Christian share the gospel if they do not know what or why that gospel is and why Peter tells us in 1 Peter 3:15 which says "Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you." Lots of feelings are in these sermons but again it is only a placebo sermon that does not teach a solid explanation of the doctrine of salvation found in the Holy Bible. Nor how to share it in a way that can defend the faith with proper and sound answers.  

Some Christian preachers want to be hip and cool to their congregations and this leads to selling out the doctrines of faith taught in the Bible to being storytellers in skinny jeans and hair that looks like it was never combed that morning! They throw out a verse or two of scripture but never explain why those verses are to be implemented in a believer's life. This is more of a motivational talk with a little Jesus smeared on it but again a placebo to actually life-affirming preaching of sound doctrine.

The mystery preachers want to preach that they have unlocked a secret in the Bible and why they think it is time for them to reveal it to the world (this makes them feel important to themselves and they hope to others). Please, there are no mysteries in the Holy Bible. The Lord wanted it to be plain and easy to understand so that humankind could receive salvation through the regeneration of the Holy Spirit. This is done by grace through faith alone. These preachers are just hoping for a book deal to come along. But this placebo preaching is all about how God found this preacher so worthy to give him the secret! 

If you truly want to learn sound doctrine and its application to life and eternal life then you need to find a pastor who is an expository preacher. Meaning the preacher will take a part of the sacred text and explain its meaning and intent. Exposing the meaning of the scriptures that are read in a service of worship, Bible study, or a lecture at a conference. The pastor will study the grammar, the context, the historical background, and even the original language meaning of a word or passage. Then crafts the sermon of how to apply it to your everyday life. This will help the congregation to actually understand the Bible and it will help to deepen their faith in Jesus Christ.

Expository preaching will help edify the body of Christ and deepen a believer's understanding of the Holy Bible and the Christian faith. It should be powerful enough to move a person to salvation if one is not yet a believer. You do not need a show or unlock a secret but a loving pastor full of the Holy Spirit who is willing to do the work to bring a strong doctrinally sound sermon to bless the hearers.

Romans 10:14-15

14 But how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him? 15 And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”



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