Preaching from His Heart

Many years ago one youth group leader tried to convince me that drinking Coca-Cola was sinful. His rationale was that it was bad for the body and the body was a temple of God and therefore doing anything that damages the body was sinful. So by his logic drinking Coca-Cola which has a negative effect on the body is sinful.

Using logic like this we can create many new laws and make many things sinful that God does not say directly that it’s sinful. And in this way teachers and preachers get into a lot of trouble by preaching from their own heart rather than from the heart of God. This has always happened since there have been prophets, teachers and preachers. And in Ezekiel’s day it seemed to be a sport.
Then the word of the Lord came to me saying, "Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel who prophesy, and say to those who prophesy from their own inspiration, 'Listen to the word of the Lord ! Thus says the Lord God , "Woe to the foolish prophets who are following their own spirit and have seen nothing. O Israel, your prophets have been like foxes among ruins. You have not gone up into the breaches, nor did you build the wall around the house of Israel to stand in the battle on the day of the Lord . They see falsehood and lying divination who are saying, 'The Lord declares,' when the Lord has not sent them; yet they hope for the fulfillment of their word. Did you not see a false vision and speak a lying divination when you said, 'The Lord declares,' but it is not I who have spoken?"'"  Therefore, thus says the Lord God , "Because you have spoken falsehood and seen a lie, therefore behold, I am against you," declares the Lord God .
Ezekiel 13:1‭-‬8 NASB‬‬

A Christian leader told me years ago that there are commands, principles, and preferences. We should be preaching what God’s word says (commands and principles) and careful not to teach our opinions as commands of God lest we too teach our own “inspiration”. If we’re going to share our preferences we should clearly say that it’s our preference or our opinion. But when we teach straight up what’s in the Word of God we proclaim it as the Word of God.
Let us be preachers of God’s Word and not inventors of new theology and doctrine.


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