PREACH THE WORD
“Preach the Word,
be prepared in season and out of season, correct, rebuke
and encourage with great patience and careful instruction”
2 Timothy 4:2
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There are many things I could say about preaching and I certainly do not claim to be a wonderful preacher myself, but really the most important thing is to preach the “now” word of God. Some people call it the "Rhema" word, that is scripture applied to people's lives for that moment in time. Here's a good quote to explain that a little more:
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My prayer at the beginning of every week – and I did this for 40 years was: “Lord what is Your Word for Your people this week?” and even if we were going through a series, it was amazing how time after time, the passage for that week spoke into people’s situations - mine included!
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I would like to tell you about Floyd McClung Senior, who was the father of Floyd McClung (Jnr) who was the leader of YWAM Europe based in Amsterdam, and who wrote a number of bestselling books including: “The Father Heart of God.”
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They are both in heaven now, but I first met Floyd Snr in the second or third year of my ministry when he often came to our Sunday morning service which was held in a humble little hired hall before we had started our new building.
I quickly discovered that Floyd Snr was a Church of God Pastor from the United States. He and his wife were in England to be closer to their son in Amsterdam, and were serving in a missionary capacity to American Air Force Servicemen of whom there were thousands, in two large US Air Force Bases that were in our area.
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Floyd Snr did not tell me this, but he was well known in his denomination and was regarded by many as a “prince among pastors.” He had been the Pastor of a number of large churches in the USA, notably the main church in Cleveland Tennessee, where the Church of God has its Headquarters and an outstanding Christian University.
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Floyd had a large number of the professors from the university in his congregation and although he was a good preacher, he did not have a doctorate then, (although they gave him an honorary one later). He was not a theologian, but he could expound and apply the Word in a dynamic way and that is why those professors loved to listen to him.
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He fed them with the Word of God. It does not matter how clever or how mature a person may be spiritually, we all need to be challenged, envisioned and spoken to, by God’s Word for our lives. That is basically what preaching is all about – for the unsaved and for believers too.
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I was very humbled that Floyd kept coming to our services because God had spoken to him personally through His Word as I preached one day on Exodus 33. That has got to be one of the greatest privileges of being a preacher – when God truly speaks to people as His Word is preached.
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Pastor Floyd had been seeking God for guidance on the way forward, as he had been invited to return to the USA to lead a growing church there. He and his wife had been praying, as they needed to make a decision very soon. The words that spoke to him from Exodus 33 were: “My Presence will go with you.” They did go, and looking back - it was definitely the right decision.
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When he went back to America, he invited me to preach for him at his church in Orange County, California, on various occasions over the years. In return, Dr McClung came back to England on a number of visits and preached for me too.
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The most notable occasion was the Opening Service of our newly built (but unfinished) church building. It was quite an event. We had Karen Lafferty as a guest singer. She had famously put the words: “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God” to music and that Scripture song went all around the world and is still being sung in churches today. It goes without saying that Karen led us in singing that song in the service on that occasion.
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That was over 40 years ago, and I still remember what Pastor McClung’s text was. He preached on 1 Peter 2:9:
“You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”
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I had also invited various ministers from the town and the area to take part in the service. I had asked the local Anglican vicar to choose a Bible passage and read it. As he began to read 1 Peter chapter 2, Pastor McClung turned to his wife and said, “That young man has chosen my passage!” What a confirmation – that it was truly God’s Word to us that day.
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Dr McClung expounded on the word “priesthood” – explaining that the word “priest” in Latin is “pontifex” meaning “bridge builder” and how as a "kingdom of priests" we are called to be bridge builders into our communities with the love of God and the message of salvation. As a royal priesthood the whole church is chosen to proclaim the gospel message to sinners and to live holy lives in His wonderful light as an example to the world.
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As ministers it’s our calling to do that too - but if we have Ephesians 4 gifting, then we add to that “equipping the saints for the work of ministry” (v13). In other words, we work extra hard and we do everything we can to help the whole church to be bridge builders into our communities and to declare “the praises of Him who called us out of darkness into his wonderful light.”
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