Listening to preaching in the Kenyan context can at times be tiresome and difficult. Whether it is the poor exposition of the Scriptures or the tendency to a prosperity message I find myself becoming skeptical and not listening.
Today, I was strongly rebuked in studying for my Isaiah course by Ray Ortlund in his commentary on Isaiah, which I highly recommend! (Isaiah – God Saves Sinners by Ray Ortlund) He comments on Isaiah 6 with these words.
"But preaching that is true to the gospel is one way God brings judgment to those who have closed their hearts. Whether people accept the message or reject it, preaching God’s Word is always a supernatural event. John Calvin helps us understand the implications:
If we have a zeal to serve and honor God and would desire peaceably that our Lord should have his royal throne in the midst of us, if we would be his people and dwell under his protection, if we desire to be built up in him and joined to him and persevere in him to the end, if (in brief) we desire salvation, we must learn to be humble disciples to receive the doctrine of the Gospel and to hear the pastors whom he has sent to us, as if Jesus Christ himself spoke to us in person.
No preacher is always right. But when the Word of God comes to us through a human preacher, it remains the Word of God (1 Thessalonians 2:13). Let’s not be impossible to please (Matthew 11:16–19). Let’s not have “itching ears” (2 Timothy 4:3, 4). Simeon said to Mary that her Son was “appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel” (Luke 2:34). Our response to the ministry of the gospel reveals our truest feelings about Jesus himself. And on him every one of us either falls or rises."
Later he writes…
"If your heart does not leap at God’s grace in Christ, what you need is more grace. Nothing else can save you from your own deadness. Therefore, fear your own hardness of heart more than anything else. Beware of rigidity, ingratitude, a demanding spirit. Beware of an unmelted heart that is never satisfied. Beware of a mind that looks for excuses not to believe. Beware of the impulse that always finds a reason to delay response. Beware of thinking how the sermon applies to someone else. God watches how you hear his Word. If you are ever again to receive it with at least the capacity for response that you have at this very moment, hear it now:
But this is the one to whom I will look:
he who is humble and contrite in spirit
and trembles at my word. (Isaiah 66:2)"
And so that doesn’t mean every time I hear a sermon that makes it completely correct and right. But, it does rebuke me to being open to hearing Jesus speak. Not to close my ears and my heart to the Word of God preached. This is going back to my Shepherding the Flock class with D.G. but we spoke repeatedly of how the preached word is the Word of God. I needed to be reminded that even though the quality of the sermon is lacking Jesus is still speaking to me.
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