A Great Message From a Street Preacher
Posted by Kevin Farrer on Saturday, July 4, 2009
Under: Evangelism
NAME CALLING
Proverbs 25:11 - A word fitly spoken, [is like] apples of gold in pictures of silver.
My desire is to Glorify Christ, to display the power of God through the preaching of the Gospel – the cross. I want my words to be fitly spoken. As one who uses words to describe sin, I use descriptive language to identify specific sinful behavior and magnify the sin of the particular people group I am preaching to. I want to utilize every word the Spirit of God brings to me as I preach with the intent to arrest the heart of the hearers and for them to see their need for forgiveness.
The words that I use have no malice, no hatred, and no malicious intent in them; every word I speak has the motive (as much as I understand my own motives) for the highest good of my listeners, even though sometimes at that moment it sounds like a hard word.
Jesus, John the Baptist, and Paul all spoke hard words to describe the heart of man. They did not use words in general terms such as “us”, “all,” or “we”, they used words that were specific to the hearers and directed those words to them.
Jesus said in John 8:44 “You are of your father the devil…”
Paul talking to Elymas the sorcerer says in Acts 13:10 “you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease to pervert the straight ways of the Lord?”
John the Baptist speaking to the Pharisees and Sadducees said in Matt 3:7 “Brood of vipers, who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come?”
There are many examples in the Bible where specific words are used to describe behavior such as fornication, adultery, sodomy or the characteristics of the human nature of man such as sinfulness, wickedness, evil and foolishness. This is not name calling, it is the way God identifies sin behavior and magnifies how bad it is. Words are powerful and when I preach I want to use every word that the Holy Spirit brings to me in the most effective way possible, for them to be fitly spoken!. My aim in preaching is to be direct. To use simple and direct language for the hearer to have no excuses for not understanding what sin is and how exceedingly sinful the offence is against infinite God.
This type of preaching might be identified as confrontational evangelism, because the preacher is direct and to the point, being specific and describing the sin that humans are practicing or participating in. When I preach I do not preach in general terms or use vocabulary not relative to the event or the situation. Preaching that is aimed to the hearer is personal in nature and the individual who hears it and is convicted by it will respond in a confrontational way. He might get angry and defend himself or tell me I am judging him because of the personal nature of my preaching. This approach might appear to be unproductive and might be viewed as if it is turning people off from Christianity. In the natural I would agree, but in the Spiritual realm, it is evident that the Holy Spirit is troubling the mind of the unbeliever.
This is what happens when the Holy Spirit convicts men of sin, righteousness and judgment to come. There is a response. Conviction demands response weather good or bad. Any response brings joy to my heart and I get a big smile on my face, because I witness the Holy Spirit is speaking to the individual, he is convicted and is responding.
Jesus tells us that the response will be negative John 15:18, 19 “If the world hates you, ye know that it hated me before [it hated] you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”
True messengers will not have people saying great things about them. Jesus told us in Luke 6:26 “Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! For so did their fathers to the false prophets.” When I preach I am not trying to get sinners to like me so they will come to my church. I am trying to communicate the heart of God toward the lifestyle they live in.
Jesus said in John 15:20 “Remember the word that I said unto you; the servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.”
If they keep God’s word they will keep ours as preachers. But if they hate God’s word they will hate preachers and persecute them. It will cause them to hate the preacher and want to kill him as they tried to do to Paul in Act 14:19 And there came thither [certain] Jews from Antioch and Iconium, who persuaded the people, and, having stoned Paul, drew [him] out of the city, supposing he had been dead.
I am not saying that I am the best messenger. My vocabulary is small; my words are few and simple. Most people would say I am unqualified to speak for the King of Kings as His ambassador. I would agree, I am nothing, I can do nothing, and I have nothing to give to Him who sits on the throne of the universe. I stand in fear and in much trembling inside my heart desiring to do my best in faith that the Holy Spirit would speak His words through me. That is my prayer every time I stand to speak for Christ. My heart is moved by the Holy Spirit to go and display the love of Christ in both His goodness and His severity. Faith comes from hearing and hearing the word of God. May the Holy Spirit give me words that are fitly spoken to describe sin, so sinners would see their need for forgiveness, and repent and believe in the Gospel.
Written by Kevin Farrer
Proverbs 25:11 - A word fitly spoken, [is like] apples of gold in pictures of silver.
My desire is to Glorify Christ, to display the power of God through the preaching of the Gospel – the cross. I want my words to be fitly spoken. As one who uses words to describe sin, I use descriptive language to identify specific sinful behavior and magnify the sin of the particular people group I am preaching to. I want to utilize every word the Spirit of God brings to me as I preach with the intent to arrest the heart of the hearers and for them to see their need for forgiveness.
The words that I use have no malice, no hatred, and no malicious intent in them; every word I speak has the motive (as much as I understand my own motives) for the highest good of my listeners, even though sometimes at that moment it sounds like a hard word.
Jesus, John the Baptist, and Paul all spoke hard words to describe the heart of man. They did not use words in general terms such as “us”, “all,” or “we”, they used words that were specific to the hearers and directed those words to them.
Jesus said in John 8:44 “You are of your father the devil…”
Paul talking to Elymas the sorcerer says in Acts 13:10 “you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease to pervert the straight ways of the Lord?”
John the Baptist speaking to the Pharisees and Sadducees said in Matt 3:7 “Brood of vipers, who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come?”
There are many examples in the Bible where specific words are used to describe behavior such as fornication, adultery, sodomy or the characteristics of the human nature of man such as sinfulness, wickedness, evil and foolishness. This is not name calling, it is the way God identifies sin behavior and magnifies how bad it is. Words are powerful and when I preach I want to use every word that the Holy Spirit brings to me in the most effective way possible, for them to be fitly spoken!. My aim in preaching is to be direct. To use simple and direct language for the hearer to have no excuses for not understanding what sin is and how exceedingly sinful the offence is against infinite God.
This type of preaching might be identified as confrontational evangelism, because the preacher is direct and to the point, being specific and describing the sin that humans are practicing or participating in. When I preach I do not preach in general terms or use vocabulary not relative to the event or the situation. Preaching that is aimed to the hearer is personal in nature and the individual who hears it and is convicted by it will respond in a confrontational way. He might get angry and defend himself or tell me I am judging him because of the personal nature of my preaching. This approach might appear to be unproductive and might be viewed as if it is turning people off from Christianity. In the natural I would agree, but in the Spiritual realm, it is evident that the Holy Spirit is troubling the mind of the unbeliever.
This is what happens when the Holy Spirit convicts men of sin, righteousness and judgment to come. There is a response. Conviction demands response weather good or bad. Any response brings joy to my heart and I get a big smile on my face, because I witness the Holy Spirit is speaking to the individual, he is convicted and is responding.
Jesus tells us that the response will be negative John 15:18, 19 “If the world hates you, ye know that it hated me before [it hated] you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”
True messengers will not have people saying great things about them. Jesus told us in Luke 6:26 “Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! For so did their fathers to the false prophets.” When I preach I am not trying to get sinners to like me so they will come to my church. I am trying to communicate the heart of God toward the lifestyle they live in.
Jesus said in John 15:20 “Remember the word that I said unto you; the servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.”
If they keep God’s word they will keep ours as preachers. But if they hate God’s word they will hate preachers and persecute them. It will cause them to hate the preacher and want to kill him as they tried to do to Paul in Act 14:19 And there came thither [certain] Jews from Antioch and Iconium, who persuaded the people, and, having stoned Paul, drew [him] out of the city, supposing he had been dead.
I am not saying that I am the best messenger. My vocabulary is small; my words are few and simple. Most people would say I am unqualified to speak for the King of Kings as His ambassador. I would agree, I am nothing, I can do nothing, and I have nothing to give to Him who sits on the throne of the universe. I stand in fear and in much trembling inside my heart desiring to do my best in faith that the Holy Spirit would speak His words through me. That is my prayer every time I stand to speak for Christ. My heart is moved by the Holy Spirit to go and display the love of Christ in both His goodness and His severity. Faith comes from hearing and hearing the word of God. May the Holy Spirit give me words that are fitly spoken to describe sin, so sinners would see their need for forgiveness, and repent and believe in the Gospel.
Written by Kevin Farrer
In : Evangelism
Tags: sin jesus god hell heaven john the baptist paul holy spirit
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I have given my life to Jesus and serve Him. I attend Living Hope Church in Whitney, PA. I am fully submitted to the church leadership and all my evangelism activities are approved by my pastor. All christians should attend a spirit filled, Bible obedient church. Christians should be under the authority of their church leadership and not under their own authority.
