I once heard a preacher say,
"The power of the message does not lie in the man who preaches it but in the God who wrote it.”
When I was going through preaching school, there was a heavy emphasis on knowing the text so that you would be able to effectively teach someone. This meant learning it in depth. It was never about using powerful rhetoric or formal speech. It was so we could know what we were talking about. Because like another preacher friend of mine said,
“You cannot teach someone something you do not know." - Wayne Roberts
Put simply, if you never know the core of the message, you can never teach it to someone else. Not understanding the essence of the message severs your ability to be creative with how you present. It disables your capacity to create clarity for someone who knows nothing about it.
Well-known Greek philosophers in the city of Corinth prided themselves on the knowledge and wisdom they had acquired and often flaunted it before the people. Armed with fancy speech and flattering words, they became conceited by their wealth of knowledge and influence over the people.
Similarly, the church in Corinth, who had been exposed to these destructive attitudes, adopted them and began using them amongst others in the church. This created division and caused them to turn against one another. Hence, the point of Paul wiring this letter the Corinthians. I Corinthians chapter 2 reminds of the very points above…
“And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.” — 1 Corinthians 2:1–5
It's all about the message, not our own self-discovered knowledge. It is the knowledge of God handed down to us from God through the apostles. We should speak it clearly and simply. Remember, the power of the message is not in the man who preaches it but in the God who wrote it.
Next time you are afraid you may not be qualified, remember it's just showing someone something God already said. It's simple, clear, and powerful, don't overthink it. Spend some time this week studying a book of the Bible and trying to understand its message. Take notes, mark words and phrases, and note what comes before and after. If you know it in-depth, it will be much easier to tell others about it.
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