Well friends, it's a real joy for me to be with you on this occasion and to share with you something of what the Lord has been pleased to teach me over the years. I am in the category of individuals who initially did not have training when I became a pastor. And so there was quite a bit of trial and error. maybe a little bit more of error than trial in the earlier years. I became a pastor at about the age of 25. And without training, you can see that that was quite dangerous on the part of the church. The 25-year-olds that I see in my congregation right now, I'm not sure that I would want to appoint any of them into pastoral ministry. I think there's quite a bit of maturing that still needs to happen, but made worse by the fact that I hadn't gone through a lot of that which one needs to learn, even by way of internship. in a pastoral context. And so the Lord has been pleased over the years to preserve me within the context of pastoral ministry. And now, 37 years later, looking back, I am able to see something of the fruit that enables me to say, OK, let me share with others what I have been able to learn. But also, it's been the fact that I have since added some formal training to my own work and ministry. And so comparing the two, they've sort of dovetailed over the process. And I've been able to feel that my feet are a little more on solid ground. seeing this within scripture, seeing this from experience, seeing this from the learning that I've had from books and from ministry in pastoral context, pastoral conferences, I come before you to share the wisdom that the Lord has been pleased to give to me over this period. The way that I seek to proceed is, first of all, I will basically deal with the nature of pastoral preaching, and then I want to deal with some of the challenges that come with pastoral preaching, and the demands as well that that brings upon us. So those are the three sessions that I am planning to deal with. and I put that up there as I begin because I would want you to, as we proceed, to write down any questions that you might have for the final Q&A. The reason being that the topic itself is extremely wide. In fact, I have written a book by that same title, Pastoral Preaching, and so if you have opportunity to get a hold of it, you will then be able to see that, yes, all we are doing this morning is scratching the surface. What that means is that where you want a little more, at least if you can put it down as a question, then in our last session, the Lord willing, I should be able to help. So let's quickly then go to the work that is on our hands, and I deliberately want to begin with the Great Commission, as we find it in Matthew and chapter 28, the Great Commission. So if you're there, Matthew 28, and I primarily want to begin from there because as I begin with looking at the nature of pastoral preaching, I specifically want to contrast it with evangelistic preaching. Not that they are completely like water and oil, but I hope by the end of my contrast, you'll appreciate what I am saying. So let's begin from there. Matthew 28, and I commence reading from verse 16. Now the 11 disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. I have, in the process of pastoring, And knowing that I was entering a field in which I hadn't received the training, I have done quite a bit of reading on the subject of preaching. And one of the things that I have observed is that there is a lot that has been written by preachers and those who teach homiletics about preaching, but there's little with the emphasis on pastoral preaching. Now that came to me a bit of a shock when I was preparing to write on this topic. the book that I was just referring to, because I just took it for granted at that point that because I'm in Africa, I'm not exposed to the amount of literature that you brethren here have in the West. And therefore, now that I have undertaken this project, which was by request by Langham Literature at that time, I will now Google get as much of this before me, and then I will be spoiled for choice in terms of the amount of literature that I'll find there. Well, as I've already stated, I discovered that in a lot of books, the topic is primarily to do with how to preach and how to preach effectively, rather than how to preach as a pastor who has a congregation that he really needs to shepherd over the long haul. That emphasis may be touched on here and there, but it was not what I found to be the common content. And in that sense, therefore, I found that, yes, this was something that I was not just writing for Africa, I was writing for the wider church as well Now, in the passage that we have just read, you can't miss the fact that on one hand, Jesus expected his disciples the 11 who in due season are the primary evangelists in the book of Acts. You can't miss the fact that part of their responsibility was that of going out there to preach the gospel. In fact, when you look at the account in Mark and chapter 16, the statement there has to do with preaching the gospel to all creatures. With respect to Luke chapter 24, again you find Jesus speaking there. Let me just quickly take you to the Luke 24 passage towards the end of that book. He says there in verse 46, thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations beginning from Jerusalem. So there is no doubt that part of our responsibility is that of preaching the gospel to unbelievers, calling them to repentance for the forgiveness of sins. I don't know about you, but I found that part of my sense of call to preaching was precisely this, that I had a genuine burden for the perishing world. And the more I learned the gospel, the more I felt what am I doing, I worked as a mining engineer for a number of years, what am I doing underground blasting copper when really I ought to be out there on the surface proclaiming Christ? So that's part of a genuine sense of the call But again, if we get back to the Matthew account, Jesus says there that going, making disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, suggesting there an initiation process, bringing them into what I call colonies of faith. In other words, these groupings of people that are immediately under a king, the king who is present elsewhere, but his influence is being felt, and authority is being submitted to where the people are gathered together. So you initiate them through baptism in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and then here comes what I am considering to be the pastoral preaching. teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. So you've not just brought them to repentance and faith, but you are deliberately spending time nurturing them in the faith. so that they may be sanctified, they may be obedient to the dictates of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so as you go through the book of Acts, that's basically what you're finding. You're finding the disciples or apostles going, preaching the gospel from place to place. But once they have done that, They see it as their responsibility to nurture believers through preaching and teaching. So once we go, for instance, to Acts chapter two, where we have the sermon of Peter on the day of Pentecost, we have Peter preaching that powerful sermon that brought 3,000 souls to repentance and faith in Christ. But we notice immediately after that, in verse 42, that these individuals that had come to repentance and faith devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching. In other words, they made themselves available where the apostles were continuing to teach the ways of God, the ways of Christ. And it is that second element that we are really dealing with. Now, I already hinted, there are some commonalities. We will see that in a few minutes. Part of This same pastoral preaching has gospel content. So I am not suggesting that you are basically going from one to the other and therefore completely abandoning the cross of Christ and what Paul calls the word of the cross. That's not the point. But definitely in our minds, we are to say, okay, this man, this woman, this young man, this young woman, this child, has repented from sin, has now come into the body, I am responsible to make sure that this individual is growing in their Christian faith, in their understanding of the height and depth, length and breadth of the love of God in Christ Jesus, and that this person becomes something of a towering figure within the context of the people of God. Now, if the church is to be considered as a household of faith, as the Apostle Paul puts it in 1 Timothy 3 and verse 15, then pastoral preaching is like providing regular meals to the people of God. And therefore, it has to be a balanced meal. so that God's people are not surviving on perhaps just carbohydrates without vitamins, or vitamins without proteins, and so forth. It's to ensure that the full or the whole counsel of God is being placed before them so that they may grow in a holistic way. Now, once we begin to see pastoral preaching that way, we begin to understand why a lot of churches tend to be terribly malnourished. The tendency, the reason rather, is because you find that perhaps the church planter who was passionately evangelistic, passionately wanting the people that are gathering to come to Christ and going out there in the community, bringing people in the moment, He's back in the pulpit, he wants those individuals to come to Christ. And in the process, the church, for years, survives on evangelistic preaching. Well, the inevitable consequence out of that is actual malnourishment in terms of the whole counsel of God. And in the process, what that tends to do is, yes, to produce a church that wants more and more and more people in, quantitatively, but not really capturing the fact that there's to be a life that is qualitatively attractive, qualitatively growing more and more into the image of God. So the subtitle of my book, Pastoral Preaching, is Building a People for God. Notice the emphasis there. Building a people for God. So that the congregational life, the people of God, are being helped to become real giants of the faith, and that way they are enabled to turn around and disciple the younger ones who are coming in, because they are growing in the things of God. Another way to look at pastoral preaching is to look at the biblical picture of a shepherd. the shepherd, and that's really what the word pastor is all about. It's shepherding. That's the verb form of that noun. It is shepherding. Now, what is the work of a shepherd? I can divide it into two phrases. One is to ensure the health of the sheep. And then the other is the protection of the sheep, because sheep tend to be very vulnerable, especially to diseases and ferocious animals. They stray easily, and so they need protection and pasture. The great shepherd of the Old Testament, who ended up writing perhaps the most well-known psalm, Psalm 23, puts it this way. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. Now, I know when I was younger, I kept getting confused about being excited about the Lord being your shepherd and then you don't want him. Obviously, I didn't understand English. What he really means is I shall lack nothing. That's really what he means. I will lack nothing. Well, what are the things that the sheep needs that the sheep will not lack. This is what he says. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. So they are the needs for my health. He provides them for me. And then there's the aspect of protection. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me." So, I have a real sense of peace in the midst of this troubled world, a real sense of protection even when there are wild animals around me because the shepherd is with me. and hence he's able to look at the enemies and enjoy a sumptuous meal. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies, you anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows. And then this sense of hope for the future. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Now here's my point. That's the responsibility that the great shepherd of the sheep now places in the hands of the under shepherds. We are to ensure that we are on behalf of the great king doing our part. We don't totally replace him, but as an instrument in his hands, we carry out that responsibility in our corner of the sheep pen, so to speak. That's precisely our work. And so the Apostle Paul bidding farewell to the Ephesian elders basically makes that point, and then we shall see. Peter doing the same. So in Acts chapter 20, Paul is bidding farewell to the Ephesian elders and he says in that famous statement in verse 28, pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock. in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to care for the church of God which you obtained with his own blood. Basically, it is to do with shepherding, being overseers. shepherding the people of God. Or as Peter puts it in 1 Peter and chapter five, the famous statement there again, so I exhort the elders among you as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed, shepherd the flock of God that is among you. Now, whereas the physical shepherd in Israel was primarily thinking in terms of physical food and protection from physical wolves, or at least animals, our task as shepherds in the church is to recognize that those Christians that have numbered themselves as part of the flock under our oversight are also vulnerable. They are vulnerable to erroneous teachings and beliefs, and that results in erroneous living. You can't live right if you believe wrong. Now, you can believe right and live wrong, but the opposite ain't true. And therefore, it is our responsibility to ensure that through the Word of God, through teaching the Word of God, and preaching the Word of God in a pastoral context, We are helping these people to become more and more healthy and consequently better protected from the wiles of the evil one. But before I move on to the goal of pastoral preaching, let me quickly add the fact that This is meant to also test not just our love for the flock, but also our love for the chief shepherd himself. Our love for him. You remember when the Lord Jesus was speaking to Peter before he went to heaven. He wasn't asking Peter, Peter, do you love my sheep. Do you love my lambs? No. He was asking him, do you love me? That was the question. Do you love me? And every time he answered, that's when the Lord said, well, prove it. Feed my sheep. Feed my lambs. Do you love me? And I think it's crucial for us to see that our relationship with the chief shepherd of the sheep needs to be seen in the sweat and toil that we put to the task of preparing the kind of messages that over the long haul will build God's people. And we ought to be growing in our capacity and our teaching so that we don't end up with those believers who have been under our pastoral charge for any meaningful length of time feeling that we have become a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. By that I mean that it doesn't matter which verse we begin with, or which passage of the Bible we begin with, they can predict how the rest of the message is going to be. Because we are not growing ourselves. We perhaps pick up a few stories that make our messages interesting. So in terms of the stories around what we're talking about, they may differ. But generally speaking, they can tell what message it is that we are continuing to bring because there is no real exposition of the word of God. Exposition of these books of the Bible that are meant to nourish the people of God. So, that's our task. The Lord Jesus is a great shepherd of the sheep, and we are under shepherds. Let's make sure that we are doing our part to produce Christians who can be able to minister to others as well. Allow me to take you to just one more passage before we get to the goal, and it is Ephesians chapter four. Ephesians chapter four, where Paul speaks about Jesus having given the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the shepherd teachers, shepherds and teachers, what are they to do? And look at what they are to do, or what we are to do. That's pastoral preaching. He puts it this way, to equip the saints for the work of ministry. In other words, we are to so educate God's people in the things of God that they become part of the soldiers, ministering, to others. They don't remain thumb-sucking toddlers for years. They can now turn around, enter into the lives of other believers, see where they used to be five to ten years ago and be able to use this same book to minister to them. So that by the time, to borrow the picture of Moses in the Old Testament, by the time they bring difficult cases to you, you know that the simpler ones were dealt with, or that others had already tried their hand as brother to brother, sister to sister, and this one was a hard case. And therefore, they bring that one to you. Well, in the last 10 or so minutes, I want to deal with the goal of pastoral preaching. Now, in one sense, I've talked about it. It's building a people for God. to develop a congregation that lives for the glory of God. That's the umbrella, that's the bigger picture. So that even when you are not there, you know that there is a spiritual stamina that has been developed in the lives of these people. But I want to break it down into about five subtopics. And we'll just quickly fly through them. Because I want each one of us to think, is this a deliberate aspect of the ministry that I am exercising? Is this something I am seeing or at least want to see as I am ministering? So the first is to help God's people to have a growing understanding of the gospel. I'm calling it here a comprehensive view of the gospel. Now you understand that when a person becomes a Christian, usually it is one aspect of the gospel that is like a sharp arrow that goes right through the person's breastplate and hits the heart. It's one aspect. It could be, for instance, that the person was really wild and reckless, heading for hell, and then there's been this warning concerning this righteous God who must punish sin, and this person is rudely awakened to the danger, and they see in Christ a sufficient savior, and they cry to him. Or the person might be coming from a background of self-righteousness, and then they are made to see the inadequacy of that self-righteousness. In fact, how insulting it is before God for a person to show up with his rags and then say, look, I'm not that bad compared to the other. and therefore they abandon their self-righteousness and embrace the Lord Jesus Christ. Or it could be that they've just suffered the loss of their property, the loss of a loved one, and their lives have basically fallen apart. And now they're being shown something of that solid foundation that the Lord Jesus Christ is by way of giving us hope in our darkest times And so they cry to the Savior and they get saved What you're doing in your pastoral ministry is now you are taking them beyond that little area that brought them to Christ they are beginning to see the wider work of God by way of salvation. The great gospel words like regeneration and justification and adoption and sanctification and glorification are better understood and more deeply appreciated so that they are overwhelmed by what God has done for them in Christ. Words like the goodness of God, the mercy of God, the love of God, the grace of God, at one time were just different words but saying the same thing. But now they are beginning to see how each of those brings out an aspect of God that overwhelms them and they want to love him back. So that's an important aspect. And then quickly, A working knowledge of the Bible. A working knowledge of the Bible. Pastoral preaching should have the result that those who sit under its ministry grow in their understanding of the Bible and the variety and unity of its 66 books. And the more they sit under your ministry, the more they should be able to see Christ in the whole Bible. In the whole Bible. Doesn't matter where they are. they will be seeing Christ and appreciating more and more of their Saviour Number three, an appreciation of sound doctrine Pastoral preaching should impart a kind of systematic theology to the people of God. They must grasp in an ever-increasing way the whole counsel of God, the whole counsel of God. It's amazing how sometimes you meet individuals who've been Christians for a long time, maybe even 20 years in a particular church, and then When a topic comes up and they open their mouths, I mean, it's ignorance of basic biblical teaching, biblical doctrine, that's just gushing out. And think to yourself, where has this person been? Because surely, if you are in a good church, There should be a learning that's been taking place of sound doctrine The last two, an understanding of godly living Pastoral preaching should enable believers to know how God wants them to live in their personal lives, in their domestic lives, in the context of the church, and then also out there in the world. What does it mean to be a godly man, a godly woman, in a practical sense? And one of the important areas, definitely, is in the domestic, in the marriage. Simply being a godly husband, a godly wife, what does that look like? Quite apart from being a godly parent. What does it look like? And a lot of our marriages would be saved, isn't it? from the kind of difficulties that we often see, especially with younger believers, if they were helped. It breaks our hearts definitely when those that have been around longer are failing. But that must not be what I would call the main issue, therefore, in terms of majority. And if it's the majority, then obviously we have something to deal with there. And then lastly, A conviction about the good fight. Pastoral preaching should enable believers not only to know that the Christian faith is a fight, but also to engage in that fight victoriously. I often have to hide my smile behind my palm. when a young believer comes to me and says, I don't think I'm a Christian. And I say, why not? And they say, well, you know, I've been fighting these thoughts, you know, that used to belong to my old life. I thought it was over, and now this is what I'm going through. Pastor, I don't think I'm a Christian. And then I say, welcome to the club. This is the Christian life. Good people need to be helped to realize that. So this is what pastoral preaching is primarily all about. It takes over from evangelistic preaching. It is the chief means by which the spiritual shepherd looks after Christ's sheep, and it aims at a number of these goals in the long haul, seeing something of spiritual health and spiritual vitality among the people. Well, let me pause now for that little break So in our last session, we quickly noted a number of items. First of all, we tried to contrast evangelistic preaching and pastoral preaching. As I said, they're not necessarily two circles that are outside each other, they definitely have a common element, and I think I proved that when I talked about the five areas of achievement, and one of them was a growing comprehensive understanding of the gospel. But it was still important for us to see that contrast so that we don't end up in a situation where someone who is really an evangelist, just wanting to see people converted, ends up being a pastor. And then we just see that continue to happen. at the expense of the maturation of the congregation. I think we need to be careful about that. And sometimes where there is a plurality of elders and a number of men sharing in the pulpit, that can be balanced. But at least we need to be able to see it and ensure that God's people are being fed in that sense. We also were quick to see this as a spiritual picture of the physical shepherd. If we are clear in our minds about that picture, it really helps. especially that we're not thinking in our case it's physical, going to protect physically, but ensuring that through the teaching of the Bible, there is health and there is protection. And then lastly, we spent a bit of time looking at the kind of pegs that we want to ensure attached to what we are doing in the context of the church. So the glory of God, the gospel, the Bible being known, the systematic theology being comprehended, true godliness beginning to show and giving a direction. People are seeing the practical picture of a godly man and a godly woman. and then also the good fight of the faith. What we're doing now is moving into the demands of the pastoral preaching. I just realized at the end of, or at the beginning actually, soon after I mentioned that the third would be the challenge, actually the demand and the challenge are one. I will deal with the power of pastoral preaching after our break. so that we can see where the power is drawn from, that it's not simply, you know, sort of somehow wreaking with some supernatural power, but that there is a way in which that grows over time. But now I want to deal with the demands of, what is it that we are up against? as we are involved in pastoral preaching? What is the challenge in that sense? And therefore, what are the flaws that we have to deal with as we proceed? And so those two I want to combine, because once we appreciate what the flaws are, then we can take a few steps backwards and see what we really ought to be doing. So let's quickly begin with the fours, and I think we normally speak in terms of the world, the flesh, and the devil, when we are speaking about the enemies of God's people. And in a way, we are correct. Those same enemies that are aligned against the people of God are the ones that we are therefore seeking to ensure we undermine so that God's people are able to make much progress. Now, there is very little that we can do directly with respect to the world and the devil. We can talk about it, the members of our churches can be helped to see, for instance, that the world is not your friend. It entices you, but it's not really your friend. In fact, if you make the world your friend, you make yourself the enemy of God. Remember the words of James. So, don't do that. We can also speak about the evil one. Just don't make it your perennial diet, as is often the case in Africa, where the people end up being so conscious of the devil that they lose sight of God himself. I've never forgotten one instance where I was in a car together with about three Christians in my family from different churches and we were driving for a funeral that was in the wider family. And the roads in our part of the world are not as nice as yours. You have like one lane going this way, another lane coming from the in-between towns. And as we are about to overtake, some car just came from around the bend. And we had to quickly get back into our lane as this vehicle that was flying at breakneck speed went right past us. And as I was saying praise the Lord, everybody else in the vehicle said the devil is a liar. I thought, how do you just think about the devil here instead of thanking God? Now, I understand it's the atmosphere that they are with in the church, because they are always binding the devil, always just binding the devil. He is so much part of what they are listening to that they are overwhelmed with his presence. We shouldn't do that. Having said that, however, the flesh, is something, or indwelling sin, is something that we should help God's people to understand. That, to borrow a picture here, they have swallowed a magnet, and that's the reason why they're seeing all these pieces of metal being attracted towards their bodies. I hope you understand something of what I mean by that. So, for instance, if we quickly go to Romans 7, Really, we have a picture of that struggle, Romans 7, verse 7 to verse 8. The apostle puts it this way, Romans 7, verse 7 to verse 8. He says, what then shall we say? that the law is sin by no means. Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, you shall not covet. But sin, this is referring to the power, the dirty, ugly, wicked power Not the act, but the power. Seizing the opportunity through the commandment produced in me all kinds of curvaciousness. So that power, God's people need to realize that yes, at one time it was without a counter power Now it is still present. Its total authority has been broken through our conversion, but until we get to heaven, it remains with us. So let's go to verse 15. Verse 15. where Paul says, for I do not understand my own actions, for I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law that it is good. I love verse 17. So now it is no longer I who do it. In other words, once upon a time it was I who did it. It was the whole of me was in agreement with this foul, dirty power. But now it's no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. That there is this reality that I must face and continue dealing with. And that's why the world seems so attractive. That's why the evil one can so easily pull me in his direction. It is this which is present within me. Or, as he puts it finally in verse 21, so I find it to be a law Now, by law, he means the law of gravity. In other words, this natural tendency that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. And he explains, for I delight in the law of God in my inner being. That's me. If you were to peel me like an onion and get to the me that makes me me, you will find somebody who really loves God and his ways. But, but, here it is. But I see in my members another law, waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin. In other words, this natural tendency of sin that dwells in my members. Now, first of all, we need God's people to realize this, but more than that, we ourselves as pastors, watching over the flock, need to realize that the people that come to church who are members, who professed faith and so on, are not angels. Just waiting to hear, this is what God wants you to do, and they begin to rush in that direction, and you can now go and sleep pastor. At least now they know, now they know. that there is the presence of sin in them that they have to fight with. That that's a reality that is in them. The good news, however, is that God has given us the Word. The Word and the Spirit together form a formidable foe against all this. Not human philosophy, not marketing strategies that make something attractive and then you hope they will be chasing after it, but the clear teaching of the word of God is that power that deals with this sin that is in their hearts. I love the way in which Paul puts it in 2 Corinthians 10, verse four to six. 2 Corinthians 10. It's a famous text. It says there, For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God. And take thought captive, take every thought rather captive to obey Christ. And then he adds, being ready to punish every disobedience when your obedience is complete. In other words, it is true that there is a formidable foe, but here is the good news, brethren. You have in front of you a book that Paul considers or calls All scripture is God breathed and is therefore profitable to handle all these so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. So take with you this book and fight that good fight. Don't abandon the Bible thinking that something else, popular, secular, psychology, is going to produce the kind of people that will glorify God. Don't think like that. It is said that a bad carpenter blames his tools. That's a saying I learned from the English world. We don't have an equivalent in my tribe. But the main point is this, that most likely, if you are finding that your preaching and teaching ministry is not arresting that magnet that is in the lives of God's people, don't blame the world. There is something that you need to learn about handling the Word of God more effectively. Paul himself was very confident when he dealt with the preaching of the gospel. These are unbelievers he came to in Corinth on his very first visit when he began to preach the gospel there, and this is the way he puts it in chapter two and verse one. And I, when I came to you brothers, this is his evangelistic preaching, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech and wisdom. In other words, I didn't come in with philosophical ideas in order to arrest that sin in your hearts. He said, I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And I love the way he puts it at the end there. Why did he do this? He says in verse four, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, again, philosophical ideas, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. So that's the first aspect I really need to drum home, and it is this. You are not sitting with people who are already just waiting to know something and they'll go that way Yes, they do, but they've got a fight to fight with an enemy within And that fight will be won through the Word and through the Spirit So that brings two implications to you, and that's part of the challenge and demand. First of all, it is the fact that you need to study how to preach God's word well. In fact, let me change it a little bit. You need to study how to preach God's word better. In other words, grow. in your handling of the Word of God. There are different aspects to preaching. Preaching is a science, preaching is an art, Preaching is relationship. In other words, you grow in your relationship with your hearers and so forth. But in the end, it is you to learn to communicate divine truth. in such a way that you are being effective and the spirit of God is using that effective way to get to the hearts of the people. In the history of Baptist work in Zambia, in terms of its early years, the pioneering years, There was a lady by the name of Olive Dock, D-O-K-E, who was a missionary from South Africa and helped the most in laying Baptist work in Zambia. She arrived in 2016 following her brother. By 2021, her brother left, and she, with a number of others, remained, but she was really sort of that outstanding person. But in, sorry, did I say 2013 or something? It's 19, so 1916, she came, 1921, her brother left. Then in 1931, she handed over the mission, to a local guy, an indigenous pastor, who remained the primary leader until 1954 when he died. But this is what she says about him. Oh, by the way, let me describe him a little bit quickly. He was a leper, so he had no hands and no feet. And often, in evangelistic work, had to be carried to different places. And when he was on the mission station, he was in a kind of first-generation wheelchair, just made out of wood. But she describes him, she wrote his biography in 1959, but she describes him this way, that he had a way with words that others seemed to have lacked. He would get up in that pulpit, well, suppose get up with his wheelchair, but so communicate the same truths of the Bible in a way that just demanded people to listen. In fact, she went on to say, he was never married, by the way, up to the time he died, but she said he was so involved in sorting out the mess that was in so many marriages. Those of you who are pastors, in fact, we were talking about the same issue earlier on. Those of you who are pastors, you know that half the times when you are failing to sleep, you're trying to sort out marriages. Well, that's what he was also doing. the levels of help that was able to give to these marriages. She just said, this is the man who really should be leading here. And I, together with other missionaries, should take a second place behind this indigenous leader. So all that to say, That's something we need to realize, that your chief weapon, that weapon that God has given you is your ability to take this God's Word and communicate it effectively to your congregation. I say a lot with respect to this in the book, but let me try and put it this way, that don't be theatrical. Don't think purely in terms of tricks. If I can sort of use that and use that, and then I'll be able to leave that to the world, You are not an actor, you are a shepherd. I really need to emphasize that. You are a shepherd. And therefore, God is using your message through your voice and your gestures to communicate divine truth to so deal with that sin, that power that is in the hearts of your people. So that they can grow more and more in dealing with the area of sanctification. Dealing with the area of sanctification. Let me move on to yet another area. And I will take a little longer, but this will take me to the end here. This is an important area, and I call it double listening on your part. It's a phrase that I have borrowed from John Stott. He's written a book that has come out under two titles, so you might know it under one or the other. The first title is Between Two Worlds, and that's really what I mean by double listening, okay? But a more recent title was, and that's the one I have at home, it's entitled I Believe in Preaching. It's really the same book. But it taught me something that I am indebted to him for. And it really amounts to this, that a preacher must have one foot in the Bible and one foot in the world. And his job is to bring these two things together, especially before God's people. So let me take you first of all to Titus chapter one. Titus chapter one, and I'd like to spend, yeah, the last few minutes putting all this together. Titus chapter 1, and verse 12 and 13. Before we get there, OK, let me read this, and then I will get to the verses before and after. One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, Cretans are always liars. evil beasts, lazy gluttons. This is not a good description of the people. But Paul says this testimony is true. That's the way the people are in the culture. Paul is saying, I have labored on the island of Crete and I am agreeing with this prophet of theirs. because that's the way I have found these people to be. Then he says, therefore, rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in their faith. In other words, ensure that you are not accepting this kind of lifestyle from the people of God. Now, I mentioned that I wanted to read just before, this is what he says about the elders who are going to be appointed in verse 9. The elder must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so he's not novel, he's not a maverick, he is somebody who's being faithful to what has been taught all along. Why? So that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it. So he's giving teaching according to sound doctrine and at the same time he is hard on this fact. You Christians must be different. We should not accept that you should simply continue to live as everybody else out there is living. Now, what it therefore means is that you as a pastor must be aware of the way in which people are living out there. You must be. You must see that life that does not glorify God. So that you are able to turn around and say to God's people, that's not the way God wants you to live. Instead, his word demands that you live like this. And that's what we now see in chapter 2 of Titus. So it says there, but as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. Why the but? Well, it's because in the previous statement, he's talked about the kind of lives that people who are actually religious are tending to live. He says they profess to know God, but listen to this, but they deny him by their works. Their lives contradict what is happening. What's happening? They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work. Paul is saying that's not the way they should be. Therefore, you teach not sound doctrine. He's already taken note of that. Teach it, but teach what is in accord with sound doctrine. In other words, you've taught sound doctrine. Teach a life that is parallel to that sound doctrine, that is not contradicting that sound doctrine. And what is that life? Well, he begins in verse two. Older men are to be super-minded, dignified, self-controlled, and so on. Older women are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, slaves to much wine, so that they can teach or train the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, and so on. Verse six, likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled. Verse nine, born servants or slaves are to be submissive to their own masters in everything. They are to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, and so on and so forth. A life that is different. Now, the reason why Titus can do this is because He is among the flock. He is seeing what is wrong. And therefore, he should be able to address it. Brethren, I cannot overemphasize this. You see, a visiting preacher, has the luxury of coming through with his three favorite semons. That once he preaches, he preaches everyone out of their socks, their, wow, what a great preacher, we need to make him our next pastor here. And off he's gone. But not you. You should be within the flock sufficiently for you to be able to say, okay, we will begin a series in this book, and when I start touching on these issues, I'll be able to deal with the issues that are among the people here. After all, the text itself is taking me there. There must be this aspect of the world and the Bible in that sense coming together through you And you will notice it quite easily also as a contrast between a church planting missionary who's come from outside the context with the first leaders who are indigenous. You notice it? Because the church planting missionaries come from outside doesn't know the real currents that are taking place underneath there. He doesn't really know them. So there's a bit of a superficial relationship and so on. That's what Olive Dock would have been like. But now bring in that first indigenous pastor, Paul Kasonga. By the way, Paul was just given to him as a name because of his leprosy, so it was considered as a thorn in his flesh. But now, he was part of the culture. He knew what he himself had to repent of because of the word of God. So he had one foot in the world and therefore was dealing with those issues through the exposition of Scripture. Oh, that God might help us to do that. Because if we are just flying 10,000 feet above sea level, or they'll appreciate what a deep theologian you are. And then they'll go out and live lives that are not different from the world. We must have our feet in both places so that when now we are dealing with God's word, addressing those issues that are dulling sins, In our people, well, we park there to borrow a picture from driving a car. We switch off engine, we even throw away the keys. So God's people know that God's word is now addressing us. We must deal with that which does not glorify God in our actions, but we need to begin with the heart. Because as I said, that's where the issues are, with the heart. Let me hurry on to close then, with these words. Be balanced. in your Christian work, your Christian preaching. Be balanced. What do I mean by that? Think of two books in the Bible, in the New Testament. One is Romans and the other is Ephesians. There are perfect examples of what I want to say here, in that in the book of Romans, up until the end of chapter 11, Paul is giving doctrine. That's what he's doing. One or two very slight applications, very slight, but really he is laying that doctrinal foundation. The doctrinal infrastructure is being put in place. And then, as he enters chapter 12, he says, in view of God's mercy, which he has just expounded, offer your bodies as living sacrifice. And that's what we need to learn to do. The indicatives must undergird the imperatives. We need to do that so that God's people, based on what they have learned in this foundation, are enabled to do that fight with their own hearts to ensure they erect a godly life. Be balanced. Don't just go in there and start demanding change. That was the biggest mistake I made as a young pastor. Because in my own study, I saw these truths, and therefore I came charging into the pulpit, demanding change. And people had lived all kinds of lives prior to my arrival. They were not going to change overnight. I wasn't laying that foundation. And hence, they were scampering all over for cover, running away. And me, I was saying, well, they're just hard-hearted, just going to continue, and so forth. the Lord had to deal with me in due season. Lay that foundation well. Ephesians is exactly the same. A lot of the first three chapters is doctrinal, a lot of it, laying that doctrine of the gospel. And then as he enters into chapter four onwards, he's largely now applying largely applying, let's ensure that we are balanced. It is that doctrinal foundation that is like putting gunpowder into a cannon and really making sure that it is stacked at the back there and then you put in that boulder that's going to be fired. That strength is important for that final charge that's going to be effective in bringing down the citadel of Satan in the lives of the people. Be balanced. And then lastly, which is what I will go on to deal with the power here, and it is this. Ensure therefore that you are preaching well and relevantly Preaching well and relevantly with the two feet in the two aspects of the world Now what it will do is it will make you a true shepherd of the sheep. A true shepherd of the sheep. I've already hinted at this and with that I must close. Every so often we have a visiting preacher and God's people love it. At the end of the service, I'm standing with him at the door, and the kind of praises he's getting turn me a little envious as I'm listening. And even in the car park, as ladies are talking and young people are talking, it's like, wow, this is the greatest preacher on this side of eternity. But I know I'm a shepherd here. I've got real business with God's people here. When I stand before the Lord, it's not nice praises that will make the Lord say, well done. It is the shepherding task, the lives that have been produced, and I know that there is that full nature in them. That's a lot of the homework that I still have. Amen.