Preach What You Practice – Part 1

The young preacher approached the stage. The crowd of people awaited to hear what the man of God would say. When he opened his mouth he spoke unlike any other preacher of his day, he told of every shortfall he had struggled with that week. He spoke of meaningless fights with his wife. He spoke of being jealous of another member of the church staff. He remembered treating a cashier at the grocery store like a piece of trash. He told about the lustful thoughts he had about his friend’s wife. He told about the many times he even doubted the existence of the God he preached about.

It went on and on, people excused themselves rather quickly down the aisles of the church. They just didn’t understand why this “Man of God” would tell people every shortcoming of his week. They thought he would never do such things (well at least most of them).

What you don’t know is that the preacher was forced to tell everything he did for the week, because he felt it was time for people to see what he practiced, instead of what he preached.

He wondered what might happen if he would experiment with his sermon that week. He wondered what might change. He had spoke for Sunday after Sunday about all the good things of God, all the church had done in the community, and all the souls that were saved. He grew tired of the plasticized version of the good news, he needed to see God move again on people’s hearts.

His actions that day began something that no one ever would have expected…