Beware of popular preachers.<\/p>\n
How in the world can I say that?\u00a0 Many of my favorite speakers and preachers have very big audiences.\u00a0 And they are good.\u00a0 And I like it when my own pastor makes me feel good, sometimes.<\/p>\n
Okay, on the other side, do you know a pastor who always speaks powerfully from the Word of God, and yet consistently has a very small following, after a decade or more?<\/p>\n
Now, consider all the people in the Bible who were spokesmen for God.\u00a0 How many of them were consistently popular, with large and favorable audiences throughout their ministries?\u00a0 Help me out—I’m struggling to think of a single example.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“Not everyone that says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that does the will of my Father which is in heaven.<\/p>\n
Many will say to me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not preached in your name?\u00a0 And in your name have we not cast out devils?\u00a0 And in your name have we not done many wonderful works?’<\/p>\n
And then I will profess unto them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you that work iniquity.’ ”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Jesus said that.<\/p>\n
And what does it mean to really follow Him, including His unpopular warnings and promises, and the cost?<\/p>\n
Beware.<\/p>\n
Be careful whom you endorse.<\/p>\n
Be careful whose endorsement you seek.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Beware of popular preachers. How in the world can I say that?\u00a0 Many of my favorite speakers and preachers have very big audiences.\u00a0 And they are good.\u00a0 And I like it when my own pastor makes me feel good, sometimes. Okay, on the other side, do you know a pastor who always speaks powerfully from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith_based"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}