If we’re not careful, how we preach can teach the wrong thing …

Some preachers are so set on staying as far away from talking about sin or hell or anything “negative” that how they preach can actually teach the wrong thing.

It’s similar to a story about a young boy who had a little white mouse. The boy’s father noticed the little white mouse had been sick for some time and it had become apparent the little white mouse was not going to recover but would soon die. Wanting to prepare his son for the loss, he called him over to him and placed him on his lap.

As the boy sat with a sad expression on his face, the father said, “Look, son, you know your little white mouse has been sick and it could be he’s not going to make it. But I want you to know it will be okay. In fact, if something happens to your little white mouse, here’s what we’ll do …”

The dad paused for a moment as his idea took shape.

“I tell you what,” he said to the depressed boy, “If something happens to your little white mouse, you and I will go off and spend the day together. We’ll go out to the amusement park and just have a blast riding the rides and playing the games, and we’ll eat hot dogs and cotton candy. After that, we’ll go shopping at the game store, and we’ll finish off the day taking in a movie that you get to choose. What do you think about that?”

The little boy with the sad face looked up at his dad and said, “Let’s kill it!”

Killing the little white mouse was not the idea the father wanted to plant in his son’s mind! But how he talked to his son taught the wrong lesson.

The same is happening from pulpits all across the country as preachers paint the picture of God being our cheerleader, of God being for us. The methodology is one of constantly portraying God as being there to support and empower US that we’re teaching people that is God’s purpose — to serve us.

That’s a very different picture than how the late theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, says Jesus preached to people: “When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die.”

Jesus didn’t take the cheerleader approach with people when He preached; He did, in fact, bid them to come die to self …

“Then he said to the crowd, ‘If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it,” Luke 9:23-24.

The Gospel message is less about God being our cheerleader, our source of power to be plugged into and used for whatever we want, our “genie in a bottle” or “god in a pocket” — and instead is about a gracious God who bids us to die to self so we can experience an entirely new life in Christ, a new life as members of His own family, a new lived for Him, to His glory.

Instead of teaching people that God exists for our purposes, it is essential we preach the truth that we were created for HIS purposes!

“Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation, for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see – such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through him and for him,” Colossians 1:15-16.

In the story about the little white mouse, the dad tried to alleviate the emotions of his son. That is how too many preachers try to preach today, with an attempt to alleviate the emotions of their listeners. Employing this method will routinely lead to teaching the wrong lessons.

If we’re to avoid teaching the wrong thing, we have to not be ashamed of preaching the Gospel …

“For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes — the Jew first and also the Gentile,” Romans 1:16.

Are you preaching in an effort to alleviate the emotions of your listeners? Or when you preach, do you bid people to “come and die”?

Scotty