Feed Them a Feast!

I once heard a well known pastor say that it is a sin for a preacher to bore people with the greatest message ever told, that being that Jesus paid the price for our sin. I agreed with him then, and now, having reflected on it for over two years, I agree with that statement even more.

I got to thinking about how the people Jesus taught loved to listen to Him. In Matthew 15:32-38 Jesus said that the multitude had been with Him three days and were now hungry. Imagine what it must have been like to have a crowd of four thousand men, plus women and children, listening to message after message for three days. Think about what that must have been like. When kids get hungry they keep on asking their parents for food. Can’t you just see the little kids tugging at their dad’s and mom’s sleeves saying, “I’m hungry!” and their parents telling them, “Hush. I’m listening to the Teacher.”

The people were absolutely glued to Jesus. His message was not simply truth, but it was entertaining as well as life changing.

So I’ve been thinking; how do we make our messages entertaining as well as life changing? So people focus so much on being entertaining that they lose the life changing aspect. Others focus so much on being Biblical accuracy that they bore people half to death. Still others are so focused on life change that they lose the people right at the start of their message.

The Sunday following 9/11 churches were filled to capacity with people, many of them hurting, scared, and searching for answers. I would venture to say that many of those people really had no idea what they were hoping to find, other than they were hoping to find something that would give them hope in the midst of the despair they felt. Sadly, many of those people apparently did not find what they were searching for, because in only a few short weeks the average church attendance was back to pre 9/11 numbers.

What happened? People were searching for answers, they came to the right place, but we bored them with our version of what they needed to hear. As a result they left, feeling we had nothing to offer them, when in reality the message of Jesus is the only thing that will satisfy them. How did we miss our target so badly? How did we fail so miserably? Perhaps the real question is, “How did we fail our Lord so badly?”

1. Is my message good news? If we are preaching the gospel (gospel means “good news”) then our message must be good news.

2. If my message does not sound like good news to the listener then it’s not good news. I’m not preaching to me! I’m not my audience! My listeners must hear what I am saying and must be convinced that what I am saying is good news for them. Otherwise I’ve lost the very person I’m trying to reach. We must learn to think like fishermen. Fishermen use bait the fish like to eat, not what they like to eat. Many fishermen use worms, but I have yet to see a fisherman eat those worms themselves.

3. We must use words, terms, stories, and illustrations which are understandable and attractive to those we are trying to reach. Many preachers are still using words and illustrations that are older than they are. Society has changed and our culture has changed. Jesus used words, terms, and illustrations which captured the interest of His audience. We must do the same if we are going to teach like the Master Teacher and present life-changing truth is an interesting way.

4. Ephesians 4:29 tells us to speak only according to the need of the moment. Do we teach what we want to teach, or do we teach according to the need of the moment? Do we spend time alone with God to learn from Him what He wants us to tell His people? Many preachers are more concerned with what the people think of their message than they are about what God thinks of their message. Many preachers will take a message prepared by another man for another church, spend a few hours to make the message sound like them, and then will preach a message totally unsuited for their crowd. I sincerely pray that you will never be so sloppy that you feed God’s people leftovers.

So next time you prepare to preach or teach, do what Jesus did and feed them a feast they will never forget!