(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Amen, so we're in Jeremiah chapter 1, Jeremiah 1, and I'll just remind you of a few verses there from verse 4, Jeremiah 1, 4, where it said, Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee, and before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. Then said I, O Lord God, behold, I cannot speak, for I am a child. But the Lord said unto me, Say not, I am a child, for thou shalt go to all that I send thee, I shall send thee so, and whatsoever I command thee, thou shalt speak. Be not afraid of their faces, for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord. Then the Lord put forth his hand and touched my mouth, and the Lord said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth. See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant. And the title of my sermon this morning is the Purposes of Preaching, the Purposes of Preaching. I'd like to pray before we get going. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for, Lord, well, the, you know, the prescription of yours to your people, which is preaching, Lord, preaching the word of God, and, you know, we have people that have come here this morning to hear your word preached, and I just pray that you just help me to preach it as you'd want me to, to preach this message as you'd want me to, Lord, and full of your spirit, and in a bold way, in an accurate way, in a clear way, in a way that people will be able to think about it, dwell upon it, and, and realize that preaching is there for, for everyone here to grow from, to, to be strengthened by, but, but it also has other purposes as well that we're going to see today. In Jesus' name, pray all of this. Amen. Okay, so keep a finger here and turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 14. 1 Corinthians 14. I try not to slur my words today. I've been, had a bit of a busy few days, was, was on a ferry in the middle of the night last night, so I'm a bit tired, but I'll, I'll try and get through this, uh, without making too many errors. So, uh, 1 Corinthians 14. You're turning to, you, you may walk into a church like this and, and get a bit of a shock, maybe, for some, whereas some kinds, kinds of churches, the, the focus is mainly on the music, and if you've noticed in some churches, that's what it's really all about, it's the music, it's, it's the, um, you know, it's kind of, there's a big band that is a focal point of the service, maybe, um, and other things like that. Sometimes it's all about the specials as well, so you get churches where, you know, there's one special after another, there's people doing, sort of, just performances for people, they're not necessarily even singing along, and a lot of the services are about that sort of thing. Sometimes it's soloists as well. I've been to churches where suddenly, for no reason, suddenly someone gets up in the middle of the service and they're singing a solo to everyone, and they, uh, you know, and they're really wailing away, and they think they're one like Pop Idol or something, or the Christian version, that's kind of what it's about, and that's what people are talking about, and after the service, that's really what they came for, but it was a real, you know, something really pleasant on the ears, and, and others, you know, it might be a lot about choirs, so if you think about maybe the old, you know, a lot of the, you know, the, the traditional, still probably the, the, at least the most well-known churches, when people think about churches in this nation, if they're unchurched especially, they can think about a Church of England type church, an Anglican church, a lot of those will have a, a load of, you know, the bigger ones will have like a full choir, and a lot of it's about that choir, and, and some of it, some of it's just choirs singing, sometimes even in the hymns it's more about the choir, you know, there's a few old ladies maybe muttering a bit under their breath, and the rest of it's these, these boys in these funny old dresses, they call them cassocks, I think, and they're standing there in funny outfits singing, and that's a big part of the service, that's what church is about for people, that's what they're coming for, for some the main focus is on that vain repetition in that service, in those sorts of churches especially, so it's about going through that sort of repeated, memorized sort of prayer, or you know, whatever the, you know, the sort of format of the service, and they just, they just know what they do, it's kind of, they just murmur and mutter the way through, they know what they're meant to be getting, and for others maybe a different type of church might be the so-called signs and wonders, and it might be about getting there and seeing some miracle today, and promises of miracles, and maybe someone just, just can't believe it, they just said a load of stuff that no one understood, you know, it's a miracle, it's amazing, praise God, or something with their so-called tongues and everything else, so there's a lot of stuff going on in different, in churches, but in our sort of church, the majority of the service is good old-fashioned biblical preaching, isn't it, that's the majority, it's about an hour usually, the sermon out of probably approximately an hour and a half just over service, and some might be here and just not really understand why, and think, well, why is it, why are we not spending all this time on all that other stuff, why is the majority of this service, why is it geared around, why is the Bible reading really to present that sermon, what is it about this preaching, right, some might get a bit frustrated, isn't it, they might be sitting there going, you know, okay, I get it, if it was a 10-minute sermon there, but the guy's going in a 40-50 minute, so now sometimes it goes into an hour 10 and 20, you know, and there must be something better we could do with our time, why does it have to be that long, why does it have to be constant sermons, maybe some wonder that, some might wish that maybe there was a bit less Bible, maybe a bit more PowerPoint presentation at the back, why don't have the old pull down, and why don't we have some visual aids at least, something to help us kind of get through it and to tantalize our eyes a bit, our senses, and, you know, make it a little bit more exciting, maybe some might wonder why aren't there a few more stories, a few more poems, a few more props, a bit more audience participation, maybe, you know, some people like that sort of stuff, and look, it's not that all of that stuff's bad, you know, some of that can help a sermon, stories can help, can't they, you know, they can help you remember a point, they can help maybe, maybe show a point, poems are easier to remember, you know, poems are easy to memorize because they rhyme, and it's easy to memorize that sort of thing, it might be, you know, for some point, some biblical truths can be shown in poetry which can help, props can help, you know, help you remember a sermon, remember a point, and of course we like audience participation, we encourage, we encourage you to our men, we encourage the men to our men, we encourage the women to nudge their husbands when they're allowed to, amen, okay, we encourage that sort of stuff, we like participation, but all that stuff is secondary to biblical preaching, it all is, it's secondary to the biblical preaching, and why? Because it's what God prescribes to his people, God prescribes biblical preaching, and when you go to that great physician, and he is a great physician, okay, unlike a doctor's surgery today, where they might ask you some questions, they might, you might be lucky, and they might look up from their computer screen and actually get you to stick your tongue out, they might even look in your ears if, you know, they're really feeling hands-on, okay, you might get that far nowadays, you know, God doesn't have to do all that, because he's kind of got a cure-all for most spiritual sicknesses, like the kind of era of just antibiotics for anything, well, God though, he has actually a well thought out, and a tried and tested cure-all for spiritual sickness, and it's some leather lung preaching from the word of God, and that solves most problems in life if you allow it to, if you allow it to solve your problems, that leather lung preaching will solve problems in life, it's a man of God with the spirit of God preaching the word of God, that's God's prescription for God's people, and although that's one of the jobs of a pastor, it's not just a pastor that is called to preach, okay, so of course a pastor, a lot of his job is preaching, and there's a lot of other things he does as well, but a pastor's job is to preach, it's not just a pastor's job though to preach, other men of God, men in a church can preach. In 1 Corinthians 14, Paul is writing to the whole church at Corinth, okay, and if you're in 1 Corinthians 14, I'm just going to quickly quote 1 Corinthians 1-2, 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 2 that says that this epistle is unto the church of God which is at Corinth to them, plural, that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours, so he's clearly preaching to them that are sanctified, to saved people in this church, but not just those, because if you're saved you're a saint, but with all that in every place call upon the name of Christ Jesus our Lord, so to save people, yeah clearly, the Corinthian church and anyone else that reads it that saved, Paul's talking to here, let's see what he says, to all these saved people, he said in verse 1, follow after charity and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that you may prophesy, so spiritual gifts are great but the preference is to be able to preach, that's what prophesying is, it's prophesying God's words, and considering that we have the inspired, preserved, completed words of God here, we prophesy when we preach them, so if you're preaching the word of God you're prophesying God's words, for he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men but unto God, for no man understandeth him, howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mysteries, so the ability to speak a language that no one knows isn't helping anyone even if he's speaking mysteries, it says in verse 3, but he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification and exhortation and comfort, so the preaching edifies, it exalts, it comforts, he that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifies himself, but he that prophesy edifies the church, and specifically here we're talking about preaching to the church aren't we, said in verse 5, I would that ye all spake with tongues but rather, so yeah great if you can speak unknown languages you can just suddenly just speak a language that you'd never learned before, great, but rather that you prophesied, for greater is he that prophesyth than he that speaketh with tongues except he interpreteth the church may receive edifying, so speaking unlearned languages, although being an amazing gift, you can, I mean you can imagine people would have loved to have been able, I'd love to do that, to just suddenly speak a language, to have that gift to just speak a language I'd never learned before, because it takes time to learn a language doesn't it, takes time, it takes effort to just be able to do that, what a gift, great for soul winning as well, I mean that's a great thing, you know, sometimes you're out soul winning and you think if only I spoke that language, if only I could speak that language, but it's not going to edify the church as a whole, this is what it's talking about when it's talking about in the church setting, unless I've got an interpreter, so if I suddenly was speaking a new language that I'd learned here, unless there was someone to interpret that, it's a waste of time isn't it, obviously okay, so God through Paul said I would rather that you were all able to preach, and how do you know if you're able to preach, so how do you know that, I'll tell you how, by getting up and preaching, by getting up behind the pulpit and preaching and trying to preach, and like I mentioned in the announcements, by getting involved with for example a beginner's men's preaching night, how do you know if you've got something which Paul said is so important, that's better than even that miraculous ability to just speak languages, which could get people saved, which could, you know, which would just show the power of God all this back then, obviously when there was that miracle still to be able to do that, even better than that would be the ability to just get up and preach, because of what it can do to the people in the house of God, to God's people, because of all the effects of preaching, so how do you know, get up and preach, get involved, we've got beginners men's preaching nights, we've got a men's preaching night, and I know a couple of people have dropped out, but we've got a men's preaching night tonight, if people really wanted to do what God wants them to do, and the men here learn to preach, get preaching, then we should have people going, yeah I want to do a men's preaching, when's the next one, when's the next one, you know, because God says it edifies the church, it's such an important thing for God's people, he said to them in verse 39 by the way, verse 39 there, he said, wherefore brethren covet to prophesy and forbid not to speak with tongues, so he said to basically desire to preach, you should desire to preach, you should covet in a good way to prophesy, not to uplift yourself, not to feel good, not to cut it and put it on your social media to impress people, that's not the reasoning, the reason is, is to edify the church, what does it mean to edify, because you might have heard that word a lot, I've heard that word a lot for many years as a believer, I keep hearing, I kept hearing the word edify, and I think, you know, for me at first I thought, is that just means like to make you feel good, you know, well it edify me, it made me feel like a bit better, I kind of heard some interesting stuff, well let's see what the dictionary definition here is, edify is number one to build in a literal sense, number two to instruct and improve the mind in knowledge generally, and particularly in moral and religious knowledge in faith and holiness, and number three to teach or persuade, so teaching, preaching edifies, doesn't it, it instructs, it improves the mind in faith, in holiness, in more religious knowledge, it teaches, it persuades, but it also exhorts, which is to encourage or incite to good deeds, it's not, oh just to encourage you in a general way, backslap, no, it's to encourage you on to doing good things, to incite you to do good stuff, good deeds, and in God's eyes you could probably imagine what sort of things are good deeds, it also comforts, and in various ways, including us in our faith, doesn't it, preaching comforts you in your faith, in the things that you're doing, because sometimes you're doing some things which you're thinking, yeah this I think what God wants me to do, and then you can get a bit shaken and a bit unsure, and preaching comforts you in that, and it comforts you in your faith, look, often we talk about it a lot, especially when we do the bible studies, that's why the bible studies are so important, okay, is that when you're going through these bible studies and you're just seeing everything lining up, and the whole bible just lining up together, and pictures of things in the old testament about things that are to happen, things that did happen, all these things that it just strengthens your faith, doesn't it, you come away from studying the word of God just thinking, wow, the word of God is nothing but the word of God, it's amazing, that's why it's not just about the Sunday morning sermon, it's not just about the Sunday evening sermon, it's not just about the Wednesday evening sermon, the whole lot we need, God prescribes it for us, and as we see, okay, God wants his people preaching, and of course we're referring to the men here, okay, in case anyone gets carried away, 1 Timothy 2 12 says, but I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence, okay, so Paul made that very clear, okay, you are just can't believe it, well tough, take it up with God, okay, take it up with God, but however if you go back to the culture of the day, when he said that, he actually meant he suffers not a woman to teach, okay, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence, exactly what it means today, all right, and for those that don't get that, look, whatever, go to a church where they, where you've got a lot of limp-wristy little compromises who find any which way they can to appease the culture of today, but that's not what this church is about, okay, we're going to preach what the word of God says. God wants real men of God to get up and preach his real words of some goals in mind, okay, go back to Jeremiah chapter one, Jeremiah one, where Jeremiah is called, Jeremiah is called by God to preach in Jeremiah chapter one, it says in verse four, Jeremiah one four says, then the word of the Lord came unto me saying, before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee, and before thou camest out of the womb I sanctified thee and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. So some will say, well, God never told me to preach though, so yeah, okay, he told Jeremiah, he never told me to preach, but he did, he did a lot along with all those saints in Corinth, he told you to covet to prophesy, didn't he? It was to everyone, everyone that calls upon the name of the Lord, if you're saved, if you put your faith in Christ, he wants you to covet to desire to prophesy, he said in verse one, he said follow after charity and desire spiritual gifts, back in first Corinthians 14 this was, but rather that you may prophesy, he said rather, rather that you may prophesy, out of all those spiritual gifts that we went through a few weeks ago, rather that you may prophesy, and the word of the Lord therefore just came to you this morning, so for anyone going, well, I haven't been called, the word of the Lord came to you this morning, because I just, I just read it to you, and God said covet to prophesy, he said rather that you may prophesy, and when it came to Jeremiah, okay, when God said that before he made him, before he was born, he had him in mind to be a preacher, Jeremiah still had an excuse, look at verse six, said then said I, oh Lord God, behold I cannot speak for I am a child, so Jeremiah was likely a teen, I believe, and we don't know exactly how old he was, but that's my thoughts on it, and most teens out there are embarrassed to just talk in general, aren't they, a lot of the time, not all, but a lot of teens are just embarrassed to even have a conversation, let alone preach someone's face off, most teens, that's probably not what they're, they're kind of excited about doing, yeah, I just can't wait to get up and preach, most teens are, you know, sadly you talk to a lot of teens, and they kind of talk to you like this, they don't want to look at you, and you know, that's kind of how it is a lot of the time, right, but the Lord said unto me, verse seven, say not I am a child, for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee, thou shalt speak, and, and that's the key when you're nervous about preaching, when you're worried about what to preach, and you can, you know, you can get like that as a preacher sometimes, you're like, I don't really know, you know, what do I, what should I preach this, this service, what should I preach at this men's preaching night, what should I preach in this, this sermon this day, what should I expand on, even when you've got it laid out in a chapter that you're studying through, what should I expand on, what should I, where should I go with this, well he's given you a 1189 chapters here to preach, okay, so it's all here, so if you're wondering and you're thinking, well what subject, what everything else, well it's in the Word of God, look in the Word of God and find something to preach on, right, and second Timothy 3 16 17 says all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works, it's all here, it's all here, we only have to preach it, so it's all here, if you're wondering, if you've got no inspiration, read your Bible, open your Bible, read some Bible, you'll soon get some inspiration of what to preach, often sometimes, sometimes thinking, what does the church need right now, and I just start reading some scriptures, read a few things, and then it just starts coming to me what I want to preach, you know, if you want to know what to preach, open up your Bible and find something to preach, verse 8 said, be not afraid of their faces for I am with thee to deliver thee saith the Lord, and whether it's the backslid in Jerusalem or the local New Testament church in 2024, you're going to get some scary faces sometimes, really, and I'm not trying to knock anyone here who maybe, you know, looks a bit scary without meaning to, okay, sometimes you get some people that are pretty, they get pretty angry sometimes by the preaching, sometimes they try and cover it in certain ways, sometimes people are just, you know, and you're not trying, you're not trying to look for it, but you just scan a room and suddenly it's like, whoa, you know, and a lot of that is just natural, so it doesn't mean there's some wicked, vile person, okay, when you're preaching hard on someone's sins, don't expect them to be jumping for joy and high-fiving you, okay, so if, again, you're covet, coveting to prophesy, it's not to be popular, because I think some people get confused with this, they see preaching on YouTube, they're thinking this is great, look at this, what, you know, it's almost like fame, fame to preach the word of God, but that's not why you're preaching, because the reality of it is most people don't like the message at the time, often, if you're preaching our God, and it's not that we just preach hard on everyone every single week, but when you preach the word of God you're not going to get popular from that, you know, if you're in it for popularity you'll soon be out of it, okay, that's not what it's about, you're going to get people with scary faces sometimes, okay, and maybe, look, maybe they have the character to eventually jump for joy, to eventually say thank you, I actually needed that sermon, some people do, look, some people come up to you going I really need that, some people they're fuming, they're angry, they're upset, you know, and it could take a while, sometimes you have to wait for that, the worry is obviously when the scary faces every sermon, so if they look scary every sermon then either they've got some real sin in their life and they just hate you, but usually it could be on and off, and sometimes sermons will upset people, sometimes they're going to challenge people, but it doesn't matter if you're preaching because God's with you, if you're preaching the word of God, God's with you, verse 8 said, be not afraid of their faces, okay, you don't have to be afraid, for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord, then the Lord put forth his hand and touched my mouth, and the Lord said unto me, behold I've put my words in thy mouth, and again just to remind you, okay, when you preach it's a word of God that we're preaching, not some pet scripturalist doctrine, that's not what you're here to preach, and of course we're not just reading the Bible though, so some people go too far with this and they just want to almost just read the Bible, okay, that's not what we're doing either, you can do that at home, okay, no one, you haven't come here to just hear me read the Bible, you could read your own Bible, you could even listen to a better Bible reader on audio, okay, no, just like in Nehemiah 8a and you don't have to turn there, but preaching hones in it, expands and explains a word, so they read in the book and the law of God distinctly and gave the sense and caused them to understand the reading, that's part of the purposes of preaching, but it's a word of God that we're preaching, not the latest scholar, it's not that we're preaching out of, you know, well we're preaching Schofield's notes, or we're preaching like Larkin's charts, or we're preaching whoever, whatever scholar's kind of idea and interpretation, or re-preaching another pastor, as well some people do weird stuff like that, you know, like you don't need to re-preach anyone, yeah, if you're preaching a word of God, get up, be yourself, and preach what the same Holy Spirit lays on your heart and helps you to preach, because people get weird with this stuff, you know, I even had someone not long ago email me, it was someone from abroad somewhere, I don't want to say who it was, but they sent me this email with, it was like a link to, I think it was all the preachy or something like that guy, look, all these NIFB sermons, he said you could access these and then you could re-preach them, it's like, cheers pal, you must really hate my preaching, you just need to re-preach someone else, and he's like, I ain't re-preaching no one else, I've never re-preached anyone else, I never will re-preach anyone else, I'm going to preach what I want to preach out of the word of God, not what someone else has preached, and look, and it should, a lot of the time it will be similar, won't it, because we have the same Holy Spirit, but if you're just re-preaching someone else, then, look, you need to go back and just think, look, do I understand the word of God or not, and it doesn't have to be complicated, because some people get a bit confused, they're like, well, yeah, but how would I explain this, and how would I, look, just preach something simple, just find a passage, find a scripture, find a sin, and just preach on it, it's the word of God that we're preaching, okay, he said in verse 10, see, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant. Now notice that Jeremiah, okay, probably some spotty, awkward, embarrassed kid, maybe his mum's still still tying his sandals, I don't know, okay, maybe he's still like having to get them buckled up before he goes out, or whatever, however they did it, right, okay, maybe he's just some young kid, right, when he gets up to prophesy, he is set over the nations and over the kingdoms, he's a boss when he's preaching God's words, when he's preaching God's words, he's a boss, and that's something that will help you massively, when you hear preaching, you need to submit to the authority of God's word, now it's not that that person is suddenly a better person than you, it's not that they're suddenly above you in all areas of your life, but while they're preaching the word of God, you need to have a submissive attitude to the word of God, and of course to the word of God, so yeah, you should, you should understand enough, and you should study your Bible, read your Bible, and be able to think and understand and know whether that person has preached the word of God or not, and obviously if I start preaching unbiblical stuff to you, then no, you don't need to submit to the word of God, which isn't the word of God, but when it's the word of God, submit to it, right, submit to that preaching of the word of God, but as well as that, okay, as well as that, when you preach, when you get up and thunder forth the word of God, you're no longer just another person in the church, okay, so when you preach as well, you've got to bear that in mind that you're set over the nations, you're set over the kingdoms, you're the one wielding the two-edged sword, preach it like you believe it, preach it like, yeah, I'm preaching the word of God, I'm preaching to these people, and God's given me now this opportunity to wield that sword, and if you have that attitude in mind when you preach, you'll have that boldness and more confidence to preach it how God wants it preached, you know, we don't want to preach verses like, you know, we've just seen, you know, preached, or maybe, you know, I might not even quote it today, but for example, you know, great verse of the Bible, preach the word, be instant, in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine, and how much difference would it be if I preached it like this, preach the word, be in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine, it's a big difference, isn't it, right, a big difference, and but while you're preaching it, while you're up there, while you're behind the pulpit, you preach the word of God, you're preaching it like you've been set over the nations and over the kingdoms at that point to preach it, that's that's a good thing to have in your heart, okay, and like I said, therefore, then when you're sitting here and you're listening to that preached, you need to submit to that, right, you need to humble yourself, and like I said, as long as it's biblical, don't rebel, don't rebel to the word of God, don't get all like, because people can quickly stiffen their neck, suddenly in their mind he's preaching at me, and suddenly they won't hear the word of God anymore, they can't deal with it anymore, they get all like hissy-fitty about the word of God, and people can get like that, and you see it a lot, I've seen it a lot over the years, instead of just submitting to the instruction of God's word, Proverbs 19 20 says, hear counsel and receive instruction that thou mayest be wise in thy latter end, you want to be wise, you want to be wise as you go through your years, hear the counsel and receive the instruction that comes from God's word. He said to Jeremiah, he said, see I have set thee, sorry, see, I keep saying it, see I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms to root out and to pull down and to destroy and to throw down, to build and to plant, the title is the purposes of preaching, because there are multiple purposes to preaching, and I'm only going to cover some today, some main ones today from this verse, and there are other things that come from preaching, there are other purposes of it, but I want to just look at some of these today, because I think a lot of this is lost, a lot of this is forgotten about, a lot of this just people aren't aware of, and whether you've done some preaching, you plan to try preaching, or you sit in church and listen to preaching, I want you to understand today a bit more about the goals of preaching. Coming to church isn't just about us feeling good, and I know that again, people find it hard, because in their mind it's like, well where do I go to feel good today? It's all about their gratification, but it's not, it's not just about that, yeah you should get, sometimes you should come to church, and often come away thinking yeah, you know, that was good, I enjoyed, I enjoyed worshipping God, I enjoyed singing to the Lord, I enjoyed being around God's people, I enjoyed listening to the word of God preached, that's all good, but it's not just about that, it's not just about reminding us what great people we are, it's not about giving our ears a tickle, the purposes of preaching are number one here to root out. Number one, first purpose I want to look at today is to root out, verse 10 said, see I have set, see I have this day set thee over the nations, over the kingdoms to root out. What does it mean to root out? Well turn to Deuteronomy chapter 29, Deuteronomy 29, where Moses is warning them of not turning away from God, Deuteronomy 29, he said that if you do, if you do basically okay, if you turn away from God then this is what people will end up saying, says in verse 25, so Deuteronomy 29 and verse 25 says, then men shall say, because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord God their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, for they went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods whom they knew not, and whom he had not given unto them, and the anger of the Lord was kindled against this land to bring upon it all the curses that are written in this book, and the Lord rooted them out of their land in anger and in wrath and in great indignation and casts them into another land as it is this day. So it's to be like a plant uprooted, completely, you know, removed basically. How's that a purpose of preaching? Well for Jeremiah he was separating those that were receptive to God's word from those that weren't. He was rooting out the opposition and that's what hard preaching does still to this day, okay, it roots out those that like verse 25 have forsaken the new covenant. When a preacher preaches salvation clearly, clearly being the operative word here, okay, not sits on the fence or is a little bit vague and uses a few terms just to try and hope everyone, you know, will kind of, it will appease everyone on different sides of it. When he preaches salvation clearly, that it's grace through faith alone in Jesus Christ, there ain't no works before, during or after. There's no special little extra works you need to do to be saved because it's all about what Christ did, not what you do. He roots out many of those that forsake it. Many, not all, but he'll root out many. It's very hard to sit in the church where salvation is clear as day, where it's been preaching a pulpit and you're being told clearly what it takes to be saved and if you haven't put your faith in Christ alone, you're still trusting your works, you ain't saved. That's a bit of a hard thing to sit in if you ain't saved, you know, that's a bit of a hard one. So it roots out many of those. Preaching roots out those that serve other gods like verse 26. Verse 26 says, for they went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods whom they knew not and whom he had not given unto them. When a preacher preaches on those idols of life, those different idols, those different gods with a small g that people set up in their lives, the idols of money and fame, all these different things that people put up here, different hobbies, different sports that are up here compared with God, different goals in life that are up here compared with God. When a preacher preaches on that, for those that want to cling to them, it will eventually root them out. There's only so long you'll take before you just find it hard to come in the God's house when you're hearing your idolatry being preached on regularly from behind the pulpit. When a preacher preaches hard on church disqualifying sin, and that stuff needs preaching on, God didn't put that in there just for a laugh, just to kind of, oh, take it or leave it. When a church preaches hard on that stuff, preaches hard on drunkenness, on fornication, on idolatry, on railing, on extortion, he's preaching on that stuff, some will leave rather than risk getting kicked out. Some will just go, okay, I can't be in there because they're preaching hard on that stuff and my face is burning while I'm feeling that preaching. When a preacher exposes false prophet behavior and just shows what that sort of behavior is, how people work sadly at church, some will just leave so that they can work from the outside instead. That's what happens often. And when a preacher calls out the sodomites for what they are, which needs preaching, doesn't it? When a preacher calls that out, when a preacher calls out sodomites, some will just turn up next week with a sodomite, like we had before, and then they get kicked out. You know, and it's, look, people do weird stuff sometimes, all right, but you say, but we don't want anyone rooted out, so you might be going, what's going on here? Does he just want everyone to reach out? No, no, in an ideal world, okay, people will respond to preaching, they'll get right, they'll sort themselves out, that's what we want. But both 1 Corinthians 5-6 and Galatians 5-9 said that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump, a little bit of sin basically will affect the whole lot. Preaching could sort the weak from the chaff, the hackers from the non-hackers, those with a backbone from those that flop around, okay. Go back to Jeremiah 1, and I'm going to show you in a bit as well, because ultimately, look, God wants people that are able to be a part of that army in the army, but preaching will sort that out. Preaching will narrow it down like those 300 were narrowed down to 300, that's what happens a lot of the time with preaching. Go back to Jeremiah 1, we're looking at the purposes of preaching, they are number one to root out, and number two to pull down, to pull down. He said in verse 10, see I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms to root out and to pull down. Now what is a preacher pulling down? Turn to 2 Corinthians 10, 2 Corinthians 10. In 2 Corinthians in chapter 10, Paul tells us about how our spiritual weapons do some pulling down. He said in 2 Corinthians 10 and verse 3, for though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. So strongholds are fortified places, places that are hard to break through basically. What sort of strongholds do we pull down? It's the strongholds in people's lives, the sins that many cling to. Verse 5 says, casting down imaginations in every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God and brings into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ and having a readiness to avenge all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled. He said that we have weaponry that's mighty enough to pull down strongholds. We have that ability and let me tell you where that weaponry is often best mounted over pulpits like this. That's where that weaponry, that's where that word of God will thunder forth best, that's where that 50 caliber has maximum impact. When you're firing the 50 cal you want it mounted, a pulpit's probably a good place to mount it, and you want to be able to get maximum spread. So when that weaponry is being fired out, if I was preaching to one person at a time it doesn't have that maximum impact, does it? So it's to get people in to preach. That's obviously why we put it on live on YouTube as well. We want maximum effect from that preaching, pulling down multiple strongholds at once. One of the big goals of preaching is to pull down those strongholds. For example the booze. Not just about getting rid of people, ultimately you want to get it out of people's lives before it destroys their lives. Before they go, oh well it's fine I've been socially drinking for years. Okay great, and then when something really bad happens in your life and it stops being social drinking and it starts to be drinking, you cannot stop. You find it impossible to stop because it becomes your crutch, it becomes what you lean on. To preach on that stuff, to preach on the fornication. That's a stronghold that needs pulling down in people's lives. It needs preaching and you need reminding. Even some vanity that just stops you serving God properly. Because there are many things that just need pulling down out of your lives that those strongholds need pulling down because they stop you just serving God. They stop you being in church. They stop your soul winning. They stop you reading your Bible. They stop your prayer life. They stop all those things. You might skim read. For example in your Bible reading Proverbs 20 and verse 1, wine is a mock of strong drink is raging and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise. You might just skim read that. You read that and then you read a load of other Proverbs it goes straight out your mind. Then you turn up at church and the preacher is calling you an idiot. You turn up at church the preacher is shouting from behind the pulpit, you're an idiot if you drink. He's giving you verse after verse. It's not just the one verse. He's giving you verse after verse after verse showing you that you're an idiot. You're an idiot if you think that Jesus turned gallons of water into alcoholic wine for a booze up. You're an idiot. You're an idiot if you believe that drinking alcohol is somehow a blessing when it ruins lives all over the world. You're an idiot and you hear that preached and it's like yeah this is a bit harder now to carry on with that. That stronghold is getting torn down in my life. Or you walk out of here and it sorted the wheat from the chaff. And the thing is with that yeah it's not always you know sometimes like I said you can read a Bible and I'm not trying to get on Bible because read your Bible okay. You should be reading your Bible every day and the Bible reading look sometimes you do read your Bible and you get a slap around the face don't you with it. Sometimes you read it and you read a verse and you just feel like I've just took a slap around the face there. But when you come into preaching sometimes you get the slap around the face and then as you go to put your hands up the body shot comes in instead. And then you lower down for the body shot and then you get another one around the face and it's like it's verse after verse he's hitting you he's smashing you. And that's part of what preaching does that's part of the goal of preaching we hone in we focus in maybe on a subject. And it's very hard for you to walk out of church then without and keep that stronghold up it's just been getting hammered from the pulpit. You think that a bit of fornication is just your problem. God understands nowadays everyone does it right hey you know they're all doing it around there what's the big deal then the preacher gets up and preaches first Corinthians 6 15 know you not that your bodies are the members of Christ shall I then take the members of Christ and make them the members of an harlot God forbid and screams that you're joining the church to some whore to some whoremonger you're joining this body to some whore or whoremonger and you sit there and you hear it and hopefully that stronghold is getting torn down in your life. Maybe it's football teams it's video games it's obsession with proving your manliness women with your high flying career because you're just sorry to show that you're able to be a man or whatever it is the preacher will tear down those strongholds he'll tear them down he'll pull them down and leave you standing there exposed and ready to run into God's safety. Go back to Jeremiah chapter 1 the purposes of preaching are number one to root out number two to pull down and number three to destroy what purpose number three is to destroy said in verse 10 see I've set thee I've set I have this day this is a tongue twister for me right I'll get it by the end I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms to root out and to pull down and to destroy what is it that a preacher destroys how about false doctrine how about false doctrine unbiblical or inaccurate teachings that will eventually destroy you how about that turn to titus chapter one titus one where after the qualifications of a of a bishop we use the we use the word pastor obviously okay he reminds titus of the job at hand he said in verse nine turn to titus one and titus one nine titus is reminded to be doing this he said in verse nine holding fast the faithful word as he has been taught that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers for there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers especially they have the circumcision whose mouths must be stopped who subvert whole houses teaching things which they ought not for filthy lucas sake that's money one of themselves even a prophet of their own said the cretians always lies evil be slow bellies this witness is true not about the cretians a witness that this is what these guys are saying wherefore rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith not giving heed to jewish fables and commandments of men that turn from the truth so titus was told to teach sound doctrine and to beware of the many deceivers whose mouths must be stopped it said here he said to rebuke them sharply so that the others are sound in the faith is what i think he's saying there and that is a big part of a preacher's job isn't it destroying false doctrine okay that's a big part of what a preacher should be doing and we do that by both preaching sound doctrine okay so that's a big part of destroying false doctrine is by preaching the true doctrine and also by calling out the false doctrines out there sometimes they need calling out sometimes those false doctrines need to be named as shame that's why we call out for example the repent of your sins false doctrine and don't avoid it in case there's someone out there apparently in la la land who's heard it talked about for ages but but actually just means admit you're a sinner because apparently you've got to be really careful preaching against repent of your sins because there might be someone out there who actually just meant oh i just meant you've got to admit that you're a sinner well why don't you just say you need to admit you're a sinner instead of saying you've got to repent of your sins but that's why we call it out that's why we preach on it that's why we preach hard on it because that is a wicked damnable heresy out there and it needs preaching time and time again because that's when you're going to get all over the place aren't you that's why we call out false teachers by name sometimes when needed to destroy their subtle false doctrine because sometimes it could be some subtle stuff out there as well can't it that's why when we get a sniff of false doctrine out there okay and sometimes look you just get a sniff sometimes you know it's funny you you're around a church you just hear something being mentioned you see something sometimes you just get a feel for a false doctrine and then we preach it hard from the pulpit not worrying about upsetting whoever believed that false doctrine we just preach it we preach it hard that's what a preacher should be doing that's why a preacher doesn't sit on the fence on important doctrines instead he preaches it clearly okay and that's why i did have it in my notes i thought i didn't second timothy four two timothy was told to preach the word be instant in season out of season reprove rebuke exhort with all long suffering and what doctrine doctrine we have to preach doctrine yep a preacher is to preach doctrine okay and when he does that he destroys false doctrine the the when we're just regularly preaching just just hitting the doctrines showing why we believe what we believe and regularly preaching it you're destroying false doctrine go back to jeremiah one so the purposes of preaching are number one to root out number two to pull down number three to destroy and number four to throw down the purposes of preaching are to throw down verse 10 said see i have i have this day i got it set the over the nations and over the kingdoms to root out and to pull down and to destroy and to throw down so did he want jeremiah to get a bit physical do too there do you think do you think he wanted him to dole out a few beatings a few throw downs so you know maybe maybe you get the ushers to bring someone up to the stage and then sling them off or something well when we see the term throw down in scripture it's usually referring to false religion look at um you turn to judges chapter two judges two and i'm going to read ezekiel 16 39 so you'll turn to judges two but in ezekiel 16 39 god told the idolatrous jerusalem through ezekiel that they would be destroyed he said and i will also give the into their hand and they shall throw down thine eminent place and shall break down thy high places they shall strip the also of thy clothes and shall take thy fair jewels and leave thee naked and bare so the high place is being placed of idol worship as we've been looking at in in uh the book of isiah recently he said they they'll throw down nine eminent places shall break down our high places now in judges two two the angel of the lord warns the children of israel and judges two two and you shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land you shall throw down their altars but you have not obeyed my voice why have you done this so that's the altars of false religion okay and in judges six if you just go over to chapter six after gideon is visited by the angel it says in verse 25 so judges 625 and it came to pass the same night that the lord said unto him take the father's young bullock even the second bullock of seven years old and throw down the altar of bale he said throw it down that thy father hath and cut down the grove that is by it and build an altar unto the lord thy god upon the top of this rock and he ordered place to take the second bullock and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the grove which thou shalt cut down so gideon was told to throw down that false religion of his father's and look whether it if it's someone even that you like that you you feel close to even in the house of god when you get up behind the pulpit you need to throw down those false religions whoever seems to be clinging to it and instead build up the true religion and before you build you need to throw down and and you you're basically throwing down what's in the way okay let me tell you what's in the way false religion false religion is in the way of building up the true religion it damns people to hell it prevents him hearing the gospel it perverts the truth doesn't it and one of the jobs of a preacher is to grab it and throw it down do a throw down on that false religion throw it down from the top turnbuckle from the top of the cage needs to get up there and needs to throw it down yeah and not on a soft bit of canvas the the ecumenical utopia sounds good to some doesn't it i mean it oh it sounds lovely doesn't it just everyone's just a different path to heaven we had a woman at a door it was like with you was it with you brother the other day she she was going i believe that everyone she said she's super weird yeah she's like a c of e vicar type you just she just didn't quite have the dog tag on at the front but she was like or whatever a dog collar she's going yes everyone is going to heaven everyone and baby Bella was like well you know the bible i don't care what the bible says every path and then she kept looking at the kids going hey kids every path hey in the end we just say oh okay we gotta just there's just nothing to say to her you know just got ridiculous but it sounds lovely every path great right but it's a lie from the pit of hell okay it's a lie if if that was true then the bible's wrong then in fact most of their their false religions are wrong as well right and why would you do any of that you might as well just go for like whichever is you know whichever one you fancy just go oh you know oh islam seems a bit tough for me which work salvation will i go for i'll go for the uh the work salvation where all you have to do is just not really do too much too bad not be as bad as someone else you are you know it's it's all just work in a way they're right you know i've said this before they are all many paths all different paths of work salvation to hell okay they're all they are all different paths to that one place which is hell that's what false religion is but we need to grab it we need to throw it down and because there's only one way okay and and as for all the others for some 119 10 forces through thy precepts i get understanding therefore i hate every false way so the more you read the word of god the more you understand god's precepts the more you get the understanding from the word of god the more the result is that you then hate every false way so that's why you're because people that will hear preachers from behind the pulpit and other people maybe in a church i hear them aiming when they're going you know that this religion this catholic church is wicked these pentacles are wicked and they're like what a bunch of meanies i just can't believe it why aren't they why aren't they just saying oh you know they all mean well they're just well many people know because those religions are wicked and because if we're getting the understanding from god's precepts we should therefore hate every false way not be a fake who pretends you just love everything how could you love the religions that are damning people to hell so those altars need throwing down the preacher does that by exposing them for what they are they're different versions of work salvation lies and people need them throwing down so they can be built up properly go back to jeremiah chapter one so the purposes of preaching are number one to root out number two to pull down number three to destroy number four to throw down and number five to build to build he said see i have this day set the over the nations and over the kingdoms to root out and to pull down and to destroy and to throw down to build now turn to ephesians chapter two now ephesians chapter two what is it that a preacher is to build well individuals up spiritually for starters okay we should be from behind a pulpit when you get behind a pulpit one of the jobs one of the things we could think about doing is just building people up spiritually helping them with their spiritual lives reminding them of what god wants them to do remind them of their reasonable service but also not just spiritual not just individuals but also godly homes part of preaching is to build godly homes is to remind people of of of the right way of being of being a good father a good dad being a good mother a good wife being good children we have many children in this church often and to and to remind people how to have that godly home and and all of that though is a part of building uh legitimate soul-winning churches so without the individuals being built up spiritually without the homes being built up spiritually being godly homes we won't then be able to build effective soul-winning churches look at ephesians 2 he said in verse 19 ephesians 2 19 now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of god and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets jesus christ himself being the chief cornerstone now that's the only foundation that a real preacher can build upon okay it's it's obviously on jesus christ the chief cornerstone he said in whom all the building fitly framed together growth unto an holy temple in the lord in whom ye also are building together for an habitation of god through the spirit so the preacher is a part of building that holy temple he's building up the individuals through the preaching to be a solid part of that building first peter 2 5 says you know certainly yields those lively stones a built up spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifice acceptable to god by jesus christ so the idea is that we're building up that building we're building it to be an effective building a strong building a building that can withstand attack withstand you know different arrows thrown it can can withstand when people will you know backslide leave or will you know for different reasons etc and we'll just keep thriving keep building getting stronger getting stronger if if a preacher preaches a load of compromising fluff he's not really building any of that okay if it's just kind of fence sitting if he's never preaching any of the hard stuff he's never he's never building anyone he's never building anything he's just telling you you're all lovely you're all great and isn't it wonderful that we're saved by grace now look that's good stuff and look you know you know some people get too carried away with this where they're just you know they just can't believe that you know that preacher he's shouting he's banging the pulpit he's preaching about lives he's preaching about things in life but that is a loving thing to do often it needs preaching that stuff will not only destroy your life it will destroy churches so it does need preaching but on the same hand you know bear in mind that that the opposite if if you were coming into this church and just hearing every week how you know well it's grace man isn't it great and let's just you know look again at how loving jesus christ is yeah god's loving and i don't think we neglect that in this church well you know often you know we appreciate so much what he's done for us we appreciate the word of god we appreciate salvation but on the flip side if that's all i was preaching that's not a loving thing you ain't being built up by that you're not sorting out the issues in your life with that you're not resisting sin with that you're not resisting the things that will pull you out of the battle pull you out of the fight if a preacher preaches soft messages the building will be soft and it just won't build properly okay though you can't build with soft bricks because what happens they just fall apart they can't take the weight they can't take the pressure they can't take the onslaught that does and will and will continue to come on a church like this a big purpose of preaching is to build that's a big purpose of it go back to jeremiah one the purposes of preaching are number one to root out number two to pull down number three to destroy number four to throw down number five to build and last one number six is to plant to plan he said in verse 10 see i have this day set the over the nations and over the kingdoms to root out and to pull down and to destroy and throw down to build and to plant now turn to psalm 92 with that in mind turn to psalm 92 and he said finally and to plan now one way you could look at this is that the preacher plants seeds with for example the parable of the sower in luke 8 11 we're told what that seed is now the parable is this a seed is the word of god and although that is true okay preaching from behind a pulpit can get people saved and it does get people saved you know we don't have to think that it's impossible to get someone saved from behind a pulpit people get have been saved from sermons and that will continue to happen and and whether though you you preach from behind a pulpit or not if you're saved you should be planting seeds shouldn't you that's everyone's job everyone here should be planting the seeds of the word of god by going out and preaching the gospel however another purpose of preaching is to plant people it's to plant people how does a preacher plant people well look at psalm 92 it says in verse 12 psalm 92 12 the righteous shall flourish like the palm tree he shall grow like a cedar in lebanon those that be planted in the house of the lord shall flourish in the courts of our god so it's planted them in the house of the lord that's how we plant people that's one of the goals of preaching it's to encourage to inspire people to be in church that's a big part of preaching it is to encourage you to be here encourage you to be planted in the house of god and of course look the cynic would find negative reasons why of course okay so the cynic will say things like you know it's for it's just for the numbers it just needs a following whoever it is preaching maybe the parts of a church it's for the donations it's for the money people will find some reasons some some ways but you know when it comes to biblical preaching a real house of god that's not really why that shouldn't be why the reason is that god wants his people planted in the house of god and why does he want that well he said in verse 13 those that be planted in the house of the lord shall flourish in the courts of our god because they're going to flourish how will they flourish they shall still bring forth fruit in old age they should be fat and flourishing to show that the lord is upright here's my rock and there is no unrighteousness in him it's because they shall still bring full fruit in old age that's such a big part of it that's that's such a big reason why you'll hear preachers in in proper preaching proper churches trying to get you to stay in the house of god trying to get you to plant yourself in the house of lord wanting you to to just consider it that that's and so often you'll hear it and you think oh he just wants people he just wants the numbers it really doesn't make much difference i preach to three people here i preach to 50 60 people i preach to 150 160 people it doesn't really make a big difference to me but it does to the people who are in here and the people who aren't in here because being planted in the house of the lord is for your own good and it's for the good ultimately therefore of the unsaved because that's really what it all comes around to doesn't it okay because the more you're in church the more chance there is of you getting other people saved because i tell you what there isn't there aren't swaths of soul winners all over this world that ain't in church do you know where they're getting sent out by churches sometimes they're getting sent out by churches that aren't even in their nation sometimes they're getting encouraged by churches nowadays with youtube there is that ability but do you know where the most soul winning is going on is out of a soul winning church and that's ultimately what it affects so you being planted here and it's not just what you being planted here means you're going to be encouraged to go soul winning it's going to build up the rest of your life that and and get rid of all that stuff that hinders your soul at least so much of it so that sin i was all talking about what does that sin do they're the weights the sin which does so easily beset us and what does it do it stops you so winning what does what does all those distractions all that vanity do it stops you so winning what does all that leaven do it leavens the rest of the churches stops them on mass so winning it all comes back to eventually getting people saved but there's so much that goes into a church to end up with that end product and you being planted here means that you will still bring forth fruit in old age you'll still be in the house of god if you're in the house god you're more likely to be going out and getting people safe and believe me there'll be attacks will continue to happen all over the place on you in different areas in different angles to try and make make you forsake church and not come into the house of god because once you're out of the house of god the soul winning will quickly diminish it will quickly end and if you're sitting here thinking well yeah but i'm i don't even go so winning or whatever else well you know hopefully with time being in a house of god like this with time you'll be convicted to do so and we don't pressure you we don't force you you're not we don't look down on people that are newer to these sorts of things and maybe aren't aren't doing much so when you maybe haven't learned to do it yet but ultimately that will be the result of being in the house of god of being built up of hearing the word of god preached regularly of being around god's people of of hearing of getting that sin out of your life of starting to get your priorities right in life the result the eventual result will be that you will you will be preaching the gospel to others because the more you're hearing about heaven and hell the more you're hearing about the preacher and that's why preaching on hell's important as well isn't it i didn't even mention that that needs preaching on right because without without hell being preached on without you being reminded of of what's at stake for the unsaved out there do people even want to go out and preach the gospel do you even care about your family your friends do you even care about the person across the road the person around the corner that wants to hear the gospel that would be happy to hear the gospel it just hasn't had anyone off for them yet and that's really what it comes down to so being planted in the house of lord is for your own good as well because he's and last bit on this is that you think well yeah that's all about other people what about me you know the the reality of it is aside from rewards in heaven aside from maybe some blessings in life whatever they might be or might not be the reality of it is that there is nothing more fulfilling than serving god there really isn't people try and they try and fill it in all these different ways and some people they end up in alcohol drugs and all these different ways to basically to cover for the fact that they're just not fulfilled and a life serving the lord and doing the right things and it's not a lot you know people then go too far because they see people that try and push this sort of this this extreme life where they do nothing else and they you know they they read the bible eight hours a day they they pray for four hours a day they you know they do nothing but spiritual things all day every day that's not reality but you know what being free to thrive in church soul winning once twice a week getting involved in events sometimes reading your bible every day praying every day getting sin out of your life being a part of a church like that and caring about other people in the church that is very doable that is very feasible and when you live like that it is it is fulfilling and you know you're doing the right thing and you'll be happy with that and you will with that bring forth fruit in old age you will be fat and flourishing in that you'll be flourishing in your spiritual life so remember that the next time you get tired of a preacher saying get your backside in church okay because it's for your own goodness for the good ultimately they're full of other people out there the purposes of preaching are number one to root out number two to pull down number three to destroy number four to throw down number five to build number six to plan and with that i just want to think about that have that on your mind next time you're feeling pricked next time you're feeling tired of getting preached out next time you're feeling weary you know of it of coming in and thinking oh man that's another sermon that seems to be hitting me a bit here that is something else that i need to work on that's something i'm having trouble with god ordained preaching for those purposes let's appreciate god's ways yeah on that we're going to finish it in a word of prayer father thank you for your word thank you for um well lord the the prescription of preaching that you give to all of us lord to help all of us help us all improve help us all um improve in our lives and improve spiritually to be stronger lord to to be built up to be planted lord to be um to be in this house and and and also that preaching you know it will help us with that by tearing down you know those pulling down those throwing down those those idols those false gods those false religions and and destroying the false doctrine lord help us um to just appreciate it for what it is and not just for me preaching for other men in here lord to want to preach to want to learn to preach to want to be a part of preaching and to want to be able to to preach from behind this pulpit and and you know and also to to see if maybe you know there are men out there in this church lord that maybe have a gift they don't know about for preaching and we'll be able to to really you know make a difference in people's lives by getting behind this pulpit lord help us to um to all just have a heart to do that to do that help us all to covet to prophesy all the men here and all the women here you know to to appreciate what the preach is for what a difference it can make in their lives to support those that are preaching lord to appreciate you know what what what it is that that you know you prescribed for everyone here and how important it is that we are you know focusing on on preaching in this church lord not just today not just next week but going going onwards lord for the life of this church and uh we pray that uh we'll get out and um and get some souls saved this afternoon lord in return for the evening men's preaching not in the just known for all of this amen