“Celebrity Preachers” – FBC Morning Light (11/14/2023)

Good Tuesday morning to you. I hope you got off to a great start yesterday. Today we're reading

Ezekiel 33 and 34 and 1 Peter chapter 5. I read the end of chapter 33 and it just reminded me of somewhat the current state of affairs in the contemporary, even conservative, church.

There is a great danger when God's people, well -meaning perhaps, good -hearted perhaps, but when

God's people make preaching a form of entertainment and preachers out to be some kind of celebrity.

Let me explain what I mean by that. I've been aware, being a pastor,

I go to conferences and that kind of thing, and there are some who have the mentality that when you have a conference you have to have some big -name speaker that's well -recognized in the

Christian community, who's a great speaker, public speaker, and somebody that a lot of people like.

Because the thinking is, we grab someone like that and people will just come.

They'll just come because of the name. You know what? They're right.

They're right. They will come just because of the name. It's not altogether a guarantee that when they come to said conference and they hear such celebrity preacher, that they'll take to heart what they hear and their lives will be changed by it.

They may go out as they came in, but they will be delighted that they got to hear their favorite preacher.

I think that is actually a very real danger. The reality is that there are some who are even considered to be celebrity preachers who realize that danger and they try to minimize it as best they possibly can, because they know.

We live in an entertainment culture. We live in a culture where there are groupies for pop musicians, pop stars, and athletic stars, and so forth, and there's a tendency for some people to become groupies of great preachers.

Well, now why do I spend all the time on that? Because it's not new. It's really not.

You can go all the way back to Ezekiel's day, and we read about it in Ezekiel 33.

Listen to it, and it's very, very contemporary, I think. In Ezekiel 33, verse 30, it says, the

Lord is speaking to Ezekiel, and he says this, he says, As for you, son of man, the children of your people are talking about you beside the walls and in the doors of the houses, and they speak to one another, everyone saying to his brother,

Please come and hear what the word is that comes from the Lord. So they come to you as people do, they sit before you as my people, and they hear your words, ah, but they do not do them.

For with their mouth they show much love, but their hearts pursue their own gain.

Indeed, you are to them as a very lovely song of one who has a pleasant voice and can play well on an instrument.

For they hear your words, but they do not do them. And when this comes to pass, surely it will come.

Then they will know that a prophet has been among them. So what the Lord is saying here is, yeah, the people come, they want to hear you, they like to hear, they like to listen to you, they like to hear your preaching, but they don't want to do anything about it, they don't want to make any changes in their lives.

But, you know what? When what I'm telling you is going to come to pass, comes to pass, then they'll know, they should have paid attention, they should have listened, they should have changed, they should have repented.

And so it is, I think, with a lot of the contemporary celebrity gurus, or groupies,

I should say, celebrity groupies, who follow around their favorite preacher, they got to hear him whenever they possibly can, just because they love the sound of their voice, or whatever, whatever the reason, just because they're popular.

But their lives aren't really impacted by the preaching. This is a travesty.

And I want to encourage you today, enjoy good preaching. Enjoy it, but not for its entertainment value.

Enjoy it for the life impact value, for the change that comes to your life, because you are confronted with God's Word, regardless of the popularity of the preacher, how well known he is, how many radio stations his ministry is on, how many likes he gets on YouTube, regardless of any of that.

Pay attention to the preaching of the Word, and be more enamored with the Word, and impacted by the

Word, than you are enamored of some man, some celebrity, some mouthpiece.

So let's take that to heart. Our Father and our God, I pray, deliver us from this entertainment culture in which we live, where even some preachers can be more like celebrities, and can be treated as such by their followers.

Lord, help us to be more interested and consumed with the hearing of your Word, and the changing of our lives on account of what we hear, regardless of the preacher, we pray.

We ask this in Jesus' name. All right, well listen, have a good rest of your Tuesday.