salesman or preacher?

One of the more difficult things I have ever tried to do is to convince someone to believe in something that I did not believe in.

At times, preachers are guilty of preaching a “gospel” they aren’t living. I am not necessarily referring to the problem of duplicity or a hypocritical lifestyle. I am more talking about the times when a speaker deals with a difficult topic and does so because he has to, not because he is passionate about it or buying into the concept being presented. He is not there himself but he is trying to get his followers there.

This Sunday’s message could be (won’t be) an example. I am talking about A Confident Future. People really need this message because there is so much trepidation about the future. People are scared of an uncertain tomorrow. So my job becomes giving them a biblical view of the future and showing them how God has promised to be with them no matter what.

I have to believe this or I have no business trying to talk others into it.

I do believe it. I do not believe that the future will be easy. I know it will not be problem-free. And I am not dumb enough to try to sell people on the idea of times getting better. But I know for sure that God still loves us and, even though He has told us that things will get very difficult in the future, He will be with us and He will see us through. I am confident about the future.

I am not selling that. I am living that.