I love preaching.  There are few greater joys in my life than unpacking the truths found within the pages of Scripture.  As a Youth Pastor I love preaching each week to my students.  I love watching God transform the lives of my students as the truths begin to take root.  I love preaching to other groups and learning what God is doing in their lives as well.  I also love when I have the opportunity to preach to the larger church as a whole.  For most Youth Pastors this opportunity probably doesn’t occur very often throughout the year.  Regardless though, whether you are preaching often, for your students, or for an outside group there are two dangers that I feel you must constantly be guarding against when preaching:

You must guard against a discouraged heart

We have all been there.  You preach your heart out…and no one moves.  No one even twitches, sneezes, or barely makes eye contact.  God did so much in you while you were preparing and studying to preach the message.  You were so sure it would be impactful…but instead you get crickets.  Then afterward, just to make things better you are greeted with, “that was a really great message.”  If you are anything like me in that moment, you find this “compliment” while well-meaning, to be devastating.  It was never about the message itself.  It was the power of the One the message spoke of.  It was about the power of the gospel to save, to give hope, to give relief.  It was about confession and repentance.  It was about a merciful, loving God, intersecting lives in a moment of time to rebuke, reprove, encourage, and save.  We do not have to look any further than the prophet Jeremiah to find encouragement here.  A prophet called by God, who preached faithfully his entire ministry, and yet as far as we know never saw one person repent and heed the warnings.  Trust the Lord to be faithful to His gospel.  Oh my friend, guard against a discouraged heart.

You must guard against a BIG fat head

Just as you must guard against a discouraged heart, the opposite is equally true.  You preach your heart out (and it may even be terrible), for the church at large.  Maybe you are filling the pulpit for your pastor, or maybe it is just an opportunity to preach for the church.  Either way, when the service concludes you are greeted with person after person telling you what a wonderful job you did.  How powerful your message was.  How you should preach more often.  Now to be honest and fair there is nothing wrong with that.  Where we must guard is only hearing those things and beginning to think more of ourselves that we should.  There is a huge element that change is refreshing.  If they were hearing you and I every week, the accolades would not be so abundant.  You would not likely  be so intentional in every aspect of your preparation and delivery.  The encouragement is great and needed for sure.  Hear the encouragement…be encouraged.  You may have knocked it out of the park, but keep your head in check.  Do not allow criticism in your own heart to creep in against those that do preach every week.  Do not allow yourself to forget the weight of the message you and I carry when we preach.  Dear friend, guard against a big fat head.

What about you?  Do you struggle with these things?  What are other dangers you feel you need to guard against in your preaching?  Leave a comment below and share!

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