I recently was listening to a question and answer podcast by a pastor that I’ve highly respected over the years.  And the question posed to him was something along the lines of, “How much should a pastor get into correcting the cultural muck of our times, in the pulpit?”  While the pastor answering has a lot more years of experience, has published a lot of books, and is light years ahead of me in intellect, I found something vital that was missing in his answer.

His answer contained a lot about guarding our hearts against enjoyment of speaking to the darker components of our culture.  To be serious in our handling of cultural sins, and he even gave really good advice to be sure to express the Bible as the standard for sin.

But there is something quite fundamental to preaching that has helped me tremendously to avoid the temptations to preach to the headlines.  Picking our way through the Bible book by book and chapter by chapter has a calming effect on the radical swings of contemporary culture.  It protects me from preaching sermons on the headlines.

Now quite often, contemporary things come up in my sermons, but it is only in the context of what the Bible passage of the morning has to say.  The Bible speaks into our cultural moment.  And it has been amazing to see how often, God has us in a book that addresses a specific topic or issue of importance in our cultural moment.  However, those times that the connection seems less obvious, I still trust that God has us talking about the subject He wants to address to ReCAST church for the day.

I don’t only trust His Word to tell us what to do . . . But I also trust His Word to be sufficient for the day.  Our times are all over the place.  Should I be talking more about UFO’S?  Stabbings?   Racial Tensions?  Iran?  Israel?  Ukraine?  Trump?  National debt?  Trans?

I am glad for a strong conviction from my youth, that Word of God is sufficient for the church.  Knowing the Word, preaching the Word, and following the Word . . . Is enough.  Expository book-by-book preaching saves me from feeling the pull to address every shift of the cultural landscape.  I keep informed about what’s going on, WHILE deeply pouring over a text of the Bible each week.  And the text of the Bible calms the tossing waves of the culture.  The Word gives me stability in my preaching.  The Word of God gives me stability in my life.