Better Chaplain Series - Get On Fire

The Bible is written in several genres, from poetry, to letter, to proverbs, to narrative. The diversity in which God has opted to communicate reminds us that he has spoken in many times in many ways through the prophets (Hebrews 1:1). It’s easy to fall into the error that it’s all just words on a page, but we can’t forget that it’s real people in real life circumstances meeting the real God and feeling real emotions, and it’s written for our sanctification (2 Timothy 3:17)!

How we speak these oracles of God ought to be derived from the text. If the speaker is angry (Numbers 11:10-15, Matthew 23), get angry! If the speaker is weeping (John 11:32-36, Proverbs 25:20), then be sad! If there is mocking (1 Kings 18:27, 1 Kings 22:15, John 11:37), then be incredulous! If the speaker is hopeless (2 Samuel 13:12-13, Jonah 2, John 21:17), make sure your voice is full of compassion! How much is lost on our hearers because we aren’t invested in the story?

As we read, preach, and share the Word of God, we ought to be passionate in the sharing, not just the words, but the power behind them. Many revivalists have called this “Unction.” In fact, Leonard Ravenhill said that the most important thing a preacher can get is unction, a Spirit given passion to know and share the truth. The opposite of unction is a passionless pulpit that treats the Bible like a textbook at best, and a burden at worst. He said the tragedy of the age “is that we have too many dead men in the pulpits giving out too many dead sermons to too many dead people.”

As a chaplain, in and out of the pulpit, we have access to the very power that can quicken a dead soul. If that doesn’t excite you, and your excitement is not contagious, then maybe you’re in the wrong profession.

Get on fire for God, and people will come to watch you burn. ~ Leonard Ravenhill

Key Verse: Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. ~ Romans 12:11-12

More:

1. Jonathan Edwards is famous at the beginning of his ministry for reading his manuscripts. Chief among these manuscripts was “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” which did much to start the First Great Awakening in the colonies that would grow to become the United States of America. Which is more important: Passion in the preaching or doctrinal fidelity in the preaching? Are the two mutually exclusive? Make it your goal to be passionately faithful as you are faithful to the Bible.

2. I had the privilege of preaching to a large crowd on a street corner on a warm Florida night. One man, leaning against a traffic light pole, was especially engaged in listening. When I concluded the sermon I offered an invitation for further conversation; as he approached I asked, “Do you believe it?” He said, “I don’t, but it sounds like you do, so maybe I should.” When you preach, does it sound like you believe it?

3. Chaplains who find their authority outside of God and the Bible find it hard to be passionate for the things of God. Voddie Baucham makes the point that some of them say they just don’t have any passion, yet he gives multiple examples (smashing your thumb with a hammer, hitting a golf-ball poorly, and a favorite team losing) that show that passion is not the problem, misguided passion is. Chaplain, you’re a passionate person, so if you have a hard time getting passionate about God’s Word, could it be that you have yet to understand its power?

4. Further Resources:

The Visual Bible: Matthew. Directed by Regardt van den Bergh. Performed by Richard Kiley and Bruce Marchiano. Visual Bible International, 1993. DVD.

Robinson, Haddon, and Torrey Robinson. Passion in the Pulpit: How to Exegete the Emotion of a Text. Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2003.

Vines, Jerry, and Adam Dooley. Passion in the Pulpit: How to Exegete the Emotion of Scripture. Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2018.

Baucham, Voddie. “Go Home and Love Your Wife!” YouTube Video, Jan 15, 2013. https://youtu.be/P4yS1Fzn3GM