The Preacher’s Vision
Originally recorded at Cities Church, St. Paul, MN — August 21, 2025
Full transcript
I am so grateful to be here with you all. Jonathan, thank you for this opportunity to serve a, my brother Mathis just said it in the back, a very dear group of brothers, fellow preachers, those called and tasked with preaching the word of God to God's people. I count this a great privilege and I also count this as a wonderful opportunity among you to grow in preaching. So thank you for your attendance. And again, thank you for this invitation.
Let me pray one more time. Father in your presence, we gather that we would grow in this tremendous call that you've given us to proclaim your word. And to that end, I pray that you would help us to do so. As your spirit will be at work in ways that we can perceive and in 10,000 ways that we may not be able to perceive. Shaping, molding, crafting us into the likeness of your son and granting us to be useful in the master's house.
So I pray for my brothers. I pray that these words that are on my iPad, father, to say to them, I pray that it would be one for your glory, that it would be for the glory of your son, that it'd be useful for the spirit to use, that it'd be for the good of my brothers and it'd be for the joy in sharing. I pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.
My assignment this morning, brothers, is to discuss the preacher's vision in his preaching. By preaching, I mean the person who is called to proclaim the word of God. Isn't it stunning? Isn't it in fact beyond stunning that the God of the universe has set you apart by his grace to proclaim his word? Be freshly amazed, brothers, that God has called you to preach.
Be freshly amazed at this privilege. And would your hearts always wonder and say, what a privilege it is to feed the church of Christ that has been purchased by his blood? This is why I'm glad to be here with you all this morning. By preaching, I mean proclaiming and explaining and applying God's word to his people. What is the preacher's vision when he does this then?
There are two questions at the heart of my assignment this morning. Question one is, what are we aiming for in our preaching? And question two is, what is the goal? We can readily see how important this topic is, can we not? Whether one knows it or not, whether one has developed it or not, whether one has articulated it, whether you have thought about it, every preacher in this room is fueled by vision.
Let me first explain how I'm using the word vision. A number of years ago at Bethlehem College Seminary, our then president walked us through a series of questions to chart our way forward as an institution. The questions revolved around mission and vision and strategy. These three words that have a rich relationship with one another, and yet often could be misunderstood. Mission, he described it like this.
Mission is what we aim to do. It describes an action that we engage in. Here is a mission text for preachers. You know where I'm going. Second Timothy chapter four, verse number two.
Preach the word, right? Be ready in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with complete patience and teaching. What fuels this mission is its imperative nature of this text. This is not a suggestion. This is not something simply you do at your convenience.
This is not something that you do because you're good at it. No, preach, imperative, the word. This is what preachers do. Preaching the word informs the preacher's mission. Vision, on the other hand, describes what we as preachers long to see.
Wrapped up in the word vision, in fact, is the act of seeing. Mission has action words and vision has descriptive words. Mission has imperatives and vision has images. By God's grace, the actions of our mission bear fruit. It gives success to it.
Then vision, it names the outcome that we hope to see. This way of describing vision informs my assignment this morning. When I ask about the preacher's vision, what I'm asking is, what does the preacher hope to see in his preaching? What is the outcome that he longs for as he carries out the mission of preaching God's word? The mission of preaching is successful by God's grace.
What is the desired result? That desired result, what he hopes to see, is the preacher's vision. Again, brothers, isn't it crystal clear how important of a topic that this is, to nail down clearly and to stand 10 toes down on, right? Isn't it easy to answer what the preacher's vision is in 10,000 different ways? We know the dangers of getting this question wrong, do we not?
We know the dangers here. We've seen the poison creep in, maybe even into our own heart. A brother who knows the mission rightly, you know, second Timothy, you know you're called to preach the word, but crashes out on the vision. What does he hope to see? What is the outcome he hopes for in the recesses of his heart?
He secretly hopes that his name will be made great. His church will blow up. His sermons will catapult him into the spotlight. He longs for recognition as the one whose teaching changes lives, whose sermons become books, whose platform expands, whose influence stretches beyond his pastorate. He wants his voice to carry weight, his eloquence and his humor to be praised, his hermeneutical precision and homiletical creativity to be admired.
And underneath it all, his pride is fed. His ego's stroked. His fear of being a nobody is soothed. His hunger to be seen as theological is satisfied. The idols multiply and the list just goes on and on and on and on.
No doubt, brothers, no doubt at all, that we must give ourselves to the actions that aid in the mission of preaching, right? Indeed, it is a good use of your time to grow in your hermeneutics. The text demands that you grow in your ability to see what the text says and then say what the text says rightly. No doubt in saying what the text says, we should grow in our hermeneutical skills as you bring the art of crafting words together to bear on the text and the craft words with artistry that demands the very best use of your words. That's good.
We aim to say what the text says skillfully, right? Nobody wants a plate with a pile of onions on the side, a pile of celery, a pile of shrimp, and a cup of chicken stock on the side. Nobody wants to eat that. But if you put those things together, you get something called gumbo. Come on, somebody.
And that changes the story, right? Now we're cooking with some gas here. Piles of ingredients is now a meal for your people to feast on. These skills of hermeneutics and hermeneutics are though matters of the hand that we should give ourselves to put to work in the mission of preaching. Vision, though, brothers, is a matter of the eyes.
And our eyes are always connected to our hearts. Our eyes, what you want to see, are a window into what your heart desires to see. What your vision is as a preacher, what you aim to see, it strikes at the level of our heart, which strikes at the level of our desires. Now sermon prep for this morning sent me on a search through a good amount of banker boxes to find this. Anybody got banker boxes at house where your books are and things like that?
And you're looking for the one book that's in the last banker box that you uncover? Sermon prep sent me searching for this right here. This is something that I constructed way back in high school. I graduated high school in 1995. This was back in the day.
And in essence, I called it a vision book. In this book, I was crafting a vision for my 17 year old self of what I wanted to be in life, what I wanted to see in my life, what was my vision in life, which was, as you could tell here with some pictures, to play in the NBA. That was my vision. And I crafted a vision book that had all different types of statements. In fact, I must've been struggling with confidence because that's what I titled this thing at the beginning, confidence.
And I have words in here that point me to greater confidence like confidence is everything I wrote in here as a young 17 year old. Ability is what you're capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. You see, I'm ready to run into the court with stuff like that, right? I can accept failure.
Everyone fails at something, but I cannot accept not trying. I'm just writing these things down. Practice equals preparation and that equals peak performance. And not only did I put words in here, but as you could tell, I put also various pictures. Michael Jordan back in North Carolina days and my boy Patrick Ewing, of which I have a seven foot Patrick Ewing poster and Michael Jordan some more and all the way through.
Pictures and images to draw from, to emulate from, to help me draw a fresh vision. Here's an example of what my vision was that I wanted to see. I wrote this. I'm not afraid to try to get into the University of North Carolina. Step-by-step, I'm gonna get there soon enough and play for Dean Smith, play at the Dean Dome, my next ultimate dream.
Well, I didn't get into North Carolina. I did get into Michigan. And my dreams just transferred from being a Tar Heel to being a Wolverine. And I went to school there, not simply to go to school, but to try my best to realize this vision and walk on to the basketball team. And as soon as I got on the court with those D athletes, D1 athletes, I realized very quickly that there's levels to this thing right here.
In fact, I saw very quickly that my vision needed a massive overhaul. Brother Tony, one day Isaiah Thomas walks into the gym during practice. The Isaiah Thomas, Pistons. And Allen Houston walks into the gym. Allen was still playing for the Pistons at the time.
I'm on the bench. And I said, okay, Allen is gonna do work. We had some, in 1995, we had a couple of blue chip D1 athletes who went to the league. One of them was track to trailer. This brother was 6'8", 300 pounds, moved like a point guard.
That's when I realized I probably not gonna make it to the NBA. I said, Allen Houston is gonna do work. He's a current NBA player and he did work. He didn't miss a jump shot. 20 footer, 30 footer, he didn't miss one.
Nothing but the bottom of the net, pop, pop, pop. But I said, Isaiah Thomas, that boy old. He was retired at that time. Said these D1 athletes are gonna mop Isaiah Thomas up. Brothers, let me tell you something.
Isaiah Thomas as a retired man cooked those boys. And I said, man, can you imagine Isaiah in his prime? Michael in his prime, Bron Bron in his prime. I better get a different vision. I better get a different plan.
I bring this book before you today because it represented what I wanted to see, what I desired, what my vision was, all coming from the heart of young, naive Louis guests. And it drove my mission to making the team, even to my detriment of not going to class. By my definition of mission and vision that I put in front of you, we can see the vital importance of getting the vision right. In fact, vision is what fuels mission. What you hope to see is what drives what you do.
It behooves us to ask then, where do we get this vision from? What shapes our desires that turn into influences of what we want to see? And brothers, I got some good news for you this morning. You don't have to search within yourself to find the preacher's vision. Is that good news?
The preacher's vision, in other words, does not originate from his own heart. Don't go looking for it there. We don't need to invent our own content for a vision book on preaching. God has already given it to us. He's given it to us in a book where a variety of preachers, proclaimers of his own word, set forth and point us in the right direction.
They set an example. And as proclaimers of God's word, we follow their example. From them, we learn that the preacher's aim in preaching is twofold. God's glory and the good of his people. If you don't remember anything I'll say today, the preacher's aim is twofold.
It's God's glory, it's the good of his people. What is the goal of the preacher? It is this, that in the proclamation of God's word, God would be glorified and his people would know his word for their good. The preacher's vision, his desired outcome, is for glory not of his own and for a good, not simply of his own. In other words, the preacher's vision is outside of himself.
It's other focus and to that end, because it's outside of himself and it's others focus, it is also the preacher's joy. What are we aiming for in our preaching brothers? Glory and good. And here is the good news about this aim. The glory of God and the good of your people are not at odds with one another, right?
I want you to consider for a moment how preaching aims to glorify God in the proclamation of his own word. Through preaching, our triune God reveals himself and is known. The preacher, like Isaiah in Isaiah 40, calls out to his people to say, behold your God. Behold him in his manifold attributes. Behold him in his holiness and behold him in his majesty, his love and his power, his sovereignty, his greatness and his might.
Behold him. Behold him in his plans and purposes and his pleasures and his promises. Behold him as your rock and as your refuge and as your savior. Behold him most clearly in Christ who came to make him known and when he did, he turned around and said, I glorified you on earth by doing so. The preacher's vision, his aim, what he hopes to see is that his people ascribe to the Lord the glory that is due to his name.
And preaching God's word makes it crystal clear while glory is due to his name. Crystal clear. Preaching God's word aims to make it crystal clear while it is the most right thing in all of the universe to say not unto us, oh Lord, not unto us, but to your name be the glory. And it makes it crystal clear how the most tragic reality in all of our universe is that we humans have exchanged that glory. Almost like we're returning an unwanted item back to Amazon.
Isn't that tragic? Test this brothers. Can you name a greater aim in preaching than the glory of God? The one who said, I am Yahweh, this is my name and my glory I give to no other. And neither does his preachers.
While the glory of God is the preacher's ultimate aim, notice that it is never isolated from the good of his people. Want you to consider how the proclamation of God's word is for the good of his people. In the preaching of the word, the triune God is made known to your people. How can we come close to scratching the surface of the depth of this type of goodness for your people? To know God.
J.I. Packer says, what are we made for? To know God. What aim should we set ourselves in life? To know God. What is the eternal life that Jesus gives?
Knowledge of God. This is eternal life that they may know you the only true God in Jesus Christ whom you have sent. What is the best thing in life? Bringing more joy, delight, contentment than anything else he asks? You know the answer brothers.
The knowledge of God. It's the best thing. Jeremiah 9, 23 to 24. Don't boast in your wisdom. Don't boast in your might.
Don't boast in your riches. But you want to boast? Boast in this, that you understand me and that you know me. That I'm the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice and righteousness in the earth for these things I delight. Packer goes on to say what makes life worthwhile is having a big enough objective.
Something which catches our imagination and lays hold of our allegiance. And this the Christian has in a way that no other person has. For what higher, more exalted and more compelling goal can there be than to know God? One of the most beautiful promises of the new covenant is knowledge of God. Jeremiah 31, 34, it's coming a day when no longer shall one teach his neighbor and his brother saying, know the Lord.
No, on that day, all of them are gonna know me from the least to the greatest. Isn't that beautiful brothers? All of them are gonna know me. And in this way, God is glorified in the good of his person, of his people knowing him. His glory is displayed in his people's greatest good, which is knowledge of him.
The good of your people, knowing God through his word works out in 10,000 ways, does it not? Growth happens. Transformation occurs. Strength is garnered. Suffering is endured.
Communities are built. Lives are laid down. Comfort, encouragement and hope are birthed. Profitable teaching, correction, reproof and training and righteousness equip the people of God to do the work of God. Holiness is pursued.
Feeble needs are strengthened. The strongholds of false teachings are demolished. Identity is formed. Perseverance is fueled. And then the unsearchable riches of Christ are tasted.
Oh my goodness. Tasted. Joy is had. The triune God is enjoyed. The church is built.
The lost are pursued. Unreached people groups are reached. People are loved. Satisfaction in God is tasted. And as someone somewhere once said, God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.
We can go on to the preeminent Old Testament teacher Moses to see what a preacher's vision ought to be. The book of Deuteronomy gives us excellent examples as it contains Moses' final sermons for God's glory of being known through his word and for the good of his people. Consider the following verses. Deuteronomy chapter four, verse number one. And now, oh Israel, listen to the statues.
Listen, listen, listen to the statues and the rules that I'm teaching you and do them that you may live. And go in and take possession of the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers is giving you. What did this Old Testament preacher want to see in his proclamation? He wanted to see the people of God in their obedience, live and enjoy the grace of God's good promises to them. Deuteronomy chapter six, four to six.
Hear, oh Israel, the Lord, our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart and all of your soul and all of your might. And these words that I command you shall be on your heart. What does the Old Testament preacher want to see in his proclamation? He wanted to see the people of God know their God and to love him with their veryness, everything that's in them.
Deuteronomy chapter six, 17 to 19. You shall diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God and his testimonies and his statues, which he commanded you. And you shall do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord, that it might go well with you and that you may go in and take possession of the good land that the Lord swore to give to your fathers. What does the Old Testament preacher want to see in his proclamation here? He wanted to instill in his people a life of quorum day, right, a life lived before God doing what was right and doing what was good in his sight and enjoying the life that goes with it.
Deuteronomy chapter 10, verses 12 to 13. And now Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you? But to fear the Lord your God, to walk in his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all of your heart and your soul and to keep the commandments and statues of the Lord of which I'm commanding you today. You know the next three words here, brothers? For your good, for your good.
You see what the preacher wants? The glory of God's people, knowing him and the good of the life that results from it. Deuteronomy chapter 30, verse number 15 to 20. See, I've set before you today life and good and death and evil. If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you today, by loving the Lord your God, by walking in his ways, by keeping his commandments, his statutes and rules, then you shall live and multiply and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering in to take possession of it.
Verse 19, I call heaven and earth to witness against you that I've set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore choose life, choose life that you and your offspring may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice, holding steadfast to him, for he is your life in the length of days. You see what this Old Testament preacher wanted to see happen in his proclamation. His vision was not for his promotion, not for his name, not for his fame or even for his comfort. His vision was wrapped up in the glory of God known through his word and his vision was wrapped up in the good of his people.
And these two are never at odds. The preeminent preacher of the Old Testament sets the mold for us. The preacher's vision is God's glory and his people's good. Time would fail us if we surveyed other preachers, proclaimers of God's word in the Old Testament, whose vision in their preaching was a desire to see the glory of God and the good of their people. We can go on and talk about Joshua and we can talk about Samuel's last sermon before they exited the story to see in their proclamation the glory of God and the good of their people.
We can glean from Ezra and the Levites as they read the law in Nehemiah chapter eight for the glory of God and the good of the people. Pick a prophet and see in that prophet's ministry a preaching of a vision for God's glory where his name is honored and glorified through his word and for the good of his people, where they are called to love and repent and return and grow and to live in line with God's word. I wanna direct our attention, however, to our good brother Paul in the New Testament. Do we see him carrying on the tradition of God's preachers whose vision is to see God's glory through proclamation and the good of his people? I think so.
In Romans 11, as he wraps up the exposition of the glory of the gospel, the power of God into salvation for Jew and Gentile culminating in a display of his infinite freedom, wisdom, and mercy seen in chapters nine through 11, what does he do? He ends his proclamation with a doxology. What did he want to see from his rich proclamation of the gospel in Romans one through 11? What was his vision? Is it not that God would be glorified through this gospel proclamation?
Romans 11, 33 to 36. Oh, the depth of the riches in wisdom and in knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments? How inscrutable are his ways? Who has known the mind of Yahweh?
Who has been his counselor? Who has given him a gift to him that he might be repaid for from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen. Listen to Paul in second Corinthians say something that's worthy of a long walk to meditate on.
One person calls this section the basic thrust of Paul's preaching. His reasoning here is stunning. Second Corinthians four, five through six. For what we proclaim, what we speak, what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ is Lord with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For God who said, let light shine out of the darkness has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Paul proclaims Jesus is Lord here, right? And why? Because the same God who said, let there be light in the beginning of the world has done the same thing in his heart so that he might see glory in Christ. Why do we proclaim? Because we want our people to see that same glory through our proclamation.
This is Paul, the preacher's vision and should be ours as well. We want our people to see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ for their good. In Acts 13, we see in Paul and Barnabas' preaching in Antioch and Pisidia, we see that what comprises the preacher's vision, we see God glorified in the proclamation and the people come into Christ, which is their ultimate good. Acts 13, 46 to 49, Paul and Barnabas are speaking boldly and he says, it was necessary for the word of God to be spoken to you since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life. We're turning to the Gentiles.
For so the Lord has commanded us saying, I've made you a light to the Gentiles, that you may bring your salvations to the ends of the earth. And what happened when the Gentiles heard this, brothers? They began rejoicing and glorifying God because of the word of the Lord was spoken to them and many of them were appointed to eternal life. Of course, we must include 1 Corinthians 10, 31, should we not, where preacher fits underneath the banner of all things. 1 Corinthians 10, 31, so whatever you do, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
What does the preacher hope to see? What is his vision? What is his aim in preaching? Paul teaches us that above all things, the aim of preaching is nothing higher than the glory of God in his proclamation. The preacher is the proclaimer of God's word and therefore the proclaimer of God's glory, especially found in Christ.
Now, if I were to recreate my vision book here today, not for my delusions of grandeur as a very short NBA basketball player, but from the high calling of being a preacher, it would begin with this, a deep desire to proclaim God's word from scripture so that the fame of his glory will be heard and seen and tasted and experienced and enjoyed and believed in my preaching. Lewis Allen, in his book, The Preacher's Catechism, he utilizes a familiar question with a twist. He asked, what is God's chief end in preaching? God's chief end, he answers, is preaching to glorify his name. That therefore is the preacher's chief end as well.
God's glory in preaching is the preacher's vision. It is what he desires to see. It is what he aims for. My vision book would also include a deep desire for my people's good in the proclamation of God's word for his glory. Remember, God's glory and our people's good are not at odds.
They are not competing for the front of the line. God's glory, as 2 Corinthians 4 shows us, is ultimately found in Christ, and Christ is the greatest good of God's people, not only simply in receiving him, but also in coming to him, in reflecting him, not only in coming to Christ, but also in being conformed to his image. One person put it like this, that peoples must be led to Christ and then led on with Christ through preaching. The preacher's vision is to see his people become like Christ, which perfectly accords with God's glorious purpose found in Romans 8, 28 to 29. We know that for those who love God, all things work together for their good.
For those who are called according to his purpose, and what is this good? For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of Christ, the image of his son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. Therefore, the preacher's vision learns from Paul to be in anguish, the very anguish of childbirth, until Christ is formed in your people. And here Paul helps me again, for he provides pictures of this very vision, pictures of what faithful preaching aim to do for the good of Jesus' people, and he gives us pictures of maturity to aim for. We have three daughters, my wife and I, eight, seven, and three.
I'm a girl dad through and through, and my boy Abner over here with three girls, right? One of the sweetest items that we have in our house is a seven foot tall wood measuring beam where we track their height year by year. It's a beautiful, it's a beautiful addition to our house. In fact, our middle child has caught up to her older sister and now is taller and boasting about it here. Need to teach your Jeremiah about boasting in heights.
This is a picture, it's a measuring item. It's a picture that I would include in my vision book based on Paul's words given to us in Colossians. In Colossians chapter one, verses 28 to 29, I know you know this, him we proclaim, that's our task. Warning or admonishing everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom. Why Paul?
Why do we proclaim him in this fashion? So that we may present everyone mature in Christ. And Paul says, this is what I work hard for. This is what I toil for. This is what I struggle for.
This is the goal that I labor for. Struggling with all the energy, he says that he powerfully gives me to struggle with. What was Paul's aim in his proclamation and his admonition in his teaching? Full maturity, not in physical growth like the measuring beam in my house, but full maturity in Christ. What did Paul wanna see as a result of his preaching and teaching, brothers?
He wanted to see his people mature in Christ, which would be their ultimate good and be to God's ultimate glory. Paul's vision for maturity is not unique to Colossians. We see it again in Philippians. When hard pressed between the options of departing and going to be with the Lord, with Christ, which he said is far better. He turned around and says, no, I'm gonna hang out with you all for a little bit because it's necessary for you.
And why is it necessary for you? Why was Paul convinced of this, Philippians 1.25? I'm gonna remain and continue with you for your progress and for your joy in the faith. This is the vision that fuels the mission of preaching. It's been said that a plaque has been placed in pulpits across the land that tells the preacher, sir, we wish to see Jesus.
This is a good reminder of what preachers in the pulpit are called to do, is it not? I would expand it. Sir, we wish to see Jesus for our progress in Christ likeness, for our joy in the faith and for our good. This reminds a preacher why he is in the pulpit and what his aim is, not for his good or his fame, not to lift himself up before his people's good. Brothers, this is what we wanna see happen as we preach week in and week out, month in and month out, year in and year out, decade in and decade out, seasons when it's going well, seasons when it's not going well.
We wanna see our people not grow, we wanna see our people not only grow in their appreciation for preaching, we wanna see our people grow in Christ-like maturity in every single area of their lives, to grow up into Christ in every way. And God has ordained preaching empowered by his energy through the means for his people's maturation. When we look out over our people, when you stand into the pulpit on Sunday, may we see them standing up against a Christ-like maturity measuring beam. And would we toil with the energy that he provides to preach with such a vision to see their growth happen year over year over year by his kindness. In fact, the same vision is why Paul exhorts the Ephesians with another picture that aims for the good of maturity in Ephesians chapter four.
There he describes the gifts that Jesus has given to his church, which includes pastors and teachers. Why? You know this, brothers, Ephesians 4, 12 to 14, to equip the saints for the work of the ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of faith, the knowledge of the son of God. Here it is to mature manhood, to mature stature, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ so that we would no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried out by every wind of doctrine and by human cunning and by craftiness and deceitful schemes. No doubt, at some point, my girls are no longer going to make progress on this measuring beam.
This is why we got a seven foot one. We don't think they're gonna make it to that height, okay? But even when they stop growing tall, that doesn't stop our desire for their maturation. Matt Smetheris wrote on Twitter the other day that 40% of fatherhood is walking around the house turning off lights. I appreciated that, right?
This is correct. And yet 100% of fatherhood is aiming for your children to no longer be children, right? To mature and to grow. And this too is the preacher's vision in his proclamation of God's good word to God's people. That his people might yearn like newborn infants for pure spiritual milk so that by it, they may grow up into salvation.
That is the preacher's vision, brothers. To see his people no longer infants, but grow up into salvation, grow up into Christ. When we look at our people week after week, year after year, again, may we see them growing against the measuring beam of Christ's likeness until they attain, we all attain to the full stature of Christ, to the glory of God, who is made known in his proclamation of his word. In the beginning, I mentioned that our president walked us through a series of questions regarding mission, vision, and strategy. And I spent the majority of my time this morning between mission and vision, mostly on vision, of course.
If mission is what we do, and vision is what we hope to see, then strategy defines how we seek to accomplish the mission in order to see the vision come to pass. If the preacher's vision, his aim in preaching, what he hopes to see is God glorified and his people benefited. If he aims for glory and for good, how then brothers will we go about doing this? No doubt, as stated before, the mission text for the preacher is to preach the word in season and out of season. And one strategy for simply doing this is of course preaching, but even doing what you're doing today, which is attending workshops, spurring one another on in your preaching as we aim to be useful in the master's house.
But let me offer in closing two further strategic actions. First, if the preacher's aim is the glory of God, then the preacher himself must make God's glory his personal aim, his personal aim. Here's the question that I must keep in front of my own heart. Am I taken up with the glory of God? Am I taken up with it?
Or do we hear about it? I hear about it so much that it's just kind of becoming familiar. Am I taken up with the glory of God? Is my heart enthralled with God's glory, supremely seen in Christ? Not heart that gets spouted, but enthralled with God's glory.
Do I increasingly, Louis guess heart, do I increasingly want the one thing of Psalm 27, four. One thing have I asked of you, Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life and to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord. Is God's glory have an effect on my own soul? I will not be able to get up and preach to people for God's glory to affect their soul, if it hasn't affected my soul. Piper put it well here.
He said, the greatest warfare in the preacher's life is the treasure of the glory of God above all things. Brothers, we will not taste the preacher's vision for his people until we taste the preacher's vision of the glory of God for ourselves. So our number one strategy then is to grow in our love for the glory of God above all things. And to that end, we learn to pray like Moses did often. Lord, show me your glory.
Show it to me, in season, out of season. Show it to me when preaching is going well. Show it to me when nobody feels like nobody's paying attention. Show me your glory. Second, if the preacher's aim is the good of his people, then he must follow Paul's example of profound, pastoral, other-centeredness, looking outside of himself.
Would you listen to Paul? First Thessalonians 3, this rocks me every time I read it. For now we live, if you didn't know this text brothers, how would you finish that sentence? Why do you live? How would you finish it?
What burns your heart out? What gets you out of bed? What causes you to become alive? This is stunning. Paul says, now we live if you are standing fast in the faith.
Philippians 1.25, again, convince of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all for your progress and your joy in the faith. First Thessalonians 2.19, for what is my hope or joy or my crown of boasting before the Lord? What is it, Paul? Is it not you? Philippians 4.1, my brothers whom I love and long for my joy and my crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved.
Second Corinthians 1.24, not that we lord it over your faith but we work with you for your joy, for you to stand firm in the faith. So here's questions that I must keep in front of my heart and keep asking, am I taken up with the good of my people? Is my joy my people's good? Is that what causes me to live, to see them grow on that measuring wood? Strategy here is clear, aim by the strength that God supplies brothers and brothers to make your people's progress, your joy and your crown.
That's what it's about. Rejoice in their Christ likeness more than you rejoice in your preaching performance, amen? Gladly pour yourself out for their maturity as you visibly treasure their progress and walk with them when they seem like Christ is nowhere to be found in their life. God's glory and your people's good. Vision comes from the desires of the heart, so pursue a heart that increasingly desires the glory of God and the good of his people in preaching.
I put this brothers in front of you today as what the preacher's vision is, let's pray. Father I'm grateful that your spirit is able to take weak words and to do fantastic things with them, Christ exalting things with them, God glorifying things with them. I pray father that what seems to be the case in the preachers of the Bible, that their aim in life is to see you glorified in the proclamation and to see your people's good. Father I pray that that would burn our hearts, that we would give ourselves to these things. Brothers in this room where there needs to be a renewal of that pursuit father, do that for him by your spirit.
Brothers who need encouragement to go in this direction, do that for him. Brothers in here who knows these things and are freshly reminded, remind them greatly again. But oh would you give us much grace that we may see you glorified in our preaching, supremely in Christ and that we would see our people grow in their Christ likeness. I pray these things in Jesus name, amen.
