My Goal Every Sunday is to LIE

Aren't preachers supposed to tell the truth? They probably are. But the truth is that my goal is to LIE. That's right. Each and every Sunday when I preach here at Gaylord E-Free I intentionally try to LIE! That is how I view a successful sermon. If I didn't LIE, the message probably wasn't effective. Let me explain. I am using the word LIE as an acronym. Each letter in the word stands for a goal in my preaching. Here is what I mean:

L = Learn! My goal each Sunday when I preach is that every person who is present will learn something they never knew about the Bible. This can be a challenge because each Sunday our Gospel Center auditorium is filled with a wide variety of people. Some are brand new believers. Some have been Christians years longer than I have been alive. And many are checking out the truths of Christ and have yet to cross that line of faith and place their trust fully and solely in the death and resurrection of Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins and for their eternal home in heaven. Yet, my goal remains that each person who attends can leave having learned something from Scripture that they did not know when they came to church that morning.

I = Inspire! The first letter ("L") deals with education while the letter "I" deals with application. My goal each Sunday is not just to teach facts about the Bible but to motivate each listener to desire to take steps of faith based on those facts about the Bible that they have learned and apply these principles to their lives. My prayer is that God would use the message to convict and stir the heart of each person who comes to E-Free on Sunday in such a way that they would leave church different in some way, shape or form through the working of Spirit and the power of the Word.

E = Encourage! My goal is that each Sunday every person would walk away, not only having learned something and being motivated to change their life accordingly, but that each person would also leave encouraged in their faith, in large part due to the message they heard preached.

That's what I mean when I say that my goal each Sunday when I preach is to LIE! If at the end of the morning of worship I didn't successfully LIE, how successful was I really? So be sure to invite someone to attend church at E-Free with you this Sunday as we continue our "Avoiding the Christmas Crash" message series. Lord willing, they will leave having LEARNED; having been INSPIRED; and having been ENCOURAGED!