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The World’s Greatest Preacher
Acts 24:16 KJV And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men.
I. INTRODUCTION—PREACHING
A. My Background
-Preaching has always been a prominent part of Pentecostal worship.
· Listening to cassette tapes.
· Going to various events—camp meetings, rallies, and regular church services.
· Spending time with and around preachers.
· Texas Bible College chapel services and Accent Weekends.
-The motivation to preach and pray and study so that it would be memorable. It has become a passion of mine.
B. Great Preachers
-The great evangelists who came through Dothan. Often colorful and flamboyant.
· Reggie Dees—I thought he was cool.
· Tom Mitchell—I thought he was sincere.
· Tom Sorrells—I thought he was funny.
· John Bliss—I thought he was crazy.
-But none of these men are the world’s greatest preacher!
-My Bible college instructors.
· J. R. Ensey—The longer I live the more sense he makes.
· Kelsey Griffin—No one has ever given me a passion for the Word like he did.
· Arnold (A.B.) Keating—Where I learned the importance of just steadily going about the task.
· David Hunt—A kind, godly man.
-But none of these men are the world’s greatest preacher!
-The great Bible teachers.
· Wayne Pounders—He could teach prophecy.
· Crawford Coon—He could teach practical Christian living.
· Marvin Treece—He started as a great riddle to me because I couldn’t understand him, but as time passed and I gained more biblical knowledge, he became a favorite.
· David Bernard—He can teach apostolic doctrine and holiness perhaps as none other in our times.
-But none of these men are the world’s greatest preacher!
-The Camp meeting Preachers.
· O. R. Fauss—Never a more convicting preacher.
· Curtis Spears—Preached in such a way that people filled the altars and received the Holy Ghost.
· Lonnie Treadway—No one could tell a story like him.
· James Kilgore—The preacher with a tear in his voice.
· Anthony Mangun—The preacher who was motivated for evangelism.
-But none of these men are the world’s greatest preacher!
-The preachers who motivated me toward excellence.
· David Fuller—The Blessing of Frustrated Desire; Building to Survive; A Merchant Man or Prospector; The Rear of the Flock; The Glory of Going On; and Wounds That Never Heal.
· John Harrell—The preacher that nobody knows because he won’t preach out of his local church but his sermons manage to get preached all over creation.
-But none of these men are the world’s greatest preacher!
-The preacher who will be responsible more than any other for getting me to Heaven.
· Joe Patterson—I have heard him preach more than any other preacher in the world. The vast majority of my own personal Christian growth has taken place because of him.
-But none of these men are the world’s greatest preacher!
C. The Great Bible Preachers
-All through the Bible there are many great preachers.
· Jonah—Perhaps the most successful evangelist.
· Jeremiah—The weeping prophet who had little outward success to show for his ministry.
· John the Baptist—Brought those who loved God closer to him and pushed those who hated God further away from Him.
-But none of these men are the world’s greatest preacher!
II. THE WORLD’S GREATEST PREACHER
-The world’s greatest preacher is the most unorthodox of all.
· Never sleeps.
· Is never boring.
· He makes folks mad.
· He makes folks sad.
· He can motivate.
· He whispers.
· He shouts.
· He prays.
· He pleads.
-He has preached in many likely places.
· Churches.
· Conferences.
· Youth Camps.
· Campmeetings.
· Rallies.
· Prayer meetings.
· Home Bible studies.
-He has preached in a lot of unlikely places.
· Clubs and bars.
· Hospital rooms.
· Cancer clinics.
· Surgery holding areas.
· Assembly lines.
· Construction sites.
· High school and college classrooms.
-He is one of most unpredictable of all the preachers in the world.
-The greatest preacher in the world is named Conscience. I am not sure where he is from because his parts are unknown but he goes with us every day of our lives.
-When the Lord gave him his charge, He said, “Now listen, preacher, even though your ministry will be very dynamic, it will be very restricted. The congregation will not be very large; in fact, there will only be one person in the assembly. Brother Conscience, I want you to preach to the person you live in. Don’t ever leave him alone. Every place he goes, I want you to go with him. Declare to him the way of happiness and show him the pitfalls of unrighteous living.”
A. The Instances He Has Preached
-This preacher has preached to me over the years in all sorts of situations. All of them have been helpful for my soul. But there have been times I have blown him off and went against his words.
1. Sitting on top of an unfinished storage building.
2. Various places of employment where I could have stolen things.
3. Times when I have been in a place of low spiritual life and he kept me straight.
4. Times when I have been in a place of high spiritual life and he helped me get better.
B. He Knows You
-Our conscience knows us better than anyone else and that is what makes him so effective.
Jeremiah may have had the ministry of contrition.
Ezekiel may have been a bone-mender.
Elijah had altars of fire and chariots as swift as the wind.
-The conscience is greater than these.
III. CONCLUSION—YOU CANNOT HIDE FROM THE CONSCIENCE
-Allan Oggs story about his mother and dad backslidden in dance hall. Little Salvation Army lady came in while the dance was going on and began to move around and ask for donations. She asked Brother Oggs’ mother, “Can you give Jesus twenty-five cents?” His mother and father fled from the dance and prayed back through.
-Tina telling Rhonda twenty years ago. . . Don’t let him get to you! Sing this song in your head. . . Years went by and one day standing at the sink looking out the window. . . Listening to some Southern Gospel music. . . The world’s greatest preacher stood up and started preaching. . . She made it back. . . Her sisters and mother made it back.
-You can too!
