Powerless Sermons

[But I will come shortly, if Adonai will, and will know, not the speech of them which are puffed up, but the power. For the Kingdom of YHVH is not in Word, but in Power] -- 1 Corinthians 4:19, 20. Some preaching reminds one of the soldiers firing blank cartridges. Their guns are good, they take aim, you see the fire and hear the noise, but it is only a harmless cartridge. Just so, it is possible for preachers to use a powerless cartridge. They may have a good sermon, mean well, and have a grand delivery -- both loud and fiery -- yet entirely without power to slay the enmity of the human heart against YHVH. Without the Power of Ruach HaKodesh the sermon will always be like the blank cartridge. There are perhaps these two reasons for such powerlessness on the part of preachers. Their sermons are like well-blended tea. The great object is to make it palatable to all. The flavour is the chief thing. And it has become quite an art in some quarters to mix up the thoughts of men with the Word of Elohim, and so blend [corrupt] them that itching ears are highly pleased with the sermon. Torah and Gospel, works and faith, are so artfully blended that unrenewed hearts receive it gladly. But we are not told to blend, but to rightly divide the Word of Truth. And the second reason for powerless sermons is that some preachers are too like the amphibious animal -- they live a double life. The amphibious religious professor, who feels equally at home in the world or in the Church, who finds pleasure in sin and sermons, is useless to YHVH. [I would thou were cold or hot] -- Revelation 3:15.