Feb | 29 | Coming Out From Behind The Coward's Castle

Dream Word – FIGHT

Acts 17:17-18 Therefore he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentile worshipers, and in the marketplace daily with those who happened to be there. Then certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him. And some said, "What does this babbler want to say?" NKJV

Coming Out From Behind The Coward's Castle

I was watching an old Video of that great Yorkshire giant, Leonard Ravenhill. He was recounting a story which took place in the early 20th Century on the streets of his home city of Leeds in England, where an atheist was verbally accosting church attendees, laughing and shouting and scorning them with words like “Why are you going to hear a man speaking from behind a coward’s castle, a pulpit, you can’t talk to him or challenge him, come and listen to me!....”

In one church where I once pastored, each month we held a ‘Shoot the Preacher Session,’ where I set myself up as a target, having to give an account of my previous month's teaching. That meant answering questions, clarifying positions, and putting some concrete down the side of some post-holes previously dug but obviously not dug deep enough! This is a good practice for the church and for the teachers of the church for no one should be allowed to be six feet above contradiction.Nobody should be allowed to turn the pulpit into a coward’s castle.

There a few notable exceptions in some churches today, where some selected questions are answered by some of the teachers. Sometimes this is done publicly, sometimes this is done over the internet. I think this is most commendable. However, in the vast majority of churches this does not happen and where it does, it's still not good enough! Nobody should be allowed to turn the pulpit into a coward’s castle.

In the past, I have boxed badly at an amateur level and I have gone on to be an A.B.A. coach in the sporting field of boxing. I have spent too many hours pounding a bag, pummelling pads or even beating the air. It’s all important stuff for the boxer in training, but it pails into insignificance against actual ring work. Getting into a ring, especially a ring in another club and sparring round after round, going toe to toe with boxers of differing styles and abilities, is really the only way to vastly improve on your own game. Nobody should be allowed to turn the pulpit into a coward’s castle.

It is the same in teaching and in preaching. You need to be able to stand toe to toe and give a reason for the hope that is within you. Whitefield and Wesley did it regularly, they had to do it, because they regularly boxed in someone else’s ring, and it usually was on enemy ground.

I am afraid we still have far too many Cissies in Cowards’ Castles around our land and some of you tonight may well have adopted their most pitiful style.

Friend, it’s time to take the Gospel into the market place again. This means you need to be prepared, and no, I am NOT talking about seminary. If there is any place on the planet, that will advocate the making and placing of Cissies into Cowardly Castles today then God help us, it is our Seminaries, which major on the subtleties of good churchmanship rather than pungent preaching and jaw-cracking punches. Nobody should be allowed to turn the pulpit into a coward’s castle, especially not Seminary professors.

The only way to get prepared, is to go and seek out the fighting journeymen of times gone by. Make them your mentors. Even if they are dead and with the Lord, make them your mentors still. Listen to them, mark their methods, take it and bring it with all prayer and the power of the Holy Spirit into your generation and into your day. Travel far to be with such men and if you can, go a few rounds with them yourself if you dare! I tell you what, at a previous church, our monthly preachers get together was called ‘Fight Club’ for nobody should be allowed to turn the pulpit into a coward’s castle.

I have a pair of old leather boxing gloves hanging in my study. They are dirty, stink of old spit, sweat and testosterone and are spattered with old blood. They are my gloves and it’s my blood that is on them. They are a testimony to me of all my training, of all my sweat equity which having once paid, allowed me to be able to stand toe to toe with someone and trade blow for blow. They are also a picture of who I am in Christ, a fighter and someone who is more than a conqueror. They are a challenge to me today, to train to fearlessly and with great confidence, to take the Gospel to this angry old world.

What about you preacher? Are you ready to fight in the market place or are you content only to remain the cissified occupier of a coward’s castle? If it is the latter, may I encourage you to do two things: Either get in training or get out of the ministry. Yes, go somewhere and get a job stroking bunny rabbits. It will be better for everyone.

Listen: - And he spoke boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus and disputed against the Hellenists, but they attempted to kill him. When the brethren found out, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him out to Tarsus. Acts 9:29-30 NKJV

Pray:- Lord, as you did with your people of old, matching them up with a few fights with the ‘Orrible Og’ and ‘Slippery Sihon’ before they entered the promised land, so match me up O Lord and give me so much ring experience that when it comes to the main event, I will prove to be more than a conqueror through him who loved me and gave himself for me.