“Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction” (2 Timothy 4:2).

One of the great blessings of preaching is learning. Every time I put together a sermon or Bible study I relish the new insight I get from God’s word. I am thankful that I am afforded the opportunity to spend my full time thinking through God’s word.

This May will mark the start of my fifteenth year as a fully supported preacher or Bible teacher. Many of the sermons and classes I taught back in 1989 I could teach today without changing a word. But many of the ideas I was so sure of thirteen years ago I have since discarded. That’s all part of the growth process.

Fourteen years of intensive Bible study should prompt some changes in thinking. And frankly, it is exciting to turn an idea over and over in my mind for years, and then finally see everything click into place. That thrill of discovery is what makes the commitment to restoration so appealing, at least to me.

However, in my presentation of truth, I have to remember Paul’s admonition to Timothy to preach with “great patience.” I cannot expect people to immediately accept or respond to truths after a single 40 minute sermon that took me years of full time study to understand and accept. As long as they are willing to give the word a fair hearing, my job as a preacher is to patiently plug along with instruction.

A few times in my preaching some brethren have even been angry with something I said in class or the pulpit, or wrote in a bulletin. Sometimes this was because they misunderstood what I said. Other times it was because they understood! And every now and then it was due to my immaturity. But whatever the reasons may be, as a preacher my responsibility is clear: “The Lord’s bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition” (2 Timothy 2:24–25).