Letting God's Word Do Its Work Among God's People

Happy New Year! As we launch into 2020 I have the great privilege of preaching my 125th Sunday morning sermon since taking over as the Senior Pastor at Lake Country Bible Church in June of 2017. My family and I have been overwhelmed with gratitude as we consider how blessed we have been since moving to Nashotah, Wisconsin. This congregation loves God's Word, the Lord Jesus Christ, the lost, and one another greatly! Lake Country Bible is a very special church family and we are so blessed to be part of what God is doing here. To Him be the glory, honor and praise!

Since assuming the lead teaching role within this church, I have done my best to preach sermons that are Text-driven (2 Tim. 2:15/4:1-2), Spirit-filled, and contagiously worshipful (AKA-"expository exultation").

In this vein, I have worked hard (per Ezra 7:10) to "declare the full counsel of God" (per Acts 20:27-28). During corporate worship I have exposited a number of Old Testament passages, such as: Genesis 1-2; 12:1-4; 15; Exodus 18:13-27; 2 Samuel 7; Psalm 100; Hosea 3; Isaiah 7:1-16. Other gifted teachers in other contexts have taught through Joshua, the Psalms, and the Minor Prophets, Galatians, 1 Peter, and 1 John.

I have also carefully walked through a number of New Testament texts with the congregation, including: Matthew 1:18-23; 24:29-51, 25:31-46; Luke 1:5-66; 13:34-35; 19:11-44; 23:34; Romans 11:13-36; 13:1-7; 1 Corinthians 3:1-7; 16-17; 11:1-16; 15:1-19; Galatians 3:13-14, 29; Ephesians 6:1-4; Philippians 4:2-3; Colossians 1:28-29; 1 Thessalonians 2:13; 5:12-13; 1 Timothy 3:1-7; 4:13-14; 2 Timothy 2:15; Titus 2:1-15; Hebrews 6:11-19; 11:10; 13:17; 1 Peter 2:1-3; 5:1-5; 2 Peter 1:16-21; Jude 22-23; Revelation 5:9-14; 14:6-11; 19:1-22:21.

We have also considered a few overview messages of the Gospel of John, Acts, Colossians 1-2; and Revelation 6-18.

We have looked at the Great Covenants of the Bible; what the Word of God really teaches concerning Mary and Roman Catholic outreach; we have considered Paul's inspired "Philosophy of Ministry" statement, and have had special Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas themed expositions. We have studied what the prophesied future holds (the future Tribulation, the coming Kingdom of Christ, the glories of heaven, the agonies of hell, the delights of the New Jerusalem, etc). This past summer we spent many months seeking to establish a robustly biblical shepherdology, sheepology, and ecclessiology (the doctrine of the church) before starting our Gospel of John series.

During the Sunday School hour I provided a detailed overview of what the Old and New Testament Scriptures teach concerning "Biblical Manhood and Womanhood," as well as addressing the (now) controversial subject of gender and sexuality. I also had an opportunity to teach some sessions on "the Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life;" (how to mature in the Christian faith).

During Wednesday nights I taught a special summer series in 2018 on "the Plight of Israel: a Historical, Biblical, and Theological study."

In the spirit of 2 Timothy 2:2, one of my favorite ministry roles has been to guide our men's leadership training and discipleship ministry. Over the past 2 1/2 years 50+ men have studied/discussed a number of subjects/doctrines and have read many helpful books. As “iron sharpens iron” so one brother has helped equip another.

I have also enjoyed providing pre-marital, marriage/family counseling, and discipleship. The one constant in all of these ministries is the inerrant, infallible, and sufficient Word of God. Everything this local church does is grounded in the timeless truths of Scripture.

During the Protestant Reformation one of the chief leaders made a humble and profound observation- that is equally true of my pastoral ministry. I close with this quotation: "I/we simply taught, preached, wrote God's Word, otherwise I did nothing; the Word did it all...I did nothing; I left it to the Word...!"

Ephesians 3:20-21; Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.

Colossians 1:28-29; We proclaim Him (Christ), admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ. For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me.


Together for the Gospel,

Pastor Caleb Kolstad

What Does a Good Sermon Cost? The Glad Sacrifice of Christian Preaching

What Does a Good Sermon Cost?  The Glad Sacrifice of Christian Preaching by David Mathis.

The Mondays. Sometimes they even creep into Sunday nights.

Various physical, emotional, and even spiritual letdowns often follow pouring yourself out in the pulpit. Lows that inevitably come after the highs of corporate worship. Regrets about what I didn’t say, or didn’t say quite right, or said and should not have. Even when “it went well” from all the preacher can tell, we feel an emotional deficit because of all it takes to prepare and deliver a sermon.

Maybe the most underrated aspect of the Mondays isn’t what’s now past, but what’s still ahead: next Sunday. Another week of preparation. Another seven days to shoulder the burden. Another week of pondering what to say, and the often harder work of what not to say. Another week of waiting on God to provide a word from his word to again feed and preserve the people.

Good Christian preaching and teaching requires regular, and at times enormous, self-sacrifice. In the preparation. In the moment. And outside the pulpit. It’s often a quiet, private, behind-the-scenes mantle the preacher’s wife and children see, but the congregation does not. It is not heavy lifting physically, but it can be unusually taxing spiritually and emotionally.  It is a burden good preachers gladly bear, and yet it is a blessed burden.

Mid-Sermon Mirage-  Every Christian knows what it’s like to hear a sermon, but very few know the personal costs involved in faithfully giving one. Hearing a sermon takes half an hour or so. Giving one takes days, if not weeks, and in some sense a lifetime. How easy it would be for a listener to sit comfortably in the pew thinking, I could do this, and better. It’s simple to see what he’s doing wrong. It would be a quick fix if he just asked for our help, right?

One of preaching’s many paradoxes is the disparity between how hard it is to stand up and preach well, and how easy it is to sit there and take it lightly.

Wouldn’t it be great if I were up there and telling people what I think? Wouldn’t it be nice to have all these people listen to my thoughts? All with little to no consideration of the actual pressure, the demands and deadlines, the dying to one’s own perfectionism and putting yourself forward to be misunderstood and criticized. Pride in some of us dreams of ourselves up front as the center of attention. Pride in others terrifies us from saying anything firm to so many, especially in public, face-to-face with a crowd of potential critics.  Pride will not only jump to speak when it’s puffed up, but button the lip when insecure. Preaching bids a man come and die to both.

A Reformation of the Pulpit: The Greatest Need in America Today

"If a Reformation is to come to the (American) Church, it must be preceded by a reformation of the pulpit."

To which John Piper adds, "George Whitefield believed in preaching and gave his life to it. By this preaching God did a mighty work of salvation on both sides of the Atlantic. His biographer, Arnold Dallimore, chronicled the astonishing effect that Whitefield’s preaching had in Britain and America in the eighteenth century. It came like rain on the parched land and made the desert spring forth with the flowers of righteousness. Dallimore lifted his eyes from the transformed wasteland of Whitefield’s time and expressed his longing that God would do this again. He cries out for a new generation of preachers like Whitefield. His words help me express what I long for in the coming generations of preachers in America and around the world. He said,

Yea . . . that we shall see the great Head of the Church once more . . . raise up unto Himself certain young men whom He may use in this glorious employ. And what manner of men will they be? Men mighty in the Scriptures, their lives dominated by a sense of the greatness, the majesty and holiness of God, and their minds and hearts aglow with the great truths of the doctrines of grace. They will be men who have learned what it is to die to self, to human aims and personal ambitions; men who are willing to be ‘fools for Christ’s sake’, who will bear reproach and falsehood, who will labor and suffer, and whose supreme desire will be, not to gain earth’s accolades, but to win the Master’s approbation when they appear before His awesome judgment seat. They will be men who will preach with broken hearts and tear-filled eyes, and upon whose ministries God will grant an extraordinary effusion of the Holy Spirit, and who will witness ‘signs and wonders following’ in the transformation of multitudes of human lives. (George Whitefield, Vol. 1, 16)  Mighty in the Scriptures, aglow with the great truths of the doctrines of grace, dead to self, willing to labor and suffer, indifferent to the accolades of man, broken for sin, and dominated by a sense of the greatness, the majesty, and holiness of God. 

Dallimore, like Whitefield, believed that preaching is the heralding of God’s word from that kind of religious affection. Preaching is not conversation. Preaching is not discussion. Preaching is not casual talk about religious things. Preaching is not simply teaching. Preaching is the heralding of a message permeated by the sense of God’s greatness and majesty and holiness. The topic may be anything under the sun, but it is always brought into the blazing light of God’s greatness and majesty in his word. That was the way Whitefield preached.