The Lord Does Not Need A Rambling Man

   I can't stand the rambling preacher.  That fellow that spends his time talking about everything but his lesson.  The guy whose lesson on the Prodigal Son includes sections on picking peas, the best hitter in baseball and temperature of last night’s dinner.  Maybe it bother me more because I fear that I may just be that guy. Rambling might be entertaining (usually not) but it is definitely not edifying.  For the preacher, his purpose is to build up his listeners with his words not just fill time.

  But that qualifier isn’t just for preacher however;

“Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear.”

Ephesians 4:29

  This verse gives us a purpose (edification), a place (according to the need of the moment), and a plan (give grace) for our speech.  It also commands us to limit speech that doesn’t fit in that role.  When we ramble on about things that don’t do this, we violate our purpose.

   Oh, but how easy it is to be a rambling man.  We can get on a topic like a dog on a bone and never let it go, never mind that it’s time and purpose have long since gone.  We spend more time talking about unimportant things that we never get around to the thing that truly need to be said. 

  When a preacher rambles he gives the unintended message that God’s message isn’t all that important.  When God’s people squabble over minutiae, it gives the message that these things are more important than they really are.  Jesus said that “out of the heart the mouth speaks”, if we spend most of our lives complaining about the issue of the day, gossiping on the “goings on”, or ranting about our latest slight, what does that say about our heart?

  We talk about what we care about. What does it say if we never get around to talking about the Lord?