It’s not enough to just preach a sermon, my pastor friend, we must be the sermon, too.
Heed these challenging words from Gregory The Great (ca. 540-604)—
“There are some who investigate spiritual precepts with cunning care, but what they penetrate with their understanding they trample on in their lives: all at once they teaching the things which not by practice but by study they have learnt; and what in words they preach by their manners they impugn. …
“The ruler should always be chief in action, that by his living he may point out the way to those that are put under him, and that the flock, which follows the voice and manners of the shepherd, may learn how to walk better through example than through words. For he who is required by the necessity of his position to speak the highest things is required by the same necessity to exhibit the highest things. …
Every preacher should give forth a sound more by his deeds than by his words, and rather by good living imprint footsteps for men to follow than by speaking show them the way to walk in.”
Craig T. Owens 