🔥 Sermon Title: “Man-Made or God-Made: Who Sent Your Preacher?”

(Subtitle: The Gospel Can’t Be Earned — It Has to Be Given)

🧱 Opening Thought

Not every man in the pulpit was placed there by God. Some were placed by a denomination, some by family expectations, and some just went looking for a paycheck in a suit.

And others… were dragged to it by the Spirit — sometimes from a jail cell, a bar stool, or the back of a logging truck in Oregon.

📖 Key Scripture

Jeremiah 23:21 (NKJV)"I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran. I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied."

🪓 Outline of the Sermon

1️⃣ THE MAN-MADE MAN OF GOD

• Looks the part. Talks the part. But leaves out the Cross.

• Background: Raised in the church, polished by education, reinforced by religious tradition.

• Message: A Gospel of moralism, social justice, inclusion — but not Salvation through the Blood.

• Scripture: 2 Corinthians 11:4 – “For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached…”

• Illustration: It’s like a knock-off Rolex — shiny, expensive, and useless when you need real time.

• Warning: Preaching about God is not the same as preaching for God.

  
  

2️⃣ THE GOD-MADE MAN OF GOD

• Broken. Bruised. But born again in fire.

• Background: Maybe he was a drunk.

• Maybe he was divorced.

• Maybe he was done.

• But when Jesus showed up, he didn’t get a diploma — he got a call.

  
  

• Message: A Gospel that bleeds, that saves, that convicts, and redeems.

  
  

• Scripture: Acts 4:13 – “They perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men… but they had been with Jesus.”

• Illustration: Sitting on a stump in the Oregon mountains, chainsaw in hand, tears in his eyes — and a fire lit in his soul.

• Truth: The power isn’t in the degree — it’s in the anointing.

  
  

3️⃣ WHO LOOKS SUCCESSFUL — BUT WHO’S FRUITFUL?

• The man-made preacher gathers crowds, writes books, and fills arenas.

• The God-made preacher might only reach his small town, but he speaks with Heaven’s backing.

• Scripture: Luke 16:15 – “For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God.”

• Illustration: One builds a platform. The other builds altars.

  
  

4️⃣ NO ONE IS INSIGNIFICANT WHEN CALLED BY GOD

• The drunk turned preacher? He might never be known — but Hell sure knows his name.

• The man-made preacher? He might go viral — but will his name be read from the Lamb’s Book?

• Scripture: Romans 10:15 – “How shall they preach unless they are sent?”

• Final Word: You don’t go to Heaven because of the preacher who spoke — you go because of the words of the Savior who called him.

  
  

🎯 Closing Challenge:

You don’t need credentials to be obedient. You don’t need a stage to be effective. You just need to be called — and faithful to the One who called you.

🙏 Altar Call

Are you listening to a man, or have you heard from God? Are you living by religion, or by revelation? Have you trusted in a well-spoken sermon — or the bloody, beautiful, soul-saving Gospel of Jesus Christ?

Come forward. Come clean. Come home.

Pastor Terry

One Truth At A Time