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PREACHERS ARE STILL HUMAN; STAY FOCUSEDI learned long ago that people will never give preachers the same measure of grace that they give themselves. This is because the average Christian fails to distinguish between flesh and spirit and therefore allows himself to continually function in the carnal and defensive mode of the natural man rather than the spiritual and truth-seeking mode of the new spiritual man. That is, when the average Christian listens to a sermon or reads a Bible study, he's more interested in finding fault with the messenger than in being edified by the message.Even if the believer's original intent was to be helped by the message, Satan sits ever ready to distract him with some little flaw on the part of the preacher. It might be the preacher's misquoting of a verse, a grammatical error, a corny joke, an overly zealous statement or two, or maybe just a stupid-looking tie, but sometimes that's all it takes for a weaker believer to discredit a whole body of truth. Why? Simply stated, he wasn't really searching for truth anyway, at least not 100%. He was half-hearted, and the weaker half fell for the distraction. That's why the word of God speaks of being "valiant for the truth" (Jer. 9:3) and being guided by the "Spirit of truth" (John 16:13). It's like the hen who pecked her way around in the dirt one day and found a bright red ruby, and said, "Hmmm...I guess you'd be rather valuable to some folks, BUT I'M LOOKING FOR CORN!""But, shouldn't preachers try harder to cut down on such distractions?" Absolutely, but we're still human, so we will not bat a thousand. I have corrected myself far more times than anyone else has corrected me, and I couldn't name even ten of my sermons that I really like. As a Bible-believing preacher, I am constantly trying to improve.But so should ALL believers. When it comes to preachers, always search for truth first and foremost. If you do, you'll find it, even if it means finding a new preacher. But if you lose focus and allow the messenger to get in the way of the message, you'll miss out on truth while magnifying every flaw imaginable. That's one of the oldest tricks of the devil. Don't fall for it. STAY SPIRITUALLY FOCUSED.