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Blair’s ‘preach the word’ sermon resonates at annual meeting
Seth Brown, BR Content Editor
November 10, 2015
4 MIN READ TIME

Blair’s ‘preach the word’ sermon resonates at annual meeting

Blair’s ‘preach the word’ sermon resonates at annual meeting
Seth Brown, BR Content Editor
November 10, 2015

In his characteristic vigorous cadence, Timmy Blair Sr. delivered a memorable president’s address at the 2015 Baptist State Convention of North Carolina (BSC) annual meeting in Greensboro. Blair serves as senior pastor of Piney Grove Chapel Baptist Church in Angier and BSC president.

He preached from 2 Timothy 4:1-6, which includes a charge by the Apostle Paul – “Preach the word!” – to his pastoral protégé, Timothy. The title of Blair’s sermon complemented the annual meeting’s theme: “A call to echo the gospel.”

Noting the difficulty young Timothy experienced in his church, Blair explained, “Paul is writing to Timothy and saying to him, ‘Yes, it’s hard. Yes, it’s difficult. Yes, there are discouraging times. But Timothy, it is also a great time. Timothy, like no other time before, you must stand and preach the word of God.’”

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Timmy Blair

Blair highlighted four aspects of the passage. First, he called attention to Paul’s charge, saying, “The preacher must never preach to tickle the ears or to please man. He is to cut it straight. He is to let it fall where it may. … We’re living in a time today when preachers must stand up and speak up.”

He said preaching carries the idea of a king’s messenger, who is to be heard, heeded and unhindered. “We don’t need your philosophy. We don’t need your psychology. We don’t need your human education,” added Blair. “We need men of God who will stand and up and square their shoulders every Sunday and preach the unsearchable riches of the word of God.”

Second, Blair talked about the content of the passage, explaining the verbs following Pauls’ charge: reprove, rebuke and exhort. He said, “Sin must be confronted in our day before sinners will be convicted.

“On June the 26th – on a Friday night – the United States Supreme Court ruled that marriage was no longer between a man and a woman. And that night, they lit up the White House in the rainbow colors, literally slapping the face of every born-again, Bible-believing child of God.” Blair recounted what he did the next day, “I looked at what God said about marriage, at whether or not it had changed. And I want you to know that I found the same thing on Saturday that was in there on Thursday.”

Blair continued, “The word of God must never be compromised,” speaking to the danger of false doctrine. “And yet, ladies and gentlemen, this very night there are churches and denominations that have departed from biblical truth. They have literally thrown the authority of the Bible out their stained-glass windows.”

A word of caution came in the third point: “Be watchful in all things. It is a call for the man of God to be alert.” Blair remembered a time in his own ministry when he turned away a prospective church member due to prior knowledge that this man intended on causing division in the church.

The last point of the sermon was a call to evangelize. “It’s not either-or, it’s both,” Blair said, refuting a false distinction between evangelism and discipleship. “With evangelism you bring [people] in the front door [of the church] and with discipleship you shut the back door.”

The message came to a close as Blair dramatized Paul’s heartfelt cry to Timothy – “Preach the Word!” – in an engineered reverberation that left convention messengers with an unforgettable moment and a conviction that audibly resonated with Baptists across the state.