Professional athletes are often infamous for their pregame routines. Take my own athletic love, The Beautiful Game. Christiano Ronaldo won’t play unless he’s gotten a fresh haircut beforehand. Laurent Blanc would kiss the bald head of Barthez before each French match. Toure, the Ivory Coast legend, demanded to be the last player from his team to walk onto the playing field. Toure’s obsession with this pregame ritual runs so deep that he once missed the start of the second half of a Champions League game while waiting for a teammate to precede him.
If you jump from athletes to army men you’d find the same kind of thing happening with soldiers before the march. For some it’s simple superstition, while for others it’s the comforting assurance of normality. Whatever the motivation is, the point is quite clear: the man must fit himself for battle.
So it is with those of us who preach God’s word each week. The question isn’t, “Will we do it?” but, “How will we do it?”
Enlarge the Heart
Robert Murray M’Cheyne has loomed prominent in my life these past few weeks as I’ve started to scratch the surface on what I hope will become my PhD dissertation at The Institution. His prayerful piety is well known to many. But I’m discovering that few know about how intentional he was to fill his soul in order that he might truly preach each Lord’s Day. For example, take a look at this diary entry from February, 21 1836:
Preached twice in Larbert, on the righteousness of God, Rom. 1:16. In the morning was more engaged in preparing the head than the heart. This has frequently been my error, and I have always felt the evil of it, especially in prayer. Reform it, then, O Lord.
Fast forward to February 27, 1836:
Preached in Dunipace with more heart than ever I remember to have done, on Rom. 5:10, owing to the gospel nature of the subject and prayerful preparation.
We thus see M’Cheyne was keenly interested in “preparing” his heart so that he might preach God’s word. The February 27th entry shows us his heart was set aflame by the gospel and—particularly—by prayer.
Then, the very next week he wrote:
March 5th – Preached in Larbert with very much comfort, owing chiefly to my remedying the error of 21st Feb. Therefore the heart adn the mouth were full. ‘Enlarge my heart, and I shall run,”said David. ‘Enlarge my heart, and I shall preach.’ (emphasis added)
Reading through his diary and letters reveals a regular passion into this battle for enlarging the heart each week. Few know that he preferred to visit the dying on Saturdays so that his soul my be fit with solemnity for Sunday. He hoped it would allow him to preach as a dying man to dying men.
Brother of the pulpit, what do you do to prepare for heralding God’s word?
More Than Just a Few Hours Are Needed
I’ve found myself freshly challenged to answer that question in my own life. What am I intentionally doing each week to prepare my soul for the spiritual battle that is The Sacred Desk? Perhaps it’s my immaturity—or maybe it’s an appropriation of personal pregame rituals in my old glory years of futbol—but I’ve come to realize how routinized I’ve made the whole thing. Now, don’t get me wrong, I will sing the blessed Hymn of Routine until the Lord takes me home. No faithful ministry can happen without shaking hands with the friend named Routine.
However, I’m thinking here of my own particular routine on the day of preaching. After a week of studying, writing, and editing the sermon, Lord willing, is ready to go. Because IDC meets on Saturdays I have the stuffy joy of waiting a l l d a y to deliver the sermon. This brings many extra hours for temptation unto sin, despair, or doubt before preaching. To help wage the good war I’ve taken to always leaving the house about 11:30am, which gives me about four hours to read through the sermon and earnestly pray for the night’s work. Sounds quite right, doesn’t it? Yet, in light of my M’Cheyne reading I came to realize that I was using these four hours as something like a “Pump You Up to Preach” soundtrack. Playing that same song each week, I had implicitly concluded, would cause my heart beat with bursting passion as I stand behind the pulpit.
Yet, I’m realizing the whole endeavor is a wee bit misguided. Why?
Enter M’Cheyne again.
In his private notes on “Personal Reformation,” the blessed man said, “I am persuaded I shall do most for God’s glory and the good of man . . . by being filled with the Holy Spirit at all times, and by attaining the most entire likeness to Christ in mind, will, and heart, that is possible for a redeemed sinner to attain to in this world.”
What I’ve been trying to acquire in the few hours before ascending to The Desk is actually something that can only be done by living each moment coram deo. Yes, we pray for the Spirit’s unction and filling to fall on the moment of preaching. But we dare not expect He will come down if the rest of the week isn’t consumed with the glorious tidings of Christ. This is why many a wise old man has said it takes a lifetime to prepare each sermon.
It’s one of those many truths I’ve known, but for the first time I feel I really know.
Continual Feasting
This then, I’m convinced, is what we must be after: wholehearted, second-by-second, devotion to Christ. Let another Scottish divine, William Blaikie, slam shut the case:
Ought not preachers themselves to live on the great fundamental truths of the gospel? Ought not our souls to be continually fed from them, and our hearts continually thrilling with them? Ought not a fresh glow to come over our hearts every day as we think of Him who loved us, and washed us from sin in His blood, and made us kings and priests unto God and to the Father? Give us the plainest preacher that ever was; let him preach nothing that a whole congregation do not know; but let him preach with a thrilling heart; let him preach like one amazed at the glory of the message; let him preach in the tone of wonder and gratitude in which it becomes sinners to realize the great work of redemption,—not only will the congregation listen with interest: they will listen with profound impression.
Delight your soul the thrills of Christ every day and then go preach with a thrilling heart.