Category Archives: For Our Heralding

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Where God’s Presence is Felt

2012AA47896Earlier this week I read Iain Murray’s A Scottish Christian Heritage and found it full of stirring stories for the soul. Perhaps no chapter was as good for me as the one on Thomas Chalmers.

One quote in particular struck me with the force of a spiritual Hulk. Brothers of the pulpit, read this one  s l o w l y:

How little must the presence of God be felt in that place, where the high functions of the pulpit are degraded into a stipulated exchange of entertainment, on the one side, and of admiration on the other! and surely it were a sight to make angels weep when a weak and vapouring mortal, surrounded by his fellow sinners, and hastening to the grave and the judgment along with them, finds it a dearer object to his bosom to regale his hearers by the exhibition of himself, than to do, in plain earnest, the work of his Master.

Now, off to your prayer closet to pray for humility, plainness, and earnestness as you preach this weekend. For God loves to reveal Himself through such preaching.

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Know It to Wield It

“For the Gospel the Bible must be used. The minister must so live in it that he wears it easily. One reason why people are repelled from it is that the preachers cannot carry it with easy mastery. They are in Goliath’s armour. Now the ideal ministry must be a Bibliocracy. It must know its Bible better than any other book.” – P.T. Forsyth, Positive Preaching and the Modern Mind, 37.

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The Right Mood of Preaching

“I love to preach in such a mood, not as though I was about to preach at all, but hoping that the Holy Spirit would speak through me. . . . Dependence upon God is the flowing fountain of success. That true saint of God, George Muller, has always struck me, when I have heard him speak, as being such a simple, child-like being in his dependence upon God; but, alas! the most of us are far too great for God to use us; we can preach as well as anybody, make a sermon with anybody,—and so we fail. Take care, brethren; for if we think we can do anything of ourselves, all we shall get from God will be the opportunity to try.” – Spurgeon, An All-Round Ministry, 183.

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To Yourself First, Then To Them

“A man preacheth that sermon only well unto others which preacheth itself in his own soul. And he that doth not feed on and thrive in the digestion of the food which he provides for others will scarce make it savoury unto them; yea, he knows not but the food he hath provided may be poison, unless he have really tasted of it himself. If the word do not dwell with power in us, it will not pass with power from us.” – John Owen, Works Vol: XVI, 76.

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The Judged, Not “The Judge”

“[A] God-centered focus of preaching will change [the listener’s] assessment of the preacher and the preaching. If people know they have encountered God, they do not praise the preacher. The focus stays on God. They no longer stand over the preacher as a judge of his sermon ‘performance.’ Though one moment they are the judge, the next they perceive that they are being judged. This perception should lead to a different diagnostic question in regard to preaching. The question will no longer be, ‘How was the sermon?’ because that question calls for the hearer to judge how the preacher did. Instead it will be, ‘How did your soul fare under the sermon?’ or ‘How did God address you in the sermon?’ – Jason Meyer, Preaching: A Biblical Theology, 246.

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Don’t Be A Drone

“In order to get attention, make your manner as pleasing as it can possibly be. Do not, for instance, indulge in monotones. Vary your voice continually. Vary your speed as well–dash as rapidly as a lightning flash, and anon, travel forward in quiet majesty. Shift your accent, move your emphasis, and avoid sing-song. Vary the tone; use the bass sometimes, and let the thunders roll within; at other times speak as you ought to do generally–from the lips, and let your speech be conversational. Anything for a change. Human nature craves for variety, and God grants it in nature, providence and grace; let us have it in sermons also.” – Spurgeon, Lectures to My Students, 132.

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Study for Sweetness

“Study God’s Word diligently for your own edification and then, when it has become more to you than your necessary food and sweeter than honey or the honeycomb, it will be impossible for you to speak of it to others without a glow passing into your words which will betray the delight with which it has inspired yourself.” – James Stalker, The Preacher and His Models: The Yale Lectures on Preaching, 1891