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How Should You Preach?

How is the Word of God to be preached by those that are called thereunto?

They that are called to labor in the ministry of the word, are to preach sound doctrine, diligently, in season and out of season; plainly, not in the enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit, and of power; faithfully, making known the whole counsel of God; wisely, applying themselves to the necessities and capacities of the hearers; zealously, with fervent love to God and the souls of his people; sincerely, aiming at his glory, and their conversion, edification, and salvation. – Westminster Larger Catechism #159

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Citizens Soldiers

Philippians Podcast

When Emily and I bought our first home in 2009 we moved in with plans to cut the cable. Emily at the time was working nights as a nurse and so I was left to my lonesome three evening each week. Previously, ESPN always occupied my attention (and sadly, my affections as well), but when cable was let go, I had to find other means of occupation. So, I went to the library and rented Band of Brothers for the first time.

Thus began my infatuation with World War II, and also my infatuation with reading. I was soon spending hours each night pouring through military history books, one of the first of which was Stephen Ambrose’s Citizens Soldiers. Elaborating on the title Ambrose opens with these words, “This book is about the citizen soldiers of the U.S. Army and U.S. Air Forces in the European Theater of Operations in World War II. Although it includes some material on strategy . . . it is not a book about generals. It is about the GIs, [the ordinary men] of ETO—who they were, how they fought, what they endured, how they triumphed.”

“Citizen soldiers” is a most apt description of Christians according to our text. The verbs are almost exclusively political and militant. It’s as though Paul is saying, citizens of heaven are to live as soldiers for Christ. We thus see truth about our identity in Christ (citizens of heaven), and also about the tenacity of life in Christ (soldiers fighting worthy of the gospel).

But let us saying something here about living “worthy.” For how many of us, after seeing everything Paul says feel so unworthy. We are divisive complainers, fearful with the truth, and prone to distrust a sovereign God when He graces us with suffering. Far from being worthy soldiers for Christ, we are often unworthy deserters of Christ. If you are in here tonight and are not a Christian, the Bible says you are an enemy of Christ. What hope does Paul have for our unworthiness? Look back at 1:29. Paul writes, “It has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should . . . believe in him.” God meets our unworthiness with the worth of Christ, He graciously gives us faith in Jesus; faith that saves from sin and enlists us into Christ’s army. Oh, I pray that those of you apart from Christ tonight would see His supreme worth—that he died for sinners like you. If you would but turn from you sin and trust in Him, you will become a citizen of heaven and soldier of Christ.

If you are a Christian see afresh the grace that changes unworthy sinners into worthy citizen soldiers. His Spirit of Grace resides within you to enable you to live in a manner worthy of the gospel. So, as we close let me try and tie everything we’ve seen together as we consider what our text tells us about a church that lives worthy of the gospel.

A Church That Lives Worthy of the Gospel

We display the heart of Christ. The heart of Christ is one of unity. He secures it through his death, intercedes for it through His prayer, and builds it through His spirit. Steve Timmis said, “The church is the fruit of the cross. You may look across this room and be unhappy about a part of this body. Something that frustrates you, or some that makes you uncomfortable. But Jesus looks at us and say, “This is the fruit of my suffering and I love it.” So we are to stand firm in one spirit, with one mind.

We declare the truth of Christ. Through our preaching and hearing the word preached we take up arms against the forces of darkness. As we grow in the truth through discipling relationships and small groups we sharpen our blades to do battle against the Serpent. As we fathers and mothers lead our children to love and obey the truth we fit are putting them through a spiritual boot camp. And, as we’ve said already, we do all of this without fear. Courage is the seasoning that ought to permeate our declarations of truth.

We demonstrate the treasure of Christ. The grace of suffering will fall on you at some point. It’s has fallen on us multiple times this year, and we ought not to expect next year to be any different should the Lord tarry. It’s a grace for many reasons, one of which is that is allows us to demonstrate before the world what we truly treasure. Comfort? Pleasure? Success? Acclaim? Or, when all those things fall away, do we show that in plenty or in want, Jesus is our true treasure.

We are welcomed into the kingdom of Christ and called to behave as citizens worthy of the gospel; behavior Paul summarizes as showing our allegiance to Christ and perseverance in Christ. As those things happen we will find this church to be one that display the heart of Christ, declares the truth of Christ, and demonstrates the treasure of Christ. Living worthy of the gospel is the essence of the Christian life.

This post is adapted from my recent sermon, “Rejoicing in Life,” on Philippians 1:27-30.

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Preaching Nourished by Prayer

The Pastor and Prayer

It’s a perennial question, “Where should you start a book on preaching?” You could give a brief theology of Scripture, survey its primacy in church history, or you could do something totally different like write a chapter on prayer. That’s exactly where Gary Millar and Phil Campbell begin their book Saving Eutychus: How to Preach God’s Word and Keep People Awake. That emphasis seems just right. That apostles did say they would devote themselves “to prayer and to the ministry of the word” (Acts 6:4). So, when a book self-consciously reflects this order my interest is automatically piqued.

Gary Millar takes five pages and fills them with punch and pith on the necessity of prayer if we are ever going to keep Eutychus awake. His sage counsel is summarized with these points: 1) resolve now to pray fervently for your own preach, and 2) make sure that your church prays together for the preaching.

Putting It Into Practice

To illustrate the power of the second point Millar recounts his experience at Gilcomston South Church. I found the example of this community stirring. May it do the same for you and lead to you place greater emphasis on prayer in your preaching ministry. Millar writes,

From 1988-1991 (when I was a theological student), I was part of a remarkable church family. Gilcomston South Church of Scotland in Aberdeen wasn’t a huge church. Nor was it a particularly ‘happening’ church. We met twice on a Sunday, had a midweek central Bible study and a Saturday night prayer meeting—and that was it. There was an organ, and we sang five hymns or psalms (often to Germanic minor tunes). The pastor, William Still, preached steadily through the Bible (this was still relatively novel at the time, even though he had been doing it for 40 years). But what set that church family apart was its very simple commitment to ‘the ministry of the word nourished by prayer’ (as Mr. Still would repeatedly say). I have never been part of a church family that had a greater sense of expectancy when we gathered to hear the Bible explained. And I have never been part of a church family where prayer was so obviously the heartbeat of everything that went on. And I have never been part of a church family where God was so obviously present week by week as he spoke through his word. And, it seems to me, there might just be a connection.

Of course ‘Gilc’ was, and is, just like any church family—full of flawed, messed-up people like you and me. But those of us who had the privilege of ‘passing through’ went on from there with an indelible sense that preaching and praying go together. It was just part of the DNA of the church family. The precious group of 50 or 60 people who met week by week at the Saturday night prayer meeting spend most of the two hours praying for the proclamation of the gospel elsewhere—in other churches in our city, in Scotland, and on every continent around the world, one by one. Eventually, someone would pray, ‘And Lord, spare a though for us in our own place tomorrow . . .’ and the others, who had been praying faithfully on their own all through the week for the preaching at Gilc, would murmur a heartfelt ‘Amen.’

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Cultivating Awe & Knowing Christ

Screen Shot 2015-09-30 at 7.00.36 PMMy early favorite for book of the year—Mark Jones’ Knowing Christ—has finally arrived. This is a book on which to feast and fill your soul.

The venerable Dr. Packer wrote the foreword (I look forward to the day when someone compiles all the forewords he’s offered) and he concludes, “Knowing Christ is a book calculated to enrich our twenty-first-century souls, and one that it is an honour to introduce.” Rosaria Butterfield goes even further by saying, “Knowing Christ is a majestic gem that will be passed down from generation to generation as a beloved devotional. Its author takes the reader by a loving pastoral hand into depths and riches, exhorting us to know Christ better and to love him more.”

SITTING AT THE FEET OF A GIANT

To help publicize the book, Banner of Truth just put out a fifteen minute conversation between Jones and Packer on matters of awe, meditation, and the glory of Christ. Tune in and watch one of God’s great ones encourage us to stare in awe at Christ.

Speaking of Packer, you really ought to also check out Leland Ryken’s forthcoming biography J.I. Packer: An Evangelical Life. It will surely make its way on to many “Best Of” lists at the end of the year.

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A Taste of Greece

Late Monday night I returned from a five-day trip to Athens, Greece with Darren Carlson, the president of Training Leaders International. We went to find out what’s going on with the migrant church in the city and discover what, if any, ways TLI can serve the evangelicals in the city.

In no particular order, here are some things I took away from the trip.

first-greek-evangelical-church-athensGreeks Bearing Gifts

  • Although most people estimate there are 25,000 evangelicals in Greece, the number is probably closer to about 15,000. Which means there are about as many evangelicals in my city of McKinney, TX as there are in all of Greece. Great commission alert.
  • The refugee crisis has created a unique situation for the evangelical churches in the city. On average, 4,000-5,000 refugees are currently arriving in Athens each day (the city function like a major way station for these people into the EU). Those churches and ministries seeking to serve the migrants are facing the great challenge named, “Incredibly fluid.” Rather than staying many months in the city, provided evangelicals for an opportunity to evangelize and disciple, these refugees are in and out in just a few days.
  • Ministry to the Persians in Athens seems uniquely blessed of God at this time.
  • Pastor Giotis Kantartzis is the real deal. He’s the pastor of First Evangelical Greek Church in Athens and I’ve heard him called, “The Tim Keller of the Balkans.” The description seems most appropriate to me.
  • We must thank God often for the unknown missionaries doing God’s work among the nations. We met with one missionary whose missionary career reads like a CIA novel—seriously. He’s known spies, threats, and death for many years.
  • Unity among the missionaries and churches is something we should pray for. It’s easy for each ministry to be innately skeptical of all others.
  • Living in a urban European environment never attracted me when I used to travel all the time for soccer. It still doesn’t.
  • The walk up to Mars Hill and the Acropolis is much more a hike than you’d think. I have new perspective on Acts 17:16-34.
  • Gyros are awesome.
  • Encouraging pastors is a most noble and necessary task. How tempting it is for gospel ministers in Athens to look at their flock (usually only a few dozen people, who don’t stay in the city long) and fall into despair. Pray for them to know the comfort of Christ.
  • If my observation is true, it seems children are kept to a minimum in the average Greek family. I was reminded afresh how Christians all over the world need to rediscover, with wisdom of course, the joy of Genesis 1:28.
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To Greece We Go

TLI_HomeHL-1

This morning I head out for a brief trip to Athens, Greece with Darren Carlson, the president of Training Leaders International. We go to do research on the migrant church movement and connect with churches ministering to refugees in Athens. If you think about it, pray for us.

Lord willing, I’ll be back next week.

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Pastors in the Tribulation

MinistryInTribulation

In his magnum opus, A New Testament Biblical Theology, Greg Beale proves—convincingly in my mind—that Christ’s resurrection inaugurated the end-times. Tribulation is here now, not “sometime way out there” as many would have you believe. The significance of this on ecclesiology and ministry is, dare we say, massive.

“The Tribulation is Here.” Say What?!?

For Beale argues there are continuities between the trials of God’s people in the Old Testament and the New Covenant age. He says the church goes through

a replication of the deceptive trial encountered by Adam. The difference now, however, is that the last Adam, Jesus, and his true followers, succeed in contrast to the first Adam, who failed and was deceived by the devil. . . . Satan’s deception of Adam and Eve that characterized the beginning of history has been typologically reproduced, so that Satan’s primal deception comes to characterize the end of history, the age of the last Adam, not merely the period directly before Christ’s second coming but the time extending from Christ’s first coming until his last coming.

The point of interest for this post is when he writes, “The specific trial and temptation during the present age is that believers are always undergoing deceptive influence against them not to believe in Christ and his precepts—that is, to commit ‘covenant community apostasy.’” How does Jesus go about protecting His sheep in the midst of this end-time deception?

Drumroll please . . .

He gives pastors and elders to His body.

7 Ways to War Against the Worm

The Pastoral Epistles, especially the letters to Timothy, are where we must turn at this point. At the outset of chapter four the Great Apostle says, “Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons.” What should young Timothy—and all subsequent pastors—do in the face of false teaching? How are we to go about slaying the Serpent in these final, evil days?

Give up worldly silliness. “Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths” (1 Tim. 4:7).

Sweat thyself unto godliness. “Train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come” (1 Tim 4:7-8).

Be worthy of imitation. “Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity” (1 Tim. 4:12).

Exhaust yourself in ministering God’s word. “Devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching” (1 Tim. 4:13).

Don’t bury your gift(s) in the spiritual sand. “Do not neglect the gift you have” (1 Tim. 4:14).

Overtly advance in faithfulness. “Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress” (1 Tim. 4:15).

Steadfastly stare at your soul and the Scriptures. “Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching” (1 Tim. 4:16).

Fear Not and Take Heart

Ministry in the age of tribulation and deception is, as we might say with the kids, “A beat down.” This war claims thousands of pastoral souls each year. In many parts of the world Satan kills Christ’s shepherds—of course, he doesn’t realize all he’s done is give them the martyr’s crown and hasten Jesus’ return (Rev. 6:11). The visceral nature of tribulation encourages desertion; how many elders desert their post in fear or unbelief? If they don’t die or don’t desert, so many more brothers in ministry get knocked back to the hospital ward, permanently maimed for ministry.

We can’t trifle with tribulation.

But we can take heart.

Look again at those seven strategies for war Paul gives Timothy. How blessedly ordinary they are! Christ doesn’t give us a battle plan full of tactics and maneuvers impossible to understand or execute. The marching orders are beautifully simple.

Pastors are Christ’s gift to His church in the age of tribulation (Eph. 4:11). He calls them to protect His people and lead His charge on the gates of hell. He tells them to walk on two feet marked Faithfulness and Holiness. Such an advance makes even hell quake in fear.

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Joyful Advance

Philippians Podcast

On June 22, 1941, Adolf Hitler launched his armies eastward in the largest military invasion in history, Operation Barbarossa: three great army groups with over three million German soldiers, 150 divisions, and three thousand tanks smashed across the frontier into Soviet territory. The invasion covered a front from the North Cape to the Black Sea, a distance of two thousand miles. The world held its breath as the advance seemed unstoppable until it came to a grinding halt—for a lack of fuel. Germany’s eventual retreat from Russia signaled their end and it all began with a shortage of fuel.

The word Paul uses for “advance” in 1:12 is one that pictures an attack in war. Just like every advancing army in history, the advance of the gospel in and through God’s people depends on continual fuel. I want to consider now how our text answers two questions about advancing the gospel, the first of which is . . .

What fuels gospel advance in our lives?

Trust in the sovereignty of God. Look back at 1:16 where Paul says, “I am put here for the defense of the gospel.” “Put here” (keimei) is a theological term emphasizing the appointment to chains is a divine commission. Paul is saying, “God put me in these chains, so that I might defend the gospel.” Loving trust in the sovereignty of God allows you to look beyond the mere circumstances of your life to see the divine shadow of providence that is using your hardship for gospel good.

Trust in the sufficiency of Christ. In the midst of all this talk about suffering and preaching, there is a clear unifying passion: the sufficiency of Christ. If you look back you’ll notice that in each verse Paul either mentions message about Christ or the person of Christ. The sufficiency of Christ has season Paul so pervasively he can’t help but sense him and see him everywhere.

Think back to times when the advance of the gospel in your heart seems to have stalled. Could it not be because the sovereignty of God and sufficiency of Christ lost their sweetness, beauty, and power? If this is what fuels gospel advance, what does our text say about this second question . . .

What happens when the gospel advances in our lives?

Rejoicing replaces complaining. How easy it would have been for Paul to groan and grumble at his chains and opponents, yet he keeps rejoicing. Oh, how your sinful heart and Wormy enemy assaults you with arrows each day saying, “Look at your circumstances, see how many reasons you have to complain!” Whereas God’s word says, “Look at your circumstances, see how many reasons you have to rejoice!” As the gospel advances joy become the sweet song of everyday life.

Boldness replaces fear. Remember what Paul said in 1:14, “And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.” Increasing courage and boldness is a fruit of the gospel advancing in your life.

Humility replaces rivalry. For Paul, life on earth is too short and eternity in heaven is too long to preoccupy our mind with worldly envy and spiritual rivalry. Satisfaction in the gospel’s advance propels humility as the concerns of Christ become your own. As long as the focus is kept on Christ, there will be unity in the church.

Advance the gospel through suffering in Christ and through preaching Christ. When our joy is in the gospel of Jesus Christ and its progress in the world, we have an anchor that will weather even the darkest storms of life; an anchor that leads to rejoicing instead of complaining, boldness instead of fear, and humility instead of rivalry. Advancing the gospel is the heartbeat of Christian joy.

This post is adapted from my recent sermon, “Rejoicing in Preaching,” on Philippians 1:12-18a.

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Recent Reads

I love to read. I find it helpful to summarize my thoughts on each book and I offer those thoughts in the hope that you will be encouraged to either read or pass over the given title.

51KPk4AX8PL._SX346_BO1,204,203,200_The Privy Key to Heaven by Thomas Brooks. It seems to me that the best criteria by which to judge a book on prayer is whether or not it drives you to your knees in greater fervency in prayer. For intellectual increase in the Bible’s teaching on prayer is a good thing, but heart increase in storming the throne of grace is even greater work. By that measurement the best book on prayer I’ve ever read is Thomas Brooks’ The Privy Key to Heaven. The greatest seasons of devotion to closet prayer in my life can be directly traced to this book. Maybe it’s because Brooks rebukes my apathy for prayer. Maybe it’s because my love for the Puritans means I’m uniquely inclined to profit from his pithy pen. Or maybe it’s because the book is saturated with the earnestness of the Spirit and wisdom of Scripture. Whatever it is, I continue to owe a great debt to Brooks for helping me to frequent the closet each day. If you don’t want to purchase the Brooks’ collected works from the Banner (and you probably don’t), simply pick up the Puritan Paperback edition—The Secret Key to Heaven: The Vital Importance of Private Prayer—and see if Brooks doesn’t drive you to your knees.

9781884527999mOpenness Unhindered: Further Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert on Sexual Identity and Union with Christ by Rosaria Champagne Butterfield. Butterfield’s incredible story of conversion to Christ from homosexuality and active lobbying in the LGBTQ community was the focus of Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert, one of my favorite books of 2013. I thus came into Openness Unhindered with high expectations and, oh my, did she surpass them. What an incredible book! Her chapters on “Conversion” and “Repentance” are simply brilliant. Of particular interest, given the trajectory of our culture on homosexuality, are her thoughts on sexual orientation and some Christian’s self-representation as being “a gay Christian.” Biblical wisdom, warmth, and winsomeness permeate these most difficult of subjects. The final chapter on “Community: Representing Christ to the World” is perhaps the best treatment of Christian hospitality I’ve ever read. This is a book to read meditatively and prayerful; a feast for the soul awaits. Tolle lege!

41yoLmf6a7L._SX319_BO1,204,203,200_The Art of Neighboring: Building Genuine Relationships Right Outside Your Door by Jay Pathak and Dave Runyon. In her fine chapter on community Butterfield recommended this work by Patak and Runyon, saying it offered some useful tips for engaging one’s neighbors. A light went off in my head as I suddenly remembered I’d downloaded a free Kindle edition of The Art of Neighboring a few years ago. “Kindle here I come.” Pathak (a Vineyard pastor) and Runyon (leader of a non-profit) each went through a personal renaissance in reaching their neighbors and this work offers wisdom from their experience. To be honest, I found the practical counsel predictable—throw a block party, overcome your fear, be intentional, etc.—but that doesn’t mean one can’t profit from the book. At the very least it will exhort you to know your neighbors better than you do, and that’s a most valuable consequence.

515p3OrN1KL._SX327_BO1,204,203,200_The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah. Those who know me best know I’m something of a hermit regarding pop culture (and I don’t mean this to be a badge of honor, it just is what it is). I never know what movies are out, what TV shows are popular, or what music gets the most spins. I do, however, know what books are currently runaway bestsellers—such is the confession of a true bibliophile. I’ve thus seen Hannah’s The Nightingale occupy a prominent place on the bestseller lists for months. Additionally, I’ve noticed it’s maintained five stars on Amazon after over 12,500 reviews; if that’s not impressive I don’t know what is. As a work of World War II historical fiction it has unique appeal to me, but my sense of it being something of a romance novel held me back from taking the literary plunge. But plunge I finally did and am here to tell you The Nightingale is quite good. The prose is compelling, if more flowery than the subject matter deserves, yet Hannah gets high marks for realism in her portrayal of two French sisters resisting Nazi occupation—the plot is full of pain and death, as it ought to be.

51mKNvdwEwL._SX276_BO1,204,203,200_Gray Mountain by John Grisham. Grisham’s latest has all the makings for a courtroom thriller. Set during the recession of 2008, Samantha Kofer loses her job at the world’s largest law firm and finds herself relegated to non-profit work at a legal clinic in small town, coal mining Virginia. The nefarious coal mining companies quickly come into view and the reader would be forgiven of expected a showdown with Big Coal USA to ensure. But it never does. In fact, when the book ended I thought, “Where’s the second half?” The ending is too abrupt and unresolved for my mind. The pages do turn fast as one might expect they would, but in the end Grisham missed out on what could have been an admittedly formulaic, but fast-paced thrill ride. To which I conclude, “Oh well. At least I learned a lot about the sinister coal mining industry.”

Click here to find other entries in the Recent Reads series.

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Helps for Private Prayer

200px-Thomas_BrooksI first read Thomas Brooks’ The Privy Key to Heaven in December 2011. After completing the book I wrote on the bottom of the last page, “One of the most life changing books I’ve read.” I finished the book again yesterday and I made a strikingly similar remark, “No book moves me to private prayer like this one.” Every reading reawakens fervency for the closet and faithfulness to Christ. I can’t recommend it highly enough.

Taking Matthew 6:6 as his text, Brooks’ offers this summary doctrine: That closet or private prayer is an indispensable duty, that Christ himself hath laid upon all that are not willing to lie under the woeful brand of being hypocrites.

In typical Puritan fashion he proceeds to meditate on his main point with a laser focus and a warm heart. The bulk of the book gives twenty arguments for closet prayer—things like “Christ did it,” “Life is the only time for it,” and “Christ is much delighted by it.” My interest in this post, however, are the final “rules” he offers to encourage Christians unto faithfulness and consistency in private prayer.

8 Rules to Apply for Persistent Private Prayer

1) Lament greatly and mourn bitterly over the neglect of this choice duty. He who does not make conscience of mourning over the neglect of this duty, will never make conscience of performing this duty. Oh that your heads were waters, and your eyes a fountain of tears—that you might weep day and night for the great neglect of closet-prayer, Jer 9:1. He who mourns most for the neglect of this duty, will be found most in the practice of this duty.

2) Habituate yourselves, accustom yourselves, to closet-prayer. Make private prayer your constant trade. Frequency begets familiarity, and familiarity confidence. We can go freely and boldly into that friend’s house whom we often visit. What we are habituated to, we do with ease and delight.

3) Keep a diary of all your closet-experiences. Oh, carefully record and book down all your closet mercies! Oh, be often in reading over your closet experiences, and be often in meditating and in pondering upon your closet experiences! There is no way like this, to inflame your love to closet-prayer, and to engage your hearts in this secret trade of private prayer.

4) Be sure that you do not spend so much of your precious time in public duties and ordinances, as that you can spare none for private duties, for secret services. Ah! how many are there that spend so much time in hearing of this man and that, and in running up and down from meeting to meeting, that they have no time to meet with God in their closets. O sirs! your duties are never so amiable and lovely, they are never so sweet and beautiful, as when they are seasonably and orderly performed.

5) Love Christ with a more inflamed love. Oh strengthen your love to Christ, and your love to closet-duties. Lovers love much to be alone, to be in a corner together, Song 7:10-12. Certainly the more any man loves the Lord Jesus, the more he will delight to be with Christ in a corner.

6) Be highly, thoroughly, and fixedly resolved, in the strength of Christ, to keep close to closet-duties, in the face of all difficulties and discouragements which you may meet with (Psa. 44:17-20). A man of no resolution, or of weak resolution, will be won with a nut, and lost with an apple. Satan, and the world, and carnal relations, and your own hearts, will cast in many things to discourage you, and take you off from closet prayer; but be nobly and firmly resolved to keep close to your closets, let the world, the flesh, and the devil, do and say what they can.

Of all the duties of religion, Satan is the most deadly enemy to this duty of secret prayer; partly because secret prayer spoils him in his most secret designs, plots, and contrivances against the soul; and partly because secret prayer is so musical and delightful to God; and partly because secret prayer is of such rare use and advantage to the soul; and partly because it keeps the soul far from pride, vain glory, and worldly applause. Therefore he had rather that a man should pray a thousand times in public in the church, or in the corner of the streets—than that he should pray once in his closet. Therefore you had need to steel your hearts with holy courage and resolution, that whatever suggestions, temptations, oppositions, or objections you may encounter with, that yet you will keep close to closet prayer.

7) Labor for a greater effusion of the Holy Spirit. The greater measure any man has of the Spirit of God, the more that man will delight to be with God in secret.

There are many people who say, they would be more in their closets than they are—but that they meet with many hindrances, many occasions, many diversions, many temptations, many oppositions, many difficulties, many discouragements, which prevent them. Ah, friends! had you a greater measure of the Holy Spirit upon you, none of these things would ever be able to hinder your secret trade heavenward

8) Be frequent in the serious consideration of eternity. Oh see eternity standing at the end of every closet-prayer, and this will make you pray to purpose in your closets.  O sirs! every work you do, is a step to a blessed, or to a cursed, eternity. Every motion, every action in this life, is a step toward eternity.

If there be any way or means on earth to bring us upon our knees before God in secret, it is the serious and solemn thoughts of eternity. Oh that the fear of eternity might fall upon all your souls! Oh that you would all seriously consider, that after a short time is expired, you must all enter upon an eternal estate!