Spend one minute and forty one seconds watching this clip and you should learn (or at the least be reminded of) something important about biblical preaching.
HT: Bro. Matt’s Blog
Archive for the 'Preaching' Category
Click here to see the flier for a new sermon series I begin in October.
Pastor Joe Thorn (Redeemer Fellowship, St. Charles, IL) has posted questions for those who regularly listen to sermons. Pastors are not allowed to participate. This is a chance for those who listen to preaching to give feedback. As one who preaches, I’m very interested to read the responses.
Click here to read Joe’s post. It might seriously help preachers if you posted a response. Joe asks people in the pew to respond to these questions:
1. What would you like to hear more of from the pulpit?
2. When is a sermon too long?
3. Do you listen to “celebrity” preachers (Driscoll, Piper, etc.) via MP3’s, CDs? If so, who?
4. Do you critique your pastor’s preaching by comparing him to the celebrity preachers? Be honest.
5. In general, are you applying the sermon you hear on Sunday to your life throughout the week?
Daryl Dash explains how D. Martyn Llodyd-Jones believes that a reluctance to preach on the wrath of God resulted in increasingly empty churches.
Lloyd-Jones preached a different message, as seen in this address:
First and foremost we are face to face with the fact of the wrath of God…God has decided and ordered and arranged that a life of forgetfulness of Him, and antagonism to Him, shall not be successful and happy. Cursing falls upon such a way of life. The facts of life, the story of history, proclaim the wrath of God against all ungodliness and unrighteousness. We have sinned against God…
It is as the idea of judgment and the wrath of God have fallen into the background that our churches have become increasingly empty. The idea has gained currency that the love of God somehow covers everything, and that it matters very little what we may do, because the love of God puts everything right at the end. The more the Church has accommodated her message to suit the palate of the people the greater has been the decline in attendance at places of worship.
This is a very good example of God-centered versus human-centered preaching.
Read it all here.
Literally, and in terms of preaching:
The neighbors are watering their grass. I’m focusing on trees.
Grass is an inch deep. The first sign of trouble, it will wither and turn brown.
But, trees that have developed root systems will survive long after I am not around to entertain them any longer.
Some of the grass gains a short term benefit from water around the tree.
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“ Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.(Ps 1).”
(Version 2.0 of this post).
There is a breathtaking wealth of sermons available today - - it’s unlike any other age in history.
Read some of Dr. Dash’s (a pastor in the Toronto area) suggestions here.
John Piper writes, “especially on Sunday’s, preaching is paramount for pastors.” He then goes on to give insight regarding how you can pray for your pastor and what you should expect in preaching. (You can read it here).
Do pray for preachers.
As Chesterton explained, we ought not to be surprised that truth is stranger than fiction.
‘Truth must of necessity be stranger than fiction,’ said Basil placidly. ‘For fiction is the creation of the human mind, and therefore congenial to it.’ [G. K. Chesterton Club of Queer Trades.
Continue reading ‘Pastors: Uncover the Strangeness of Truth’
In Northern Illinois, we got hammered with snow today. Somewhere around a foot of the white stuff came down.
So, I’ve been hunkered down in my study at home - - I studied, prepared a sermon and listened to a sermon (while I dusted) by Crawford Loritts on pastoral courage. Leaders need to listen to this one!
We must be willing to talk about the wrath of God and the justice of God. Continue reading ‘Hell? Yes - - solemnly.’
