“For only by feeding on the Word can you grow, and only by growing can you persevere and attain final salvation. A steady diet of gospel messages which do not help the saints grow out of infancy only only stunts their character but also jeopardizes their final salvation” (Piper, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals, p. …
The Pastoral Nature of Systematics
“Another reason it is hard to spend hours probinjg for the roots of coherence is that it is fundamentally unfashionable today to systematize things and seek for harmony and unity. This noble quest has fallen on hard times because so much artificial harmony has been discovered by impatient and nervous Bible defenders” (Piper, Brothers, We …
Caring for God’s Children
“Mark it well: the preacher has pastoral charge of God’s children; he must nurture ‘the divine nature’ in them; he must help them to conform to the image of God’s Son. What is a caretaker of animals or even of a garden like Paradise when compared with a shepherd of the flock of God, of …
Poetic Ministry
“The great pressure on us today is to be productive managers. But the need of the church is for prayerful, spiritual poets. I don’t mean (necessarily) pastors who write poems. I mean pastors who feel the weight and glory of eternal reality even in the midst of a business meeting; who carry in their soul …
Growth From the Outside
“But man’s life, being finite, does not have its ground within itself and therefore is not sufficient unto itself, either ontologically or developmentally. In other words, it needs something extraneous to itself to be itself and to become itself more and more; that is, to grow” (Volbeda, The Pastoral Genius of Preaching, p. 34).
The Grave of Exile
INTRODUCTION: Under continued pressure from Saul, David is forced to leave Judah and take refuge with Achish, who was the king of Gath. He had complained in the previous chapter that certain men were trying to force him to serve other gods (1 Sam. 26:19) which he was unwilling to do. He was willing, however, …
Wine Instead of Dish Water
“This is the ultimate foundation for Christian hedonism and profoundly shapes a pastor’s pulpit ministry. As Christian hedonists we know that every listener longs for happiness. And we will never tell them to deny or repress that desire. Their problem is not that they want to be satisfied but that they are far too easily …
Life Needs Food
“The power that makes preaching pastorally effective does not reside in the preacher, but in God who utilizes him as His instrument in His good pleasure . . . the life of His creatures is finite . . . It is not sufficient to itself. It needs God in an absolute sense and it needs …
To This End I Labor
“Good service is always and fundamentally receiving mercy, not rendering assistance . . . The only right way to serve God is in a way that reserves for Him all the glory. ‘Whoever serves [must do it] as one who serves by the strength that God supplies — in order that in everything God may …
Homiletical Care
“If the quality called ‘pastoral’ be not understood, preaching will not be understood” (Volbeda, The Pastoral Genius of Preaching, p. 30).