“Discipleship preaching is ‘continuity preaching’ — moving from the familiar to the unfamiliar, from the routine to the challenging, from immaturity to maturity” (Wagner, Tongues Aflame, p. 230).
Time for the World to Get Up
INTRODUCTION: The Incarnation of the Word, and the resurrection of that Word from the dead, has entirely remade the world. We fail to recognize this because we don’t understand history—and the way the world actually was before Christ came into it. But humanity lived through a long night indeed, and when Christ came, the sun …
Hearing Is a Duty
“While God holds his ministers accountable for their preaching, he also expects his people to admit and deal with their own deficiencies in listening and responding to God’s Word” (Wagner, Tongues Aflame, p 209).
The Saturday Night Cram
“I’m convinced that so much preaching is so ‘thin’ because the preacher simply cannot bring a rich understanding of Scripture to his work of sermon preparation, and he cannot ‘cram’ sufficiently in a week to compensate for his underlying ignorance” (Wagner, Tongues Aflame, p. 195).
Well, Tough
“You will be required at times to set before your congregations things that they may not wish to hear — doctrines they don’t agree with, ethical demands they are unwilling to submit to” (Wagner, Tongues Aflame, p. 193).
The Heart of the Law
INTRODUCTION:A very popular mistake among Christians is that of contrasting love and the law, as though we had to pick and choose. Will we live according to love, or according to the law? But if we must love, isn’t that a law, a great commandment? And if we keep the law truly, won’t we realize …
A Different Gift of Tongues in Acts
“Skim a few chapters of the Book of Acts, and notice how often the preaching of the Word issues immediately in controversy and therefore in debate. It is truly noteworthy how often this happens” (Wagner, Tongues Aflame, p. 186).
Boldness, Not Bombast
“Lest you get the wrong idea, let me say that I am not saying you should all learn how to ‘shout up a good camp meeting’, or adopt a kind of phony, thundering pulpit style that is not you. It is actually more subtle than that. You want to be ‘natural’ in the pulpit (most …
Governmental Tax Cheats
INTRODUCTION:When considering the subject of our duty to pay taxes, the Bible seems plain enough. But a lot rides on where you place the emphasis—where do the italics go? Governments exist by covenant, and governments like ours explicitly claim to exist by covenant. The word federal comes from the Latin word foedus, which means covenant. …
A Crisis That Never Fades
“The message of the apostles was the God himself precipitated the historic crisis for the whole world, and for each and every person, by bringing Jesus back from the dead” (Wagner, Tongues Aflame, p. 113).