“The positive evil [of imitation] comes from the fact that that what is worst in any man is always the most copiable.”
Phillips Brooks, The Joy of Preaching, p. 127
Fear Not, Little Flock
Introduction: Our attitude toward the future reveals, as few others things do, our actual doctrine of God, our actual theology. It is perilously easy to have our catechism truths down pat, there on ...
So Watch It
“The range of sermon-writing gives it a capacity of various vices which no other kind of composition can presume to rival.”
Phillips Brooks, The Joy of Preaching, p. 126
Not Framed Out of Two by Fours
“A style which is really a man’s own will grow as long as he grows.”
Phillips Brooks, The Joy of Preaching, p. 126
Or Fifty
“He who cannot write anything well cannot write a sermon well, although we often think he can. To him who has no literary skill all subjects are alike. If you cannot swim, it matters not whether there be twenty or forty feet of water.”
Phillips Brooks, The Joy of Preaching, p. 126
How to Move to Moscow
Introduction: Sermon Video As you all know, we have seen a steady stream of folks moving to Moscow, and, as you might not know, it shows no sign of letting up. Up to this point, we have all been ...
A Capital Idea
“Never draw out of a text a meaning which you know is not there. If your text has not your truth in it, find some other text which has. If you can find no text for it in the Bible, then preach on something else.”
Phillips Brooks, The Joy of Preaching, p. 125
No Trifling With the Text
“Only, as one rule that has no exceptions, let your use of texts be real. Never make them mean what they do not mean. In the name of taste and reverence alike, let there be no twists and puns, no dealing with the Word of God as it would be insulting to deal with the word of any friend”
Phillips Brooks, The Joy of Preaching, p. 124
Undigested Quotations
“Constant quotations in sermons are, I think, a sign of the same crudeness. They show an undigested knowledge . . . Learn to study for the sake of truth, learn to think for the profit and joy of thinking. Then your sermons shall be like the leaping of a fountain, and not like the pumping of a pump.”
Phillips Brooks, The Joy of Preaching, p. 123
The Prophecy of Micah [6]
Sermon Video Introduction: The consolation section of the second cycle is long, encompassing two whole chapters—chapters four and five. We will therefore be working through this section over ...