“What is needed today is Paul’s combination of reason and emotion, of teaching and pleading. J.W. Alexander begs for ‘theological preaching.’ What interests people, he says, is ‘argument made red-hot.’”
Stott, The Challenge of Preaching, p. 83
Not Just Passing Time
“To handle issues of eternal life and death as if we were discussing the weather is inexcusable. How can we deliver a solemn message in a casual manner, or refer to the eternal destinies of men and women as if we were discussing where they will spend their summer holidays? Christians who care are earnest.”
Stott, The Challenge of Preaching, pp. 80-81
Preaching While Hot
“Earnestness goes one step beyond sincerity. To be sincere is to mean what we say and to do what we say; to be earnest is also to feel what we say. Earnestness is the deep feeling essential to preaching.”
Stott, The Challenge of Preaching, p. 80
And That Opposition Will Give Reasons Why This Quote Doesn’t Apply to You
“One of the chief proofs of genuineness is the willingness to suffer for what we believe. The faithfulness of the true servant of God is proved when opposition comes.”
Stott, The Challenge of Preaching, p. 79
He Really Does
“We are told that a friend once met the philosopher David Hume (who rejected Christianity) hurrying along a London street and asked him where he was going. Hume replied that he was going to hear George Whitefield preach. ‘But surely,’ his friend asked in astonishment, ‘you don’t believe what Whitefield preaches, do you?’ ‘No, I don’t,’ answered Hume, ‘but he does.’”
Stott, The Challenge of Preaching, p. 79
Psalm 117/ The Christ of the Jews for the Gentiles
The Twelfth Decade of Psalms: Introduction: The Hallel psalms are psalm of praise—they are Hallelujah psalms. This one also concludes with that exclamation of praise. This is a very brief ...
The Rebound Transfer
Murray was a solid citizen. He had been a member of the church for thirty years, and had been married to Denise for forty. They had gone through a massive doctrinal shift ten years into their marriage, had come to understand the doctrines of grace more fully, and had been part of the community life …
Like Speaking Better Than You Live
“Although teaching is a spiritual gift and a great privilege, it brings with it many dangers”
Stott, The Challenge of Preaching, p. 78
Fire in the Bones
“The pressure should begin to build inside us, until we feel we can contain it no longer. It is then that we are ready to preach. The whole process of sermon preparation, from beginning to end, was excellently summed up by an African American preacher who said, ‘First, I reads myself full, next I thinks myself clear, next I prays myself hot, and then I lets go.’”
Stott, The Challenge of Preaching, p. 73
Congregations Also Know
“Every preacher knows the difference between a heavy sermon which trundles along the runway like an overloaded passenger jet and never gets airborne, and a sermon which has ‘what a bird has, a sense of direction and wings.’”
Stott, The Challenge of Preaching, p. 73