Theology That Bites Back
The Johnstons had been members of the church for fifteen years before the pastor or any of the elders suspected that there was trouble in the marriage. And that suspicion arose because of an overheard conversation in the parking lot—one of the elders’ wives was looking for a dropped baby bottle in the back of …
“The preacher with a humble mind will refuse to manipulate the biblical text in order to make it more acceptable to our day and age. Any attempt to make it more acceptable is really about making ourselves more acceptable or popular.”
Stott, The Challenge of Preaching, p. 95
“In other preachers, however, pride is more indirect, more deceptive, and more troublesome. It is possible to seem humble while constantly longing for praise. At the very moment we are glorifying Christ, we can actually be looking for our own glory. When we are pleading with the congregation to praise God, or even leading them in praise, we can be secretly hoping that they will spare a bit of praise for us”
Stott, The Challenge of Preaching, p. 94.
“For the health of the church, which lives and grows through the word of God, and for the sake of the preacher who needs this discipline, we must return to systematic exposition.”
Stott, The Challenge of Preaching, p. 93
“Because it takes courage to deal with certain issues, I recommend systematic exposition, working steadily through a book of the Bible or a section of a book, verse by verse or paragraph by paragraph. This approach forces us to discuss passages that we might otherwise overlook, or even deliberately avoid.”
Stott, The Challenge of Preaching, p. 92
Sermon Video The Twelfth Decade of Psalms: Introduction: And here we come to a great hymn of gratitude and praise, offered up to God for His glorious law. We have here the definitive answer ...
“Preachers, like prophets, believe they bring a word from God, and are not free to change it. Therefore all preachers have at various times to choose between truth with unpopularity and falsehood with popularity.”
Stott, The Challenge of Preaching, p. 90
Welcome, in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We have gathered at a Christian funeral or memorial service, and this means that everything in it should revolve around the word honor. We are ...
“People-pleasers and time-fillers never make good preachers. We are . . . appointed to proclaim what God has said, not what people want to hear.”
Stott, The Challenge of Preaching, p. 87
“True preaching is never a superficial activity; it wells up out of the depths.”
Stott, The Challenge of Preaching, p. 86
