“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
Solemn Engagement
Because we live in a time that does not understand covenants, and which makes personal choice the foundation of everything, we sometimes do not know how to respond to people who are on the verge of walking away from the most solemn commitments. We believe that our loyalties and our commitments are assigned to us. …
Point Where the Water Does
Because we are walking in the path of our Reformed fathers, we practice infant baptism. Because we walk in the path of our evangelical fathers, we confess that faith is the sole instrument of our justification. Now because this child who is about to be baptized is not going to make a profession of faith, …
Craven or Bold?
One of the mysteries of our relationship to God and our relationship to the world is the inverse demeanor that exists between humbling and boldness. When God is great and man is small, the result is humility before God and boldness before men. But when man is great and God is small, the thing goes …
Psalm 116/ The Grace of Answered Prayer
The Twelfth Decade of Psalms: Introduction: This psalm is a wonderful testimony of praise, giving glory to God for all the things He did to undertake for the psalmist. The Lord delivered ...
Although Some Still Do
“Wordy preachers can hide careless thinking with clever speech; it is much more difficult to get away with a cover-up on paper.”
Stott, The Challenge of Preaching, p. 71
Start the Journey at the Right End
“We need to start where the people are, rather than where we hope to take them.”
Stott, The Challenge of Preaching, p. 70
The Size of the Front Porch
“A good introduction serves at least three purposes.First, it awakes interest, stimulates curiosity and makes us long to know God’s perspective on this matter. Secondly, it enables the listeners to sense that they are listening to someone who is qualified to speak for God from this text . . . Thirdly, it introduces the dominant idea and leads the hearers into it”
Stott, The Challenge of Preaching, pp. 69-70