“Their fellowship was with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ, and they were most acceptable and useful preachers. Their sermons were fetched up from the depths of their souls” (Fish, Power in the Pulpit, p. 21).
From the Heart a Man Proclaims
“Other things being equal, a man’s force in this world is always just in the ratio of the force of his heart. A full-hearted man is generally a powerful man” (Fish, Power in the Pulpit, p. 18).
Marble or Molten
“Passion is essential to the greatest effectiveness. Deep feeling is contagious. It melts and wins its wa. Sermons from burning hearts set others on fire. One of the best definitions of eloquence is, ‘to have something to say and to burn to say it.’ It the eloquence of art be not the eloquence of the …
Preaching Isn’t Bean Bag
“The earnest man is intent on carrying his point. He has an aim, and his hearers feel it when he comes in contact with them” (Fish, Power in the Pulpit, p. 17).
Thorough Harvesting
“First I shake the whole tree, that the ripest may fall. Then I climb the tree and shake each limb, and then each branch and then each twig, and then I look under each leaf” (Martin Luther, as quoted in Murray, How Sermons Work, p. 58).
Cross Plough
“Industriousness lies at the base of pulpit power. We use it here as equivalent to hard study . . . A strong preacher must keep his mental powers in working order. He must be a man of rigid, unremitted diligence. He must plough, and cross plough, and subsoil his own mind, that it may yield …
The Solo Commentator
“Some preachers boast that they never read commentaries or sermons. Their congregations often wish they would” (Murray, How Sermons Work, p. 57).
Submission and Sacrifice
INTRODUCTION:In these politically correct days, whenever we come across passages like this one, expositors rush to instruct the faithful on what it does not mean. But we can spend a lot of time learning what things don’t mean. What does it mean? How should we live? Let us at least begin there. If we address …
Not As the Scribes
“We expect one who knows he is in the right to speak with boldness . . . We are prepossessed in favour of men who, in this world of uncertainly and perplexity, express themselves on a grave subject with confidence and command . . . Men dealt with thus fearlessly, acknowledge the preacher’s power. His …
A Sermon Is Not a Computer Printout
“It is indispensible that a minister . . . know men, too, as well as books. Many ministers are altogether too ‘bookish.’ They fail of influence from not knowing the material they have to operate upon. The heart of man must be interpreted, as well as the Word of God, by him who would have …