“You can’t consistently give what you don’t have. If you don’t give gladness, you don’t give the gospel; you give legalism” (Piper, The Supremacy of God in Preaching, p. 53).
The Open Hand Rules
INTRODUCTION:This chapter recounts a victory that David has over the Amalekites, a battle that occurs at the same time that Saul is being overcome by the Philistines. David comes into a great victory on the third day, and his persistent adversary Saul dies at the same time. Although this passage tells of David’s victory, a …
Glad Gravity
“Gladness and gravity should be woven together in the life and preaching of a pastor in such a way as to sober the careless soul and sweeten the burdens of the saints” (Piper, The Supremacy of God in Preaching, p. 52).
The God of Brinksmanship
INTRODUCTION:The set-up for the battle of Mt. Gilboa had provoked Saul to seek out the witch of Endor. With that episode done, we come now to a fork in the road. Chapter 30 describes David’s victorious battle against the Amalekites, and chapter 31 describes Saul’s disastrous defeat at the hands of the Philistines. The book …
The Spirit Gives Ears to Hear
“We are simply pulling rank on people when we tell them, and don’t show them from the text . . . The work of the Holy Spirit in the process of interpretation is not to add information, but to give to us the discipline to study and the humility to accept the truth we find …
Standing on the Rock
“Where the Bible is esteemed as the inspired and inerrant Word of God, preaching can flourish. But where the Bible is treated merely as a record of valuable religious insight, preaching dies” (Piper, The Supremacy of God in Preaching, p. 40).
Why God Strikes the Bell
“All genuine preaching is rooted in a feeling of desperation. You wake up on Sunday morning and you can smell the smoke of hell on one side and feel the crisp breezes of heaven on the other . . . The dangers of self-reliance and self-exaltation in the ministry of preaching are so insidious that …
The Stomach of the Mind
“The minister as the chief pastoral agent does not inject food intravenously as it were, but he provides well-prepared food for the flock. He sets it before the flock and persuades them to feed themselves as they partake of it. It is like filling the stomach with food which then must be digested and transmuted …
How Boldness and Humility are Joined
“The cross [is] the ground of the objective validity of preaching and the ground of the subjective humility of preaching” (Piper, The Supremacy of God in Preaching, p. 29).
Fatherhood in the Pulpit
“For when Paul says: I have begotten you, he means to say: I am a father to you; you are children to me. I am not merely your tutor and you, my wards” (Volbeda, The Pastoral Genius of Preaching, p. 74).