“Dr. Rollins carried more envy around inside his rib cage than you could find at a drag show in San Francisco. And on this occasion, as Jake walked into Tom’s office, you didn’t need to be spiritually sensitive to notice it. You could set your iPhone out on the desk, and it would charge all by itself.”
With an Eye on the End of the Furrow
“Christians preachers are to be neither inventors of new doctrines nor editors who delete old doctrines. Rather, they are to be stewards, faithfully handing out scriptural truths to God’s household. Nothing more, nothing less, and nothing else”
Stott, The Challenge of Preaching, p. 96
The Importance of Prepositions
“They were both stellar students in a stellar theological program (if you don’t count all the unbelief and apostasy), but there were striking differences between the two men. A first-rate education had done into Dr. Tom’s head, while it had apparently gone straight to Dr. Jake’s.”
The Real Move
“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
Make That a Stick of Warm Butter
“In short, they were not prepared at all for battle. The wedge of young radicals went through the middle of the crowd like a meat cleaver going sideways through a stick of butter”
Pride as Pest
“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.
Quick Ignorance
“But let us just remember what Mark Twain said about how a lie can get halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on his shoes. The Internet has not changed this or made us smarter. It just moves our ignorance around the world at very high rates of speed.”
All Are Under Authority
“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
With No Shade Available
“Martin Malloy was right about the impact that his story would have. The flag story was already hot, and this took the whole thing up to a high summer afternoon on Mercury’s bright side, that being the side closest to the sun.”
Because the River of Exposition Has White Water
“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