“The stewardship metaphor indicated the content of the preacher’s message. Indeed, if the metaphor teaches anything, it teaches that the preacher does not supply his own message; he is supplied with it. If the steward is not expected to feed the household out of his own pocket, the preacher is not to provide his own …
Stewardship As Motivation
“The first truth concerns the source of the preacher’s incentive. Preaching is hard work. The preacher is often tempted to become dispirited. He needs powerful incentives to strengthen his flagging soul, and there is no doubt that he can find one here. St. Paul certainly did. He was a steward of God’s mysteries, ‘a trustee …
Distinguishable, Not Separable
“My contention is that there should be no such disjunction between the ‘appeal’ and the preaching, any more than there should be between the sacraments and preaching” (Lloyd-Jones, Preachers and Preaching, p. 274).
Get a Bit and Bridle on Your Gifts
“Watch your natural gifts and tendencies and idiosyncrasies. Watch them. What I mean is that they will tend to run away with you. It can all be summed up in a phrase — watch your strength. Not so much your weaknesses: it is your strength you have to watch, the things at which you excel, …
God Loves a Cheerful Worshipper
“I have always opposed the idea of trying to force people to attend church services; w hat I am saying is that our preaching ought to fill them with a desire to do this. You should not have to whip them up to do it” (Lloyd-Jones, Preachers and Preaching, p. 252).
Turns Out He Was Holding Back
“We turn now to another point in this list of the various things one has to consider in a sermon whether written or extemporary, namely the place of humour in preaching . . . What makes all these things difficult is that they are natural gifts, or the place of the natural gifts, in this …
Filling Up the Outline
“Charles Haddon Spurgeon, that great preacher, did not write out his sermons in full; he just prepared and used a skeleton” (Lloyd-Jones, Preachers and Preaching, p. 214).
Talk to Your Text
“One of the first things a preacher has to learn is to talk to his texts. They talk to you, and you must talk to them” (Lloyd-Jones, Preachers and Preaching, p. 202).
And No Fudging
“Well. obviously, the first thing you have to do is to deal with meaning of your text. At this point there is one golden rule, one absolute demand — honesty.” (Lloyd-Jones, Preachers and Preaching, p. 199).
And Don’t Forget Poetry. Or Fiction.
“This is really dangerous, and the way to counteract it is to prescribe balanced reading for yourself. What I mean is this. Read theology, as I say, but always balance it, not only with Church history but with biographies and the more devotional type of reading. Let me explain why this is so important. Your …