Smith on The Text in Preaching

“Surrendered communication is a relinquishing of our right to say anything we want any way we want. It is limiting our own freedom of expression in order to maximize effectiveness and minimize self-interests. What, then, is surrendering to the text? Surrendering to the text is at all times deferring to the Scripture, to the point that the sermon is always an expression of the content and spirit of a particular passage….God has not promised to bless the persuasive meanderings of the pulpit—no matter how cunning, no matter how brilliant the delivery or how perfect the timing. The only message that carries the promise of lifesaving results is the message that is forever tied to the text….The essential skill that every preacher must hone is precision. This is the ability to say exactly what the text is saying with force and unction, while saying only what the text says—no more and no less.” (emphasis mine)

Stott on Preaching

I love this!

The essential secret is not mastering certain techniques but being mastered by certain convictions.

Amen!!!

Baxter on Preaching Heaven and Hell

O sirs, how plainly, how closely, how earnestly, should we deliver a message of such moment as ours. . . .

In the name of God, brethren, labour to awaken your own hearts, before you go to the pulpit, that you may be fit to awaken the hearts of sinners. Remember they must be awakened or damned, and . . . a sleepy preacher will hardly awaken drowsy sinners. Though you give the holy things of God the highest praise in words, yet, if you do it coldly, you will seem by your manner to unsay what you said in the matter. . . .

Though I move you not to constant loudness in your delivery (for that will make your fervency contemptible), yet see that you have a constant seriousness; and when the matter requireth it (as it should do, in the application at least), then lift up your voice, and spare not your spirits. Speak to your people as to men that must be awakened, either here or in hell. Look around upon them with the eye of faith, and with compassion, and think in what a state of joy or torment they must all be for ever; and then, methinks, it will make you earnest, and melt your heart to a sense of their condition.

Oh, speak not one cold or careless word about so great a business as heaven or hell.

Preaching Under Pressure

If ridiculous deadlines knot your gut and give you tunnel vision causing you to miss even basic errors, this is for you. But even if you're an adrenaline junkie, needing the pressure to perform, it'll help you, too, because it's all about process.
Clear, familiar processes are lifesavers when you're under pressure and not thinking straight. So, as pilots practice emergency drills until they're second nature, try to internalize the process below - print it, look at it daily, use it often - so that when you're under the pump you'll do it automatically.
Here's a summary of the first four steps of the process:
1.Objective: Clarify what you want to achieve. "Begin with the end in mind" (Stephen Covey).
2.Readers: Stand in their shoes. If you were them, what would interest you about this?
3.Dump: Do a brain dump. Quickly jot down your points as bullets, in any order.
4.Signpost: Next, highlight your major points and write snappy subheads above them.

Smith on Preaching

The death to self that is demanded of the preacher works life in his people. In this way, the preacher becomes like Christ, who died so that we might live. If we do not die, they do not live. (18).

An obsession with style will actually be counterproductive to the Gospel message (52).

For a preacher to die, he must die to his right to be thought of as a great preacher (53).

Paul is suggesting a horrific, criminal irony: the means of preaching displaces the message of preaching (74).

Preaching ourselves, even in small inconsequential ways, can be the few small lumens that keep people from the true satisfying glorious light of Christ (74).

Death is in the pew because few are willing to die in the pulpit (88).

We are redeemed rebels who are calling other rebels to be redeemed. We are no longer managing our image. No. We have thrown off our robes and are taking the long walk outside the city. We are looking up at the thrashed corpse and taking a stand-this is who we are! We are cross bearers because we are cross lovers (98).

Murray on Excellence in Preaching

Anders Ericsson, arguably the world’s leading researcher into high performance, has constantly insisted that it’s not inherited talent which determines how good we become at something, but rather how hard we’re willing to work. That’s very encouraging to theological students and pastors, especially to those who feel their lack of gifts. But it’s also rather daunting. Because although practice is the most important ingredient in achieving excellence (10000 hours for elite excellence), it is also what we least enjoy and always try to put off.

Tony Schwartz, author of The way we’re working isn’t working recently published on the Harvard Business Review the six keys to achieving excellence that he’s found most effective for his clients in all walks of life. But before I give you these keys, and apply them to preaching, let me just issue a few caveats.

First, it is essential that a man be called of God to preach. Second, the Holy Spirit can and does equip with gifts beyond those we have by nature or nurture. Third, absolutely essential pre-requisites for excellent preaching are a holy life, prayer, and faithfulness to God. Fourth, God is sovereign and at times He overrules all human rules/keys. These principles are all basic and foundational. And they are covered at length in standard works on preaching. So Schwarz’s six keys to achieving excellence assume the foundation and are in addition to it:

1. Pursue what you love. As Schwartz says, “Passion is an incredible motivator. It fuels focus, resilience, and perseverance.” If you don’t love preaching you will never be good at it. If you don’t love preaching, get out of the way and let someone else in who does.

2. Do the hardest work first. Preachers, like all people, are drawn towards pleasure and avoid pain. But to excel we must develop the ability to delay pleasure and take on the pain of the most difficult work first. In other words, sermon preparation is best done first thing in the morning when we have most energy and least distractions.

3. Practice intensely. Schwartz argues for practicing without interruption for short periods of no longer than 90 minutes and then taking a break. He says that ninety minutes seems to be the maximum amount of time that we can bring the highest level of focus on any activity. He also says that we should practice no more than 4 ½ hours a day. Although I’ve preached for 18 years without knowing this, when I look at my practice, it is pretty close to that pattern. Mornings for preparation, afternoons for pastoral visitation. Wish it had produced more excellence than I presently see.

4. Seek expert feedback in intermittent doses. I’ll just quote what Schwartz says here. “The simpler and more precise the feedback, the more equipped you are to make adjustments. Too much feedback, too continuously, however, can create cognitive overload, increase anxiety, and interfere with learning.” That’s certainly been proven in our practice preaching class at the Seminary. I’ve found focusing on one thing at a time for a few months really helps. Introductions. Conclusions. Illustrations.

5. Take regular renewal breaks. This is something that students especially need to hear, but so do pastors. Research has shown that people learn better who sleep well and also play sports or enjoy hobbies outside of work. And no matter how much we love preaching, we need a few weeks a year with none to really rejuvenate our preaching.

6. Ritualize practice. Schwartz says that the best way to insure you’ll take on difficult tasks is to ritualize them. He says “build specific, inviolable times at which you do them, so that over time you do them without squandering energy thinking about them.” I found it useful to sit down at the beginning of each week and block out sermon preparation time. If I just waited until I felt like it or had all my admin done then I would never do it or wait too late.

Obviously, the Christian student and pastor has more than genes or scientific research and process to rely on. It is one of the great blessings of preaching that the Holy Spirit gives us what we do not have and even have not worked for – at times. But most of the time, God works through ordinary means. He communicates his extraordinary grace through the ordinary means of grace. And for preaching, that includes hard work!

Preaching with One Idea

Rule 1: Tell them one thing, and one thing only
Though in the business of public speaking, Nick Morgan admits that the oral genre is highly inefficient:
We audience members simply don't remember much of what we hear. We're easily sidetracked, confused, and tricked. We get distracted by everything from the color of the presenter's tie to the person sitting in the next row to our own internal monologues.


So you've got to keep it simple. Many studies show that we only remember a small percentage of what we hear — somewhere between 10 – 30 percent.
Unfortunately, we can only hold 4 or 5 ideas in our heads at one time, so as soon as you give me a list of more than 5 items, I'm going to start forgetting as much as I hear.

Morgan's solution?

Against this dismal human truth there is only one defense: focus your presentation on a single idea. Be ruthless. Write that one idea down in one declarative sentence and paste it up on your computer. Then eliminate everything, no matter how beautiful a slide it's on, that doesn't support that idea.

John Stott argues for something similar to this in Between Two Worlds. He says the preacher should isolate the dominant thought of a passage and organize his whole sermon to support that one thought. Jay Adams has the same idea in Preaching with a purpose.

Broadus on Preaching

John Broadus was a pastor and professor of preaching at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in the 1800's. Charles Spurgeon regarded Broadus as "the greatest of living preachers." According to Wikipedia, the Church historian Albert Henry Newman said that Broadus was "perhaps the greatest man the Baptists have produced." Brodus's classic Homiletics textbook On the Preparation and Delivery of Sermons remains a must-read for all seminary students.

Broadus identified four basic methods of sermon delivery:

Reading: The preacher takes his manuscript into the pulpit and reads from it.
Reciting: The speaker repeats from memory what has been written and learned.
Extemporizing: The plan of the discourse is drawn out on paper and all the principal points are stated or suggested, but the language is extemporaneous.
Freely delivering: After thorough preparation, the preacher goes into the pulpit without notes or manuscript and without conscious effort to memorize the sermon.
The method chosen will determine how much paper is brought into the pulpit. I do not want to set down rules on how much we should read or rely upon notes. Much will depend on the speaker and the hearers. However, if there is a danger in our days it is probably too much reliance upon notes. We are all horrified at the idea of someone going into a pulpit unprepared and just rambling around for a time. However, the Reformed Church is perhaps in danger of going to the other extreme, of having such over-prepared sermons that the amount of paper required to preach them is increasing more and more - as is reliance on the manuscript.

This is happening at the same time as the people, especially younger people, are going in the opposite direction. People want to be spoken to personally, directly, and relationally. President Obama understood that before he was President, although since inauguration he has resorted mainly to the autocue, diminishing his appeal. In the UK, the present Prime Minister, David Cameron, burst on to the scene at a Conservative Party Conference when he spoke passionately about his vision for the future of the UK, and what caught everyone's imagination was that he did it without notes. After the Blair/Brown years of polished marketing and spin, it seemed much more authentic.
We should always remember that while our pulpit paper may contain what we want to communicate, it can also become one of the greatest barriers to communication. Often the preacher’s eyes are more on this than on their congregation. Pastor Al Martin commented on this:
The issue is not how much written composition is done in the study or how much written material is brought into the pulpit. The issue is how much dependence upon and preoccupation with written material is manifested in the act of preaching. To state the matter another way, the issue is how much mental and physical attachment is there to one's paper. At the end of the day we are not so much concerned with issues of paper and print, but with the issues of eyes and brains.
And listen to these strong words from Dabney:

Reading a manuscript to the people can never, with any justice, be termed preaching.... In the delivery of the sermon there can be no exception in favor of the mere reader. How can he whose eyes are fixed upon the paper before him, who performs the mechanical task of reciting the very words inscribed upon it, have the inflections, the emphasis, the look, the gesture, the flexibility, the fire, or oratorical actions? Mere reading, then, should be sternly banished from the pulpit, except in those rare cases in which the didactic purpose supersedes the rhetorical, and exact verbal accuracy is more essential than eloquence.
Shedd argued that young preachers should from the very beginning of their ministries preach at least one extemporaneous sermon every week. By this he did not mean preaching without study or preparation – quite the opposite. Extemporaneous sermons require more preparation in many ways. What he meant was reducing your sermon to a one-page of skeleton outline, and becoming so familiar with it, that referring to it during the act of preaching is minimized. Then, throughout your ministry, try to reduce the size of the skeleton, and dependence on it, more and more. Let the ideas be pre-arranged but leave exact expression of them to the moment of preaching.

Shedd gives these requirements for extemporaneous preaching:
A heart glowing and beating with evangelical affections
A methodical intellect – to organize the sermon material into a clear and logical structure
The power of amplification – or the ability to expand upon a theme
A precise and accurate mode of expression
Patient and persevering practice
To these we might add, prayerful dependence upon the Holy Spirit for each and all of these requirements.

Tomorrow, I'll pass on six steps I've followed to help decrease reliance on paper in the pulpit.

Ortlund on Preaching Christ

There is a difference between preaching Christ and preaching about Christ. Preaching Christ is presenting him so clearly and directly that the people experience the sermon this way: “It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified” (Galatians 3:1). Preaching about Christ is presenting ideas related to him. It’s a good thing to do. But preaching Christ is more profound, more daring and more helpful.

In Intellectuals, page 31, Paul Johnson wrote of the poet Shelley, “He burned with a fierce love but it was an abstract flame and the poor mortals who came near it were often scorched. He put ideas before people and his life is a testament to how heartless ideas can be.” It is not enough for us preachers to burn with a fierce love. We must burn with a fierce love for Christ the crucified Friend of sinners and for the sinners right there before us who need that Friend. Ideas about Christ can even be heartless. But Christ crucified befriends sinners, and they feel it.

Calvin comments on Galatians 3:1, “Let those who want to discharge the ministry of the gospel aright learn not only to speak and declaim but also to penetrate into consciences, so that men may see Christ crucified and that his blood may flow.” Christ’s blood flowing into the human conscience, setting people free as they sit there listening to the sermon – that is preaching Christ.

One way to test ourselves is to ask, What are the people who hear me preach walking away with? Have they seen Christ himself during this sermon, or have they only interacted with ideas about Christ? As a preacher, I cannot make people engage with him. I wouldn’t want to try. But I can and must preach in such a way that he stands forth as obvious and available to the people right then and there.

Piper on Languages and Preaching

What happens to a denomination where a useful knowledge of Greek and Hebrew is not cherished and promoted as crucial for the pastoral office? (I don't mean offered and admired. I mean cherished, promoted and sought.)

Several things happen as the original languages fall into disuse among pastors. First, the confidence of pastors to determine the precise meaning of biblical texts diminishes. And with the confidence to interpret rigorously goes the confidence to preach powerfully. You can't preach week in and week out over the whole range of God's revelation with depth and power if you are plagued with uncertainty when you venture beyond basic gospel generalities.

Second, the uncertainty of having to depend on differing human translations (which always involve much interpretation) will tend to discourage careful textual analysis in sermon preparation. For as soon as you start attending to crucial details (like tenses, conjunctions and vocabulary repetitions), you realize the translations are too diverse to provide a sure basis for such analysis.

So the preacher often contents himself with the general focus or flavor of the text, and his exposition lacks the precision and clarity which excite a congregation with the Word of God.

Expository preaching, therefore, falls into disuse and disfavor. I say disfavor because we often tend to protect ourselves from difficult tasks by belittling or ignoring their importance. So what we find in groups where Greek and Hebrew are not cherished and pursued and promoted is that expository preaching (which devotes a good bit of the sermon to explaining the original meaning of the texts) is not much esteemed by the clergy or taught in the seminaries.

Sometimes this is evident in outright denunciation of schoolish exposition. More often there is simply a benign neglect; and the emphasis on valuable sermonic features (like order, diction, illustration and relevance) crowds out the need for careful textual exposition.

Another result when pastors do not study the Bible in Greek and Hebrew is that they (and their churches with them) tend to become second-handers. The harder it is for us to get at the original meaning of the Bible, the more we will revert to the secondary literature. For one thing, it is easier to read. It also gives us a superficial glow that we are "keeping up" on things. And it provides us with ideas and insights which we can't dig out of the original for ourselves.

We may impress one another for a while by dropping the name of the latest book, but second-hand food will not sustain and deepen our people's faith and holiness.

Wesley on Faith

Preach faith until you have it, and then because you have it, you will preach faith.

Murray on Better Preaching

. Preach to make a point not to reach a time limit.
Vigorous writing (preaching?) is concise. ~William Strunk Jr.

2. Help another edit their preaching.
I try to leave out the parts that people skip. ~Elmore Leonard
3. Write something every day that you do not intend to share
This is a bit strong. However I think it is worthwhile, especially for students at Seminary, to regularly set apart some time to prepare sermon themes and outlines, even when they may have no opportunities to preach them.
4. Outline before drafting your sermon
If any man wish to write (preach?) in a clear style, let him be first clear in his thoughts; Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
5. Don't get caught up in re-stating the obvious
The role of a writer is not to say what we all can say, but what we are unable to say. ~Anaïs Nin
I want to be a bit careful about this, because one task of the Gospel preacher is to keep re-stating the same truth (2 Peter 1:12). However, we don't need to re-state the same truth the same way every time.
6. Befriend a dictionary

The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug
. ~Mark Twain
Again, care required here so that we do not start using words that no one else understands. But, we can refresh our vocabulary with simple words also.
7. Keep a little notebook for moments of inspiration
Write down the thoughts of the moment. Those that come unsought for are commonly the most valuable. ~Francis Bacon
8. Not having a pen in hand does not mean that you are not writing

The best time for planning a book is while you’re doing the dishes. ~Agatha Christie
Or as the writer of this article put it: "There’s no such thing as writer’s block. But there are times when washing dishes is a better use of time than staring at an empty screen!"
9. Be kind to yourself

Every writer (preacher) I know has trouble writing (preaching!). ~Joseph Heller

Honeysett on Joy in Ministry

The question I most want to ask any Christian, but especially any group of Christian leaders is "how would you describe the state of your worship life at the moment?" Do you currently have the space, capacity and leisure to enjoy God?

If not, something will have to go. The reason I say this is that biblical leadership and preaching are by-products of joy in God. They don't work properly unless they spring from this source. You can't say "I honour God in my preaching" if you heart is not bursting for him in your affections and adoration. You really can't.

The tasks of leadership and preaching centre around working with people for their progress in the Lord and their joy in the Lord (Phil 1, 2 Cor 4). And the strength to carry out the task, that ability to labour and struggle with God's energy powerfully working in us, comes from the joy of the Lord. How easily we forget that it is the joy of the Lord that is our strength and start to look for strength from other sources.

Therefore I conclude that the leadership task emerges out of joy in God, is empowered by Spirit-fuelled joy in God and is done in order that others have joy in God. Leadership and preaching are shot all the way through with dependence on joy in God. No joy, no good preaching and leading.

Worship (having adoring affections for God in every area of life) is the giving of expression to that joy. Worship reflects our joy back to God in exultation and to everyone around us in discipling them and evangelising. Discipleship and evangelism, just like biblical preaching are by-products of Holy Spirit-produced joy in God.

Honeysett on Discipleship and Training

I find it so much easier to prioritise skills and activities in Christian leadership than to deliberately work at my heart. To watch doctrine more closely than life. For those of us who train others it is similarly easy to allow activity and skill to outweigh concentration on life and heart because it is easier to measure. We think it is much easier to teach someone to preach Isaiah than how to be a preacher who exemplifies humility and a spirit of forgiveness.

For the first years I ran preaching trainings they were almost exclusively dedicated to expository accuracy and skill. Because that is the result we want to produce, right? Accurate word handling is, of course, absolutely crucial. But with the eyes of hindsight I am shocked at what we didn’t teach our preachers. What we simply assumed.

We didn’t teach them:

* How to fast and pray over their preparation, worshipping over the Bible
* That understanding is for the purpose of close application to life which in turn is for the purpose of adoration
* How to have hearts that are steadfast in pursuing happiness in God
* How to be disciples who walk in repentance and faith when the subtle traps that are peculiar to preachers emerge to trip them up
* How to not put themselves on pedastals and to avoid the cover up that accompanies thinking that our job depends on an appearance of sinlessness
* How to lead out a heart of forgiveness
* How to marvel and wonder and adore. I taught that the Bible was for spiritual education rather than gospel transformation by the power of the Holy Spirit
* Most importantly I didn't prioritise training them in godly character

These days whenever I am training preachers and leaders we begin everything with how to live in the love of God, how to receive his grace, the importance of humble character and servanthood. These foundations subsequently undergird everything else we teach, all the way through, like letters running through a stick of rock. We want to train people to be preachers who are full of the Galatians 5 fruit of the Spirit, who radiate love.

You might think “well can you train in that?” Yes, you can because 2 Tim 3:16 says the word trains us in righteousness and Titus 2:12 says that grace teaches us to say “no” to all ungodliness.

I have a nasty suspicion that it led to John 5:39 Bible reading rather than Acts 17 Bible reading. “you diligently study the scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life.” Rather than “receiving the message with great eagerness and examining the scriptures every day to see whether it is true.”

Here is the heart of the problem: we had taken a great means of grace and a critical support for life and faith and the crucial tool of our ministry – Bible understanding – and had turned it into the end, rather than the means to the end. We told ourselves we were mature Christians because we were educated rather than because we delighted ourselves in the Lord. We turned our devotions into comprehension exercises.

We thought we were good preachers because of knowledge and technique. Lack of knowledge and technique do not a good preacher make. However, knowledge and technique alone do not a good preacher make because they tempt us to do ministry in our own strength. When God says “not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit.” We had stepped out of a God-centred spirituality into a man-centred one. When you train yourself and others to preach, can I ask whether you spend more time on your skills or on your love?

Carson on Preaching

When Paul attests [in Acts 20:27] that this is what he proclaimed to the believers in Ephesus, the Ephesian elders to whom he makes this bold asseveration know full well that he had managed this remarkable feat in only two and a half years. In other words, whatever else Paul did, he certainly did not manage to go through every verse of the Old Testament, line by line, with full-bore explanation. He simply did not have time.

What he must mean is that he taught the burden of the whole of God's revelation, the balance of things, leaving nothing out that was of primary importance, never ducking the hard bits, helping believers to grasp the whole counsel of God that they themselves would become better equipped to read their Bibles intelligently, comprehensively. It embraced

* God's purposes in the history of redemption (truths to be believed and a God to be worshiped),
* an unpacking of human origin, fall, redemption, and destiny (a worldview that shapes all human understanding and a Savior without whom there is no hope),
* the conduct expected of God's people (commandments to be obeyed and wisdom to be pursued, both in our individual existence and in the community of the people of God), and
* the pledges of transforming power both in this life and in the life to come (promises to be trusted and hope to be anticipated).

Spurgeon on Reading

The man who never reads will never be read. He who never quotes will never be quoted. He who will not use the thoughts of other men’s brains proves that he has no brains of his own.

Brethren, what is true of ministers is true of all our people. You need to read. Renounce as much as you will all light literature, but study as much as possible sound theological works, especially the Puritanic writers and expositions of the Bible.

Nettles on Truth in Preaching

We should learn that truth, or lack of it, commitment to the clear statement of truth, or lack of confidence in the ability and legitimacy of giving clear statements determines the character of one’s ministry. To the degree that we embrace, know, and state the truth of divine revelation, so will our ministries glorify God. God has placed the declaration of his glory in this age in the clear and faithful handling of his word by his ministers. The truths of Scripture were embodied ontologically in Christ as God and Man, two distinct natures in one person, and pragmatically (the only true pragmatism, the only thing in all of history that truly works) in the redemptive operation of the triune God in the incarnation, atoning death, and resurrection, ascension, and session of Christ. To glorify Christ in his person and work and thus glorify God we must know and preach the revealed word of God as contained in Holy Scripture. Lack of clarity in this stewardship means a veiling of the divine glory in our ministries.

David Murray on Evangelistic Preaching II

Every sermon text can be preached with an evangelistic application. But this isn’t what we are calling evangelistic preaching. Remember our previous definition: Evangelistic preaching is preaching which expounds God’s Word (it is expository) with the primary aim of the conversion of lost souls (rather than the instruction of God's people). So, though every text can be preached with an evangelistic application, there are certain texts and topics which are especially suitable for such evangelistic preaching. Let me propose four categories of evangelistic sermon:

"Warm-up" sermons
These are sermons we preach to clear and prepare the ground for the gospel. They address some of the common objections to Christianity; the caricatures of and prejudices against Christianity. Such "apologetic" sermons will set out to prove the truth and relevance of Christianity and demonstrate its doctrinal and practical superiority.

Examples: (i) proofs of the resurrection, (ii) evidence for creation v evolution, (iii) one way or many ways to God, (iv) do only good people go to heaven? (v) Bible's analysis of current economic, social, moral problems, etc.

These sermons are aiming at conversion, especially the early stages of conversion. They are clearing away all the rubbish that has accumulated in a sinners mind, to gain a hearing for the gospel. They deal with issues that will open the pathway for Christ and His grace. That's why I call them "warm-up" sermons. We are taking sinners who are cold, prejudiced, and opposed to Christianity, and using God's Word to break up the soil, warm the heart, and provide an opening for the core message of Christ and His grace.

Warning Sermons
Some warning sermons are characterized by a focus on the more threatening aspects of God's character, especially His attributes of holiness, justice, sovereignty, and power. Other warning sermons may focus on human sinfulness, inability, frailty, and mortality. We may expound and apply the law, showing what God defines as sin and wickedness. We might deal with the speed of time, the uncertainty of life, the imminence of death, the certainty of judgment, the length of eternity, the reality of hell, etc. These are all warning sermons. They are designed to alarm the complacent, the comfortable, and the thoughtless; to make them anxious, and fearful, and even terrified.

Examples: (i) Remember Lot’s wife - and Saul, and Judas, (ii) God's law, (iii) the end-of-time parables, (iv) Revelation's great white throne, bottomless pit, etc., (v) Ecclesiastes' view of the best this world can offer, etc., (vi) The Psalmist's view of our frailty and mortality, etc.

The great aim of these sermons is to convict, to bring our hearers to an awareness of their perilous state before God, and their need of repentance.

Wooing Sermons
Having prepared the way for the Gospel with "warm-up" sermons, and having shown the need for the Gospel with warning sermons, we then come with a wooing word. We explain the wonders of the Father’s willingness to send his Son to sinners, and to save them by His sufferings, death, and resurrection. We also focus on the Lord Jesus; His willingness to come, suffer and die for sinners; His tender, wise and winning ways with sinners. We explain the powerful work of the Holy Spirit in regenerating and renewing the hardest of hearts. We explain that God saves by grace through faith, not by merit through works. We are trying to address people who are trembling, who are fearful, who are scared, and are seeking to draw them in to the love and the mercy and the grace of God. No pastor can pluck the chord of grace enough.

Examples: (i) The prodigal son, (ii) Christ's tender dealings with sinners during his ministry, (iii) the sufferings of Christ on the cross, (iv) the atonement, (v) the Gospel invitations and commands, (vi) the sufficiency and suitability of Christ, etc.

If the aim of the warm-up sermon is to demonstrate relevance, and if the aim of the warming sermon is to bring people to repentance, the aim of the wooing sermon is to bring people to rest in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Will Sermons
Every sermon is ultimately to addressed to the will. Yes, we address the head; and through the head, we address the heart. But we don’t just want to give people facts and feelings. We want changed lives, changed behavior. That’s surely the aim of our preaching. Ultimately, then, every sermon is addressed to the will. But evangelistic sermons, and especially this fourth kind of evangelistic sermon, are addressed especially and repeatedly to the will.

These are sermons that bring people to the signpost at the junction, with two choices. These are sermons that bring people to the ballot box, where they must cast their vote. They bring people to that point where they are faced with the two great and ultimate options: faith or unbelief, life or death, heaven or hell. These are sermons which are full of persuasion, pleading, and arguing and beseeching.

Examples: (i) Paul and Agrippa, (ii) Jesus and the woman of Samaria, (iii) Parable of the wedding invitation, (iv) Paul on Mars Hill, (v) Peter at Pentecost, (vi) Choose you this day whom you will serve, (vii) Narrow/broad way (viii) Revelation 22:17, (ix) Elijah on Mt Carmel, etc. (x) "Stretch out your hand" (Matt. 12:13), (xi) "Lazarus, come forth" (John 11:43).

But, is man not totally depraved? Are we not "dead in trespasses and sins?" Are we not spiritually "disabled?" Is the will not in bondage? Yes, yes, yes, and yes. There is no question the Bible teaches this. However, as the examples above show, the Bible also describes the depraved, dead, disabled and enslaved will being addressed. It may seem illogical to us, but God has chosen to free the will, enable the "disabled," and give life to the "dead" by the persuasive preaching of the Gospel.

These sermons have content for head and heart, but are especially focused on pressurizing, yes pressurizing, the will. The truth is pressed home so closely that every hearer is "forced" to make a choice. The Puritans used to speak of the Gospel vice that squeezes hearers so tightly that they cannot but say "yes" or "no."

David Murray on Evangelistic Preaching

The most obvious reason is biblical warrant. The Old Testament prophets were passionate pleaders for the souls of their fellow men and women. Deuteronomy reads like an Old Testament evangelistic tract, as Moses expostulates with Israel and beseeches them to embrace the God of Genesis to Numbers. Study the weeping reasonings of Jeremiah and the powerful pictorial pleas of Hosea. Even apocalyptic and enigmatic Ezekiel contains the most beautiful calls to Israel to turn from their evil ways and live. In encounter after encounter, in public and in private, Jesus exhorted souls to seek salvation. The Acts of the Apostles show us Peter and Paul pleading with individuals, groups, congregations, and public gatherings. “Teacher” Paul cannot resist tearful expressions of angst and desire in Romans 9-11, that most doctrinal of letters.

Then we could turn from the Bible to church history and consider the regular evangelistic sermons of Bunyan, Whitefield, Edwards, Spurgeon, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, etc. But I’d especially like to argue for evangelistic preaching by considering the effect of its absence

Preaching becomes lecturely and academic
When sermons are almost exclusively aimed at teaching Christians, and rarely aimed at the unconverted, preaching begins to sound more like cold, objective, academic lecturing.

But, when a preacher has caught a glimpse of hell, when he really grasps the terrible spiritual predicament of the lost in his congregation, and when he is gripped by the urgency of the Gospel in the looming shadow of judgment and eternity, his preaching is transformed into present tense, personal, passionate preaching of the truth. The lecture hall is left behind as we enter the presence of God. The lectern becomes a pulpit. The “professor” becomes a preacher.

Christians become forgetful, proud, inward-looking, and prayerless
It’s not just the unconverted that are damaged by the lack of evangelistic preaching; Christians are too. As Dave Thomas commented yesterday, Christians also need to hear evangelistic preaching. Why? Well, in the absence of it, Christians forget. We forget the pit we were dug out of, we forget the debt we were in, and we forget the remarkable work of God in our life. In the absence of evangelistic preaching, the memory of saving grace fades, weakens, and disappears. In its place comes proud self-confidence and self-focus, which quickly drains prayerful concern for the souls of others. As the Gospel no longer grips our own soul, we have little motivation or desire to tell others.

But, if the Gospel is regularly preached to Christians, then they are re-humbled, re-convicted, and re-minded of what they have been saved from. They re-repent, re-believe, and re-kindle their first love. The contagious Gospel passion in the preacher infects the hearers, and the hearers become enthusiastic carriers, as they go out into the world with a renewed and prayerful vision and mission for the lost and the perishing all around them.

Christians do not bring friends to church
One of the reasons why Christians seem to have stopped bringing friends to church is that most preaching is directed largely towards already well-taught Christians. Many Christians feel that if they take a friend to church, the message will go “way over their heads.” Many of us have taken someone to church, and to our disappointment and embarrassment, there was little or nothing that our guest could understand or relate to.

But, if Christians know that, say, every Sunday morning, or every second Sunday night, their pastor will preach “simple” evangelistic sermons suited to the special needs of the unsaved, or even the unchurched, then they will be much more motivated to invite their friends, family, neighbors etc.

Children growing up in the church assume they are saved
The absence of regular evangelistic preaching often means that children grow up in churches hearing teaching and doctrine addressed to Christians. Without being continually reminded that they must be born again, they presume they are “just like the other Christians” and so never seek regeneration or saving faith.

But, if they often hear of their vile natural condition, their perilous spiritual state, their need for personal regeneration and conversion, the insufficiency of their own worth, words and works, then they will much more earnestly seek the Savior. In the church of my childhood, I was reminded every Sunday night, in no uncertain terms, that I was not a Christian and that I needed to seek the Savior. It was not comfortable or pleasant. It ruined many a Sunday night sleep. But I knew without a shadow of a doubt that if I went to judgment in the same condition I was born in, I was going to hell…forever. I also knew, although I wished I didn’t, that Christ was calling me to turn, turn, why will you die!

Lost souls go to hell
I’m not saying that lost souls can’t be converted through teaching sermons. Of course they can, and of course they are. But evangelistic preaching is especially blessed to the conversion of souls. If you were to take a survey of the whole world, I’m sure that the vast majority of true Christians will say that it was an evangelistic sermon, a sermon specially directed to appeal to lost, perishing sinners that God used to turn them from their idols to Himself.

Who knows what a revival of preaching, evangelism, mission and worship might result from a widespread return to evangelistic preaching in the reformed church!

David Murray on Listening

What makes a man a great preacher? Not sure if "being a great listener" would be among the top answers. Yet, that's what Burk Parsons persuasively argues in The Wisdom of Listening:

In fact, the greatest speakers, the greatest teachers, and the greatest preachers are the greatest listeners. Often, it is assumed that in order to be a great preacher one must merely be a great speaker. However, it must be understood (especially by men who are training for future pastoral ministry) that the greatest preachers, the most consistent, steadfast, staunchly biblical preachers are the greatest listeners.

Burk says that great listening produces great preachers because "they have earned the right to be heard." Years of listening and learning have produced wisdom that's worth hearing. Burk's focus here is on the head: great listeners are great learners.

I'm going to "piggy-back" on Burk's insight and also add a focus on the heart: great listeners are great lovers. Let me quickly explain what I mean. Passionate love produces passionate listening. One of the best ways to communicate "I love you," is to communicate, "I'm listening to you."

When people feel listened to, they feel loved, and respond with loving listening. When people sense that their pastor is carefully and prayerfully listening to them in their homes on a Thursday evening, it's so much easier to listen to him on a Sunday morning. His great listening in their homes produces great listening in the church. In fact, his great listening transforms him (in their hearts and minds) into a great preacher.