“There will be very few people who are honest enough to say, ‘I don’t like your message, I don’t like to submit to this God. Yes, what you’re saying is in the Bible. But I reject the Bible because I don’t want God’s authority over my life.’ A thoroughly honest person like that is more …
Preaching that avoids head engagement will lead to blindness, and preaching that ignores heart engagement-the emotive realm of the believer’s existence-does so at the cost of boredom and dullness, which prevents the result of an engaged hearing for a transformed life. -Source: Robert Smith Jr., Doctrine That Dances
“Doctrinal preaching certainly bores the hypocrites; but it is only doctrinal preaching that will save Christ’s sheep. The preacher’s job is to proclaim the faith, not to provide entertainment for unbelievers–in other words, to feed the sheep rather than amuse the goats.” -J. I. Packer, A Quest For Godliness: The Puritan Vision of the Christian …
“I know the vanity of your heart, and that you will feel mortified that your congregation is very small, in comparison with those of your brethren around you; but assure yourself on the word of an old man, that when you come to give an account of them to the Lord Christ, at His judgment-seat, …
“I say that good preaching is ‘saturated with Scripture’ and not ‘based on Scripture’ because Scripture is more (not less) than the basis for good preaching. Preaching that proclaims God’s supremacy does not begin with Scripture as a basis and then wander off to other things. It oozes Scripture. -John Piper, The Supremacy of God …
“If a minister has light without heat and entertains his [hearers] with learned discourses, without a savour of the power of godliness, or any appearance of fervency of spirit, and zeal for God and the good of souls, he may gratify itching ears, and fill the heads of his people with empty notions; but it …
“The cross is also the ground of humility of preaching because the cross is the power of God to crucify the pride of both preacher and congregation. In the New Testament the cross is not only a past place of objective substitution; it is also a present place of subjective execution – the execution of …
“Therefore, the goal of preaching is the glory of God reflected in the glad submission of the human heart. And the supremacy of God in preaching is secured by this fact: The one who satisfies gets the glory; the one who gives the pleasure is the treasure.” -John Piper, The Supremacy of God in Preaching …
“The great design and intention of the office of a Christian preacher [is] to restore the throne and dominion of God in the souls of men.” -Cotton Mather; cited in John Piper, The Supremacy of God in Preaching (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1990), 22.
“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, …