Kindle Notes & Highlights
message. C. S. Lewis once said great writers write with their ears, not with their eyes.
write with the dynamic energy of the spoken word, as though you can hear yourself preaching.
There are no great writers, only great rewriters. Few
Read Books on Preaching
Additionally, J. W. Alexander’s Thoughts on Preaching is as timeless as when he first wrote it in the nineteenth century.
George Whitefield by Arnold Dallimore,
The Forgotten Spurgeon by Iain Murray
Read about Church History
Reading church history will also improve your preaching.
John Rogers. He was burned at the stake in Smithfield, London, on February 4, 1555.
Rogers’s crime was finishing Tyndale’s
Rogers preached against the Roman Catholic Mass and proclaimed salvation by faith in Christ alone.
Read about other English Reformers like Hugh Latimer
Nicholas Ridley,
Read about Thomas Cranmer plunging his right hand into the flames before being martyred.
Be Zealous for God
His word must “richly dwell within you” (Col. 3:16).
They were supernaturally energized to preach throughout the book of Acts (2:4; 4:8, 31; 6:3, 5; 7:55; 8:17; 9:17; 11:15; 13:9, 52).
Strive for Excellence
A minister may fill his pews, his communion roll, [and] the mouths of the public, but what that minister is on his knees in secret before God Almighty, that he is and no more. John Owen1
Prayer and preaching quote
M’Cheyne prayed for himself, “Lord, make me as holy as a pardoned sinner can be.”4
The strongest preachers are those with an inseparable connection between the purity of their lives and the power of God upon their pulpit ministries.
Discipline Yourself for Godliness
Your greatest need as a preacher is your personal godliness. The truth you proclaim must be modeled in your own life.
Feast on the Word
Every preacher must be immersed in the whole Bible until it permeates their entire being.
Luther wrote, For some years now, I have read through the Bible twice every year. If you picture the Bible to be a mighty tree and every word a little branch, I have shaken every one of these branches because I wanted to know what it was and what it meant.
Hermeneutics
It will not be enough to skim through a few verses in daily Bible reading, nor to study a passage only when we have to preach from it.
Daily reading
Follow the Truth
Forsake the Lies
Resist Men’s Commandments
Face the Discipline
Spiritual Fitness Required
Gymnasium
Any competitor serious about winning must enter the gymnasium consistently and undergo regimented workouts.
Training
Timothy must work out in the word and labor in prayer.
Prayer and word
Work up a spiritual sweat in the word and through repentance. Tone your spiritual muscles in prayer. Monitor your heart rate for God in worship. Do heavy lifting in learning sound doctrine. Beat down your fleshly desires. Build up your endurance by meditating on Scripture.
Spiritual workout
Who we are is more important than what we do. Our godliness is more important than our giftedness, our purity than our preaching, and our maturity than our ministry.
Our walk with God is more important than our work for God.
Excellent
Physical training is limited because it is only for this life. However, spiritual discipline is unlimited because it affects eternity.
mentally, emotionally, relationally, socially, and ministerially.
Fix Your Hope
These two verbs, labor and strive, are in the present tense, indicating these are continuous requirements.
Labor and strive
“I Have Been before God”
In this effort, he was determined to discipline himself in the use of his time, tongue, and talents.
Summary of Edwards 70 resolutions
On January 14, 1723, Edwards wrote resolution sixty-three: “On the supposition that there never was to be but one individual in the world at any one time who was properly a complete Christian.”13 He reasoned there must be one person at any one moment in time who is regarded by God to be the greatest Christian alive. This one person most embodies the virtues of the Lord Jesus Christ. With this goal fixed in his gaze, Edwards wrote, “Resolved: I will act just as I would do if I strove with all of my might to be that one who should live in my time.”14 It was by no accident that this
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Profound concept, being most like Christ on the earth!
God uses the instruments He makes holy. May God sanctify you in every area of your life as you hold forth His holy word.
Instruments in the hands of the redeemer
The Pulpit of the Broad Path
It fills the building with people but leaves the pulpit devoid of truth.
The Pulpit of the Narrow Path
The preacher in this pulpit proclaims the full counsel of God. On this narrow road, every hard truth is expounded. Every command is issued. Every sin is exposed. Every grace is extended.
The call dictates
