Pray for Your Preacher

This Sunday I preached a sermon entitled "Hear the Word" from 2 Timothy 4:1-5.

At the beginning I asked the congregation to pray for me in regards to my charge to "preach the word."

Here are the five things I asked them to pray for:

1) Pray that I would preach the Word with accuracy. Pray that I would not add to it or leave something out.

2) Pray that I would preach the Word with clarity. Pray that I would be given a gift and I would work hard to make the truth clear and understandable (use of words and language).

3) Pray that I would preach the Word with power. Pray that I would have what the old timers called “unction in the pulpit.” Pray that God would use His Word to bring life.

4) Pray that I would preach the Word with perseverance. Pray that I would not be weary in well doing but faithful regardless of apparent fruitfulness.

5) Pray that I would preach the Word with my life. Pray that my walk would match a faithful preaching of the Gospel.

A Mature Response to the Preaching of God's Word

From Dave VanAcker:

A Mature Response to the Preaching of the Word of God (for families and DGs)

• Please reread the Biblical text(s) from the pastor’s message.
• Please recall any contextual notes that the pastor made regarding the Biblical text(s).
• Please restate, as clearly as possible, the main points from the pastor’s message.
• Please relay your general thoughts and/or feelings after hearing the pastor’s message.
• Please respond by sharing any practical implications/applications of the Biblical text(s) that the pastor gave in his message (as well as few personal implications/applications of your own).
• Please relate to one another by committing to pray for and hold one another accountable for living out the truths communicated by the pastor.
• Please reflect the truths communicated by the pastor to each other (strengthening up the church), the world (evangelism and mercy), and to God (worship).

Longing for His Presence this Sunday and Beyond...

Charles Spurgeon is one of my heroes. I can't believe I haven't named a son after him yet. Lord willing--there is still time. :)
I read this paragraph this week that lifted my heart in prayer--begging God to make this a reality in the preaching of the word on Sunday morning (and beyond)...

Have you ever seen an assembly listening to an orator all unmoved and stolid? Suddenly, the Holy Ghost has fallen on the speaker, and the King Himself has been vis­ibly set forth among them in the midst of the assembly, and all have felt as if they could leap to their feet and cry, 'Hallelujah, Hallelujah!' Then hearts beat fast, and souls leap high; for where Jesus is found His presence fills the place with delight.

He then shares this experience of the Holy Spirit's presence in the worship service and its silencing affect on the people...

More than once we were all so awe-struck with the so­lemnity of the meeting that we sat silent for some mo­ments while the Lord's Power appeared to overshadow us; and all I could do on such occasions was to pronounce the benediction, and say, 'Dear friends, we have had the Spirit of God here very manifestly tonight; let us go home and take care not to lose His gracious influence.' Then down came the blessing; the house was filled with hearers, and many souls were saved.

God, make Your power overshadow us. Prepare us for its weight. Give us Your blessing and save many souls...in Jesus' name, amen.

Praying for Your Preacher

Please partner with me and Dave as we preach the Word of God. Pastor Dave is preaching tomorrow morning and his sermon is entitled - "Lesson on Prayer from the Saints."

Here are the things I asked you to pray for me in last week's sermon:

1) Pray that I would preach the Word with accuracy. Pray that I would not add to it or leave something out.

2) Pray that I would preach the Word with clarity. Pray that I would be given a gift and I would work hard to make the truth clear and understandable (use of words and language).

3) Pray that I would preach the Word with power. Pray that I would have what the old timers called “unction in the pulpit.” Pray that God would use His Word to bring life.

4) Pray that I would preach the Word with perseverance. Pray that I would not be weary in well doing but faithful regardless of apparent fruitfulness.

5) Pray that I would preach the Word with my life. Pray that my walk would match a faithful preaching of the Gospel.

God Energizes Preaching!

I don't know if you have heard or heard of James McDonald (of Harvest Bible Chapel) but he is a powerful preacher of the Word of God.

I urge you to download this sermon by McDonald called "God Energizes Preaching."

Download it, please and listen.

In this sermon, McDonald does a masterful job of defining and discussing the importance of preaching and the fact that God has ordained it to be practiced by His church and that He works mightily through preaching.

In this sermon he addresses the preacher and the preached. The whole sermon is worth its weight in gold.

God Energizes Preaching

James MacDonald: God Energizes Preaching I download I

Trollope vs Paul

Compare what Anthony Trollope (1815-1882) wrote about his experience of sermons:

There is, perhaps, no greater hardship at present inflicted on mankind in civilised and free countries, than the necessity of listening to sermons. No one but a preaching clergyman has, in these realms, the power of compelling an audience to sit silent, and be tormented. No one but a preaching clergyman can revel in platitudes, truisms, and untruisms, and yet receive, as his undisputed privilege, the same respectful demeanour as though words of impassioned eloquence, or persuasive logic, fell from his lips...He is the bore of the age, the old man whom we Sinbads cannot shake off, the nightmare that disturbs our Sunday's rest, the incubus that overloads our religion and makes God's service distasteful. We are not forced into church! No: but we desire more than that. We desire not to be forced away. We desire not to be forced to stay away. We desire, nay, we are resolute, to enjoy the comfort of the public worship; but we desire also that we may do so without an amount of tedium which ordinary human nature cannot endure with patience; that we may be able to leave the house of God, without that anxious longing for escape, which is the common consequence of common sermons...

To what the apostle Paul wrote about His preaching to the Corinthians and to pastor Timothy:

1Co 2:1-5 And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. (2) For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. (3) And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, (4) and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, (5) that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

2Ti 4:1-4 I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: (2) preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. (3) For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, (4) and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.