It is important to start early in your planning. Six months in advance will give you time to start reading through the book and even having your devotions from the book from which you will be eventually preaching. This is the method of Jim Rose. Haddon W. Robinson features twelve preachers in Biblical Sermons. Robinson provides a sermon by each speaker. Next, Robinson gives his commentary on the sermon. Finally, Robinson interviews each speaker. The first question in the interview with Rose was: How long does it usually take you to prepare a message? Rose answered:
Read moreThe Different Views of the Lord's Supper (Part Two)
What does the Lord’s Supper mean to you? When is the last time you obeyed Jesus’ instruction in regard to observing the Lord’s Supper, “This do in remembrance of me?” In the first post, we discussed the four views on the Lord’s Supper. This post will elaborate on the preferred Memorial View.
Read moreChurch Discipline
“One of the most neglected doctrines of the Word of God is church discipline” (Paul Jackson, The Doctrine and Administration of the Church, 75). “The attitude which accompanies the work of discipline is vital” (Ibid., 76). This post is a quick review of Paul Jackson’s chapter on Church Discipline. There are great resources at 9marks on church discipline (click to view).
Read moreTen Vital Steps For Calling a Pastor to Your Church
Jack Hyles wrote an article entitled The Science of Calling a Pastor. In this article intended on instructing churches on how to call a pastor he wrote:
Choose someone who is not a Bible expositor. There is not one expository sermon in the Bible. All of them are topical. I am not fighting expository preaching, but that kind of preaching will destroy a great church. Do not be swayed by their suave teaching. The great soul-winning churches have been pastored by topical preaching. I am not talking about evangelistic churches; I mean soul-winning churches! If you want a soul-winning church, you must call a pastor who preaches topical sermons. Many of our once great soul-winning churches fell prey to the popular notion of expository preaching. They decided that they wanted more Bible, but when they got it, it cost them their effective soul winning.
Read moreThe Six Marks of Leadership, Mark 1, “The Leader Shows Concern for God’s Work” (1:1-4)
Mark Dever promotes Four Aspects of Leadership in Nine Marks of a Healthy Church with the acrostic BOSS.
Read moreStep Six: Prepare the Introduction
If what Haddon Robinson said is true of our average congregation, then we preachers have our work cut out: “When you stand up to preach, people are bored and expect you to make it worse" (Biblical Preaching, Second Edition. page 166).
Read moreJack Hyles verses Mark Dever on Expository Preaching
Jack Hyles wrote an article entitled The Science of Calling a Pastor. In this article intended on instructing churches on how to call a pastor he wrote:
Choose someone who is not a Bible expositor. There is not one expository sermon in the Bible. All of them are topical. I am not fighting expository preaching, but that kind of preaching will destroy a great church. Do not be swayed by their suave teaching. The great soul-winning churches have been pastored by topical preaching. I am not talking about evangelistic churches; I mean soul-winning churches! If you want a soul-winning church, you must call a pastor who preaches topical sermons. Many of our once great soul-winning churches fell prey to the popular notion of expository preaching. They decided that they wanted more Bible, but when they got it, it cost them their effective soul winning.
Read more8 Steps to Sermon Preparation: Step Five (Part 4) Application
A Sermon Without Application is like someone shouting to a drowning man “swim” "swim" but not throwing him a life preserver. Spurgeon believed so strongly in sermon application that he said, “Where application begins, there the sermon begins.”
Read moreSTEP TWO: Study the Passage
This takes time. A large block of uninterrupted time early in the morning is usually the best. There is an excellent interview between C. J. Mahaney and Mark Dever on this necessary step. Mark Dever says that he first reads and rereads the passage that he is going to preach and spends about 35 hours a week in sermon preparation. Dever tells the following story to make his point:
Read moreSTEP ONE: Choose the Passage
John Calvin was dedicated to preaching verse by verse through books of the Bible. Steven J. Lawson in his book The Expository Genius of John Calvin wrote that Calvin preached through “Genesis, Deuteronomy, Job, Judges, I and II Samuel, I and II Kings, the Major and Minor Prophets, the Gospels, Acts, I and II Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, I and II Thessalonians, I and II Timothy, Titus, and Hebrews” (page 33). Calvin was banished for three years (1538-1541) from Geneva by the City Council because he refused to let members living in open sin participate. When the city began to struggle, the City Council invited Calvin to return. “In September 1541, Calvin reentered his Geneva pulpit and resumed his exposition exactly where he had stopped three years earlier—-on the next verse! Similarly, Calvin became seriously ill in the first week of October 1558 and did not return to the pulpit until Monday, June 12, 1559—-when he resumed at the very next verse in the book of Isaiah” (page 33). Hence, the advantage of series preaching through books of the Bible.
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