Quotes About Preaching

The result of preaching totalitarian doctrines is to weaken the instinct by means of which free peoples know what is or is not dangerous.

I've had the good fortune of teaching and preaching across much of the globe, while also struggling to make sense of my experience in my own tiny world.

These Fatalists preach that Chance and Peril are merely masks for Fate's workings, nothing in themselves, and moreover that all the gods move at Fate's bidding. Their followers take comfort in thinking that their every deed is meant to be; it excuses all manner of meanness.

Perceiving preaching as discipleship gives preachers a more meaningful way of approaching those to whom they speak. No longer are their listeners an audience or even a congregation; they are believers, followers of Jesus Christ, disciples.

In sum, we have attempted to show at least four major respects in which our exquisitely beautiful and precious Old Testament is a necessary source of much preaching by expositors of our time.

Lay people learn hermeneutics from their pastors' preaching. Whether we like it or not, they learn how to interpret Scripture from how we handle Scripture in the pulpit. So what do we teach listeners about hermeneutics when Jesus makes a surprise appearance in a sermon from Proverbs?

it is the aim of God to renew the affections of believers so that their hearts will most desire him and his ways. This is as contrary to antinomian preaching as heaven's blessings are to Satan's lies.

Given such an emphasis on the written Scriptures in the prophetic tradition, understanding the prophets as authors of books, rather than merely proclaimers of divine judgment and salvation in particular social settings, should be the central focus of the question of preaching from the prophets.

One of the occupational hazards of vocational ministry is equating doing things for Jesus and spending time with Jesus. The joy of being used by the Lord can mimic the delights of walking closely with the Lord, at least for a while. But preaching and applying the gospel to others is not the same thing as preaching and praying it deeper into one's own heart.

It is impossible for one man both to labor day and night to get a living, and at the same time give himself to the study of sacred learning as the preaching office requires.

The Shepherdsons done the same. It was pretty ornery preaching—all about brotherly love, and such-like tiresomeness; but everybody said it was a good sermon, and they all talked it over going home, and had such a powerful lot to say about faith and good works and free grace and preforeordestination, and I don't know what all, that it did seem to me to be one of the roughest Sundays I had run across yet.

although Wuthering Heights is getting on my nerves a bit now. The trouble is, Heathcliff's a completely bitter arsehole and Catherine frustrates the hell out of me. My purest hatred, however, is reserved for Joseph, the miserable, complete bastard of a servant. On top of all his preaching and carrying on, it's hard to understand a word he says.

Above all, I see the preaching ministry as a dual process. On the one hand I must attempt to change the soul of individuals so that their societies may be changed. On the other I must attempt to change the societies so that the individual soul will have a change. Therefore, I must be concerned about unemployment, slums, and economic insecurity. I am a profound advocate of the social gospel.

Let us not tire of preaching love; it is the force that will overcome the world.

May the Lord give you peace," was Francis's most common remark to people. What a contrast this was to the apocalyptic fear-mongering of most other wandering spiritual groups in those days, and how different it was even from the doctrinaire preaching of the new Dominican Order.

Now ministers meet their people in order to enlighten and awaken the consciences of sinners:

while Mr. Edwards was in the town, and they had no other minister to preach to them, they carried on public worship among themselves, and without any preaching, rather than invite him.

There is a special pleasure in the irony of a moralist brought down for the very moral failings he has condemned. It's the pleasure of a well-told joke. Some jokes are funny as one-liners, but most require three verses: three guys, say, who walk into a bar one at a time, or a priest, a minister, and a rabbi in a lifeboat. The first two set the pattern, and the third violates it. With hypocrisy, the hypocrite's preaching is the setup, the hypocritical action is the punch line.

Until our global institutions take a stand against the teaching and preaching of hate, all their efforts of diplomacy and military intervention will fail. Ultimately the responsibility is ours. Tomorrow's world is born in what we teach our children today.

On Memorial Day, I don't want to only remember the combatants. There were also those who came out of the trenches as writers and poets, who started preaching peace, men and women who have made this world a kinder place to live.

hard for me to hear the constant refrain of "just preach the gospel." When the topic is abortion, nobody says, "just preach the gospel." We preach against abortion as if it's a gospel issue. When the topic is sex trafficking, no one says "just preach the gospel." We develop a battalion to go and get people out of sex trafficking. And we should because these are crucial issues. But so is racial justice!

Though both preaching and teaching are important, nothing really takes the place of digging into the Word on our own. As we personally and privately study, memorize, and meditate on the Scriptures, intimacy with Jesus is fostered as the Holy Spirit changes our minds and applies the Word to our souls (John 14:26; 1 Cor. 2:9–10).

Preaching is spiritual warfare! Ephesians 3:10 tells us that when we preach, something supernatural happens.

The preaching of grace can only be protected by the preaching of repentance.