Author Archives: admin

Preach love, as well as truth

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Whatever captures the heart’s trust and love also controls the feelings and behavior.  What the heart most wants, the mind finds reasonable, the emotions find valuable, and the will finds doable.  It is all-important, then, that preaching move the heart to stop trusting and loving other things more than God.  What makes people into what they are is the order of their loves – what they love most, more, less, and least.  That is more fundamental to who you are than even the beliefs to which you mentally subscribe. 
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Preach reality, as well as truth

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To engage the heart is also to engage the imagination, and the imagination is more affected by images than by propositions.  Here, we are talking about what are usually termed “sermon illustrations.”  Over the past generation, preachers have recaptured the importance of story.  Common sense tells us that stories capture interest and stick in the mind, and so preachers are often advised to lace their sermons liberally with narratives.  However, we should think a bit more deeply about why they are so effective. 
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Heroes and villains

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In his book Jesus on Every Page (54-59), David Murray discusses the pitfalls involved in preaching from Old Testament characters.  Among other things, writes Murray, this approach is

  1. Man-centred – It puts God in the background, when he should be in the foreground.  We should be preaching, not human character traits, but God’s nature, character and will.
  2. Moralistic – It turns the Old Testament into a manual of do’s and don’ts, rather than a revelation of God’s actions.
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Same-sex attraction and the church

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The Plausibility Problem: the Church and Same-Sex Attraction.  By Ed Shaw, IVP, 2015.

As others have pointed out, this is not just a book for those who experience same-sex attraction.  It is a book for all of us, calling everyone back to biblical faithfulness and radical discipleship.

The basis of Ed Shaw’s argument is that the orthodox Christian view on same-sex attraction (“Just say no”) is implausible.  Why on earth would we deny sexual intimacy to those who are attracted to members of their own sex?  …

Communicating conviction

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Kevin Miller asks:-

Why is it that sometimes we as preachers feel a message so deeply, yet our listeners don’t feel that? Why is something that’s so intensely meaningful to us not always communicated in a way that grips the congregation as intensely?

Four factors are at work here:-

The personality factor.  Some preachers’ sermons are intense because the preachers themselves are intense.  They are high-energy, in-your-face people.  Others of us are quieter, more reflective.  We love the Lord, his word, his gospel and his people.  …

Unhappy birthday

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I am reminded by this post by Justin Taylor that it is 50 years ago today – Tuesday, October 18, 1966 – that an event took place that shook British evangelicalism to the core.  The after-shocks can still be felt today.

That event was a meeting of the National Assembly of Evangelicals, held at Westminster Central Hall, London.  At that meeting, Martyn Lloyd-Jones was understood by many to be appealing for evangelicals to secede from doctrinally mixed denominations, and should come together in a ‘fellowship, or an association, of evangelical churches’.…

On and on

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As far as I can remember, I have only ever been criticised once for preaching too short a sermon.  And that was the occasion, many years ago, when I actually forgot one third of my message (I had foolishly tried to memorise the whole lot, and I’ve never repeated that particular form of idiocy).

It’s generally a silent tussle between the preacher and his congregation.  He wants them to have more, whereas they would quite happy with a little less.…

Ex 5 – From bad to worse – sermon notes

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Exodus 5

‘Things are going from bad to worse’

…mutterered the teenager as he reflected first on the coffee stain he had just made on his parent’s new carpet, and then on the results of pouring bleach over it.

…moaned the England football fans as they contemplated first their team’s embarrassing display in the European Cup and then on the manager’s equally embarrassing departure from his role.

…sighed the young woman struggling single-handedly to raise her two young children, who then was told that she must undergo prolonged and painful medical treatment.…

Eph 2:1-10 – Before and after – sermon notes (v2)

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Ephesians 2:1-10

Transformations.  DIY SOS, Restorations, Homes Under The Hammer, House Doctors, Grand Designs, Tattoo Fixers, Embarrassing Bodies.

But none of them attempts: the transformation from death to life.

V5 ‘God made us alive even when we were dead.’

1. Before, 1-3

A threefold tyranny: –

The tyranny of the world: v2 ‘You followed the ways of this world’.  ‘Those places, persons, pleasures and pursuits where God is left out.’  Those without Christ are slaves to secularism, materialism, peer pressure, religious fads, and the dubious role models of celebrities.…

Time for God?

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It’s about time…

We make, time, spend time, save time, give time, waste time, call time, buy time, keep time, and kill time.

The one thing we cannot do is defy time.  All the time, time moves steadily forward.  Or is it that we move forward through time?  Either way, you can’t stop it.

Some people are good time-keepers.  Victor Borge once told a friend that he could tell the time by his piano.  He demonstrated this by pounding out a loud march.  …