Preaching

In the first two parts in this series ( here and here ), we discussed the truth that eloquence can only glorify God when it takes the role of servant rather than the master. We also so that eloquence starts from the heart of the preacher and primary depends on the unction of the Spirit. However, we...

“How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks ” (Matt. 12:34) In the first part, we saw how eloquence can have a place in Biblical preaching only when it takes the role of servant not master. The master is the Bible. Any form of eloquence that...

Introduction “Moses said to the Lord, ‘ Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent…I am slow of speech and of tongue .’ Then the Lord said to him, ‘Who has made man’s mouth? … Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak…’” (Ex. 4:10-12, cf. Jer. 1:6-9) “For Christ did not...

The Book of Zephaniah unfolds during the days of Josiah. Who can forget those days? The pro-Assyrian party likely put this eight-year-old boy on the throne to placate the ruling nation at that time. However, the pro-Assyrian party in Judah did not factor God into the equation. Why would they? How...

There is a certain mode of preaching that tells you to shape up first so God can come into your life. It is absolutely correct that moral transformation is a necessary entailment of the good news of Jesus Christ. (Eph. 2:10; Heb. 12:14) And yet God’s saving grace always comes before and runs ahead...

You have likely heard people called “boomers,” or maybe even “zoomers,” but have you come across the term “doomer?” A doomer is someone who holds a pessimistic view of life, who despairs over impending societal collapse, and feels a sense of helplessness and hopelessness in the face of doom and...

At our once-rural (now-suburban) church, we have two weekly prayer meetings. On Wednesday nights, we gather to pray for an hour, structuring our time around praise, confession of sin, and supplication. On Lord’s Day afternoons, we gather for just twenty minutes to pray for the extension of Christ’s...

Of all the Minor Prophets, perhaps Jonah is the most read and beloved, and certainly not for its brevity but for its extraordinary story – a story of a prophet running from God, of being thrown overboard in the midst of a storm, of being swallowed alive by a whale of a fish, and upon being spit out...

The sermon was the minister’s attempt through reason to encourage faith as it affected this life and the next. They were committed to a style that was plain but not dull. Each minister was pledged by his own creed to use a balance of doctrine and practice, faithfully devoted to the exposition of...

God frequently called the prophets to physically demonstrate the truth that God had for his covenant people to learn. Hosea was no exception. When God told Hosea to marry “a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom” he did so because “the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord” (1:...