Yonder Wicket Gate

Preaching and preachers

Luke — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 20:37:14 +0000

The preacher is never just an advocate.. . The preacher is involved all along, and that is why there must be this element of zeal. Nothing is so fatal in a preacher as that he should fail to give the impression of personal involvement.

The God Who Is There

Luke — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 16:00:12 +0000

On life in a post-Christian era: “Absolutes imply antithesis. The non-Christian went on romantically operating on this basis without a sufficient base for doing so. It was still possible to discuss what was right and wrong, what was true and false. One could tell a non-Christian to “be a good girl’, and, while she might not have followed your advice, at least she would have understood what you were talking about. To say the same thing to a truly modern girl today would be to make a ‘nonsense’ statement. The blank look you might receive would not mean that your standards had been rejected but that your message was meaningless.” Francis Schaffer

How to evaluate your sermons

Luke — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 17:40:18 +0000

Here is a great article on how to evaluate your sermons. link

Reposting another article on translations

Luke — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 12:58:50 +0000

Andy Naselli had a great post here.

Reposting an article on TV

Luke — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 13:26:46 +0000

I read this on the Calvary Lansdale blog and thought it was really good: click here

From Commentary on Mark 6:12-13

Luke — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 15:48:51 +0000

Uncomprehending and ill-prepared disciples nevertheless typify believes in every age and place who are sent out by the Lord of the harvest. No matter how much exegesis, theology, and counseling one has studied, one is never “prepared for ministry.” A genuine call to ministry always calls us to that for which we are not adequately prepared. It is only in awareness of such that the Christian experience the presence and promise of Jesus Christ, and learns to depend not on human capabilities but on the one who calls and in the power of the proclamation to authenticate itself. . . . Everything, even the poverty and simplicity of the messenger, indeed even the courage to be rejected, must conform to the Word that affirms that God is infinitely more `

Expository Preaching in the OT

Luke — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 19:41:03 +0000

So I have a bunch of pastors that I know and respect as the best expository preachers. I have looked through their sermon libraries and found that they rarely, if ever, preach through an entire OT book. People will preach through Jonah, Ruth, Job, Zechariah or some minor prophets. They preach the life of the patriarchs and creation. They preach from Psalms & Proverbs.

I understand that we are NT Christians, that the OT foreshadows the NT, that our main diet of preaching should be NT. But I also believe we are to preach the whole council of God. Why don’t preachers preach OT books expositionally, verse by verse, chapter by chapter? Isn’t this what Christ did? I’m not suggesting the application of the Chistological hermeneutic, but I am suggesting that we do too little with the OT text. If these men haven’t been able to do it with their mature congregations what hope have I. It seems that we give the OT too little attention and cast it off as a least favored child. This just doesn’t seem right.

Thoughts?

C.H. Spurgeon on Prayer

Luke — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 12:36:33 +0000

I am listening to a sermon by C.H. Spurgeon from sermonaudio titled “True Prayer-True Power” and Mr. Spurgeon makes the statement:

I believe there is as much reality in a Christians prayer as in a lighting flash and the utility and excellency of the prayer of a Christian may be as sensibly known as the power of the lightening flash when it rends the tree, breaks off its branches and splits it to the very root.

Time to Catch up

Luke — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 15:51:30 +0000

So I have still been listening to various messages but I have fallen off the wagon as far as posting on them. So without much commentary here are some messages that I have listened to recently:

A Small Business Man by Sinclair Furguson

Why Johnny Can’t Sing Hymns, interview by Kevin Swanson of T. David Gordon

Evidences of Genuine Faith by Mark Minnick

I also watched most of the two video series on sermon preparation found here by Dr. David Murray from Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary.

I found each of these presentations beneficial in different ways. I continue to find Minnick the best preacher, I concur with the vital need to consider singing and the affections, I found many of the sermon preparation helps to be very good. I would recommend each.

Priorities of a Good Church

Luke — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 13:17:03 +0000

John MacArthur preaches a message on what defines a “good church” in this three part sermon titled Priorities of a Good Church (I have listened to the first message and part of the second). During his Grace to you intro he indicates that the primary motivation for this series was questions from students at Master’s College. This was a chapel message rebroadcast over the GTY program. I would not classify this as an expositional message as he does not preach from a single passage, nor does has he exegeted any passage in its totality. Rather, he supports his points from a variety of scriptures.

He begins by stating that the choice of a church should be done based on substance not on style–”Style is seductive.” His first point is that a good church has a “high view of God.” He contends that a high view of God produces Godly lives. This he supports both from Prov 9:10 and through a review of Lev 18 & 19, where the people are instructed to behave according to certain standards because “I am the Lord your God” and “be ye holy for I the Lord thy God am holy.” He states that “shallow worship is a byproduct of a shallow view of God” and “soft words produce hard hearts and hard preaching produce soft hearts”

I intend to complete the three part series tonight and will update this post with my impressions from the remainder tonight.