Top Highlights

• The preacher is to he a faithful proclaimer of God's Word. Paul reminds Timothy of this awesome responsibility in 2 Timothy 4:1-5:• A solemn charge: In the presence of God.• A simple charge: Preach the Word.• A ceaseless charge: Preach ... in season and out of season.• A serious charge: Reprove, rebuke, exhort.• A sober charge: Be sober in all thin...
• Our sermons need to come alive. They need to speak from the heart as well as from the head. They need to burn through our being and descend upon the lives of our hearers. Passionate preaching is heart preaching. Jerry Vines says, "We need a return to heart preaching.
• A short sermon is not a sign of shallowness (consider the Sermon on the Mount, nor is a long sermon a sign of depth!
• This element of pathos and of emotion is, to me, a very vital one. It is what has been so seriously lacking in the present century, and perhaps especially among Reformed people. We tend to lose our balance and to become over-intellectual, indeed almost to despise the element of feeling and emotion.
• W. A. Criswell, the famous Baptist preacher, states, "The sermon is no essay to be read for optional opinion, for people to casually consider. It is confrontation with Almighty God. It is to be delivered with a burning passion, in the authority of the Holy Spirit."'