THE PREACHER AND HIS PREACHING
1 Sermons will not be marked by authority and power unless they are marked by truth that the Holy Spirit can honor. The word of God is to be exegeted and explained. That has to be the heart of the sermon. There is a real danger that we become over concerned about such things as delivery, while the New Testament is insistent on the content: "let him speak as the oracles of God." The authority of the preaching comes from the text of Scripture. It is God-given power which honours His own words.
What we must do is to be a man who is absorbed with the glory and the greatness of the truth. A preacher lives in the truth. As long as I am breathing I need to read through the whole Bible at least once a year, in a personal devotional way. I need to continue to read theology, learn theology.
"PREACHING IS THEOLOGY COMING THROUGH A MAN WHO IS ON FIRE."
THE PREACHER IS A PART OF THE MESSAGE THAT HE IS PREACHING.
The preacher not only is preaching the Bible but he becomes part of the truth. While the less one says about himself the better, but at the same time the Holy Spirit does not work in preaching except through the man, and so, inevitable, not only does the message compel attention but the man himself. The man becomes a part of the message.
SO WHAT DOES THIS MEAN: THE MAN BECOMES A PARTOF THE MESSAGE?
1 The preacher must know the power of the message he is bringing to others. In other words while I preach from Romans 1:15-16, if I don't believe there is power in the Gospel, I don't need to be preaching the message of the Cross and the Resurrection and the Rapture.
I can testify that I know the power of the truth in my own life, and heart. That is the testimonly that I know that the Lord has allowed me to preach the Word of God.
When I am preaching on just about any text in the bible, while I am studying the text, my heart is filled with the truth of the text. I often preach to myself before I ever speak to others.
The Holy Spirit must produce the feeling in the preachers' heart that must be in harmony with what the Spirit has breathed out. Paul writes, "knowingthe terror of the Lord we persuade men."
A most important part of preaching is exhortation. In preaching we move people to do what the are listening to, and to this end there has to be a felt consciousness in the preacher of the truth of what he is saying.
We have to bring our feelings into harmony with the stupendous nature of what we are saying. The man most used of God in their pulpits are those who know they had fallen far short of the wonder that should characterise the preaching.
2 I would say what I have learned that the more we become part of the message the more we forget ourselves. What is the main feeling, thought in the preacher? It should be love - to God and to man. IT is the very opposit of self centredness. Love seeks not his own. The needs of the people spoken to tak over.
