Tag: expository preaching

Edwards on "Main Benefit of Preaching"

As many have noted, one of the downfalls of contemporary preaching is its application focus. When application is our focus, we preach to the will, not the heart. As a result, we make disciples who “do,” who live by works despite our soteriological claims to justification by faith alone. Edwards, as usual, provides a helpful corrective to contemporary aims in preaching. He also offers an encouragement to preachers that despair over forgotten sermons. Remembering the sermon, according to Edwards, is not the point in preaching.

The main benefit obtained by preaching is by an impression made upon the mind at the time, and not by an effect that arises afterwards by a remembrance of what was delivered. And though an after-remembrance of what was heard in a sermon is oftentimes very profitable; yet, for the most part, that remembrance is from an impression the words made on the heart at the time; and the memory profits, as it renews and increases that impression. (Thoughts on the Revival, Part III, emphasis added)

Be released from application-driven preaching into heart-focused preaching. Pray that God would make an impression upon the hearts of your people to such a degree that application is the side-effect of a sincere love for God.

Preach Like Milton, Not Shakespeare

The aim of every preacher should be the difference between Shakespeare and Milton.

the difference is that after reading or seeing a Shakespeare play you want to sit down and discuss the glories of Shakespeare, whereas after reading a Milton poem you want to sit down and discuss the ideas and imperatives he has thrust at you.

The joyful burden of every preacher should be, not to have our listeners discussing the glories of our insights, but rather, to provoke their sincere engagement with the ideas and imperatives of Scripture!

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Song and Sermon Writing: Wisdom from Jacob Dylan

In the May issue of Interview, Jacob Dylan had this to say about song-writing:

I mean, I’ve always had this disciplined approach to it. You have to have a work ethic and you have to be educated in what you’re doing. You have to take it seriously. It doesn’t mean that everything you do has to be serious. But you’ve got to have the tools. There are certainly a lot of people—and I won’t name names—who are getting by simply on expression. And I guess that’s valuable in some sense. But songs are not better just because they’re emotionally honest. To write a song well, you have to put some work into it and grind it out.

Great advice for both song and sermon writers. Too often we bank on emotion to get us by in our songs an sermons. Dylan pulls us back center by emphasizing education, tools, thoughtfulness in our communication, in our art. There are a lot of songs and books being written these days that glorify being “emotionally honest,” but if these pieces aren’t complemented by thoughtful, educated reflection and hard work then they may not even be worth putting out there. Song and sermon writing are a craft. Heed Dylan and treat them as such. Get your tools and work them.