Biblical Preaching
By: Haddon W. Robinson
- We cannot separate ourselves from the Scripture.
- Preaching is truth poured through personality – Philips Brooks
- Preaching should develop the preacher into a mature Christian.
- The Bible is the supreme preacher to the preacher – PT Forsyth
- Many preachers fail as Christians before they fail as preachers.
- Preaching comes alive when the disciplined mind and loving heart are going to the Holy Spirit.
- We must learn to listen to God before we speak for God.
- As we study the Scriptures, we must understand first of all what God is saying in this portion of Scripture. We then must understand what God wants to change in us because of the Scripture. Lastly we must understand what God wants to use us to teach the listeners through this passage.
- We must know the people as we learn the Scriptures. Our Lord spoke to the people and their needs in that day. Each letter in the Bible was addressed in a different way because the people were dealing with different things – the Philippians from the Corinthian‘s, etc.
- Sermons do not fail because they have too many ideas but because they have unrelated ideas.
- Every Scripture should have a theme.
- You are not ready to preach until you can condense the message down to one pregnant sentence.
- We must be careful to not let theological jargon stand in the way of being clear when we preach.
- If you do not apply the Scriptures to peoples lives, you cannot expect them to do it.
- Our listeners need both the truth to believe and the ways to apply it.
- Ask yourself why you are preaching that sermon. A sermon without a purpose is meaningless.
- A sermon with purpose is what differentiates it from being a mere essay.
- A sermon is not to be like shooting a firecracker that just makes a noise, it is to be like shooting a gun in which the hunter looks to see his target hit.
- Write down in a statement what you want the hearers to do as a result of what you preached.
- People need to be reminded just as much as they need to be informed.
- Jesus was such a good storyteller that many times one did not even realize when the theological truths were being placed in the story.
- There are three kinds of preachers: those that you cannot listen to, those that you can listen to, and those that you must listen to. In the introduction, the congregation will decide which one you are.