John MacArthur takes on the idea that good preaching is aimed at the felt needs of the hearer. He notes: “This is what is wrong with superficial, marginally biblical preaching.”

I’d suggest preachers and parishioners read the whole thing here.

Here’s the summarized list.

1. It usurps the authority of God over the soul.
2. It removes the lordship of Christ from His church.
3. It hinders the work of the Holy Spirit.
4. It demonstrates appalling pride and a lack of submission.
5. It severs the preacher personally from the regular sanctifying grace of Scripture.
6. It clouds the true depth and transcendence of our message and therefore cripples both corporate and personal worship.
7. It prevents the preacher from fully developing the mind of Christ.
8. It depreciates by example the spiritual duty and priority of personal Bible study.
9. It prevents the preacher from being the voice of God on every issue of his time.
10. It breeds a congregation that is as weak and indifferent to the glory of God as their pastor is.
11. It robs people of their only true source of help.
12. It encourages people to become indifferent to the Word of God and divine authority.
13. It lies to people about what they really need.
14. It strips the pulpit of power.
15. It puts the responsibility on the preacher to change people with his cleverness.

“So preach the Word, even though it is currently out of fashion to do so (2 Tim. 4:2). That is the only way your ministry can ever truly be fruitful. Moreover, it assures that you will be fruitful in ministry, because God’s Word never returns to Him void; it always accomplishes that for which He sends it, and prospers in what He sends it to do (Isa. 55:11).”

I just read a piece on C.J. Mahaney’s blog, which quotes C.J., Jeff Purswell, and Mike Bullmore and touches on so many areas that challenge and encourage me — a pastor’s abilities, calling, preaching effectiveness, and use of time. I think many pastor’s deal with challenges in these areas, so I share it with all who will hear me and go read this post.

For those reading who are not pastors you can read and learn how to encourage and pray for your pastor as he schedules his time and prepares to preach God’s Word, a very precious privilege, week in and week out.

When I finish my breakfast it’s back to my own studies, because Sunday ’s a comin’.

Go read: Counsel for Discouraged, Average Preachers

January 6, 2008 - AM Service
Open To Us A Door For the Word - Colossians 4:3-4
Pastor Kevin | Higgins Lake Baptist Church

• Christianaudio.com has available for free download during November the unabridged audio book Religious Affections by Jonathan Edwards — free registration required, use coupon code NOV2007 (see free audio page each month for a free download)
• Preaching Points Podcast is a fairly new and brief podcast from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, that seeks to encourage preachers toward preaching excellence — Haddon Robbinson is one of the participants (via UW)
• At Pulpit Magazine, Seizing Opportunities for Evangelism
• At The Baptist Bulletin, an update on a completely normal family — home of the McCaughey septuplets

Al Mohler on the urgency of Biblical preaching — From a Dying Man to Dying Men — Recovering a Bold Vision for Biblical Preaching

NeverThirsty.org issues A Call: Teach The Bible.

“Some churches have heard the alarms and have responded. Not everyone is interested in the solid teaching of scripture, but not everyone wants to know God either. What type of church should we look for? We should look for pastors and teachers who teach the Bible and who do not just give illustrations and an application. We should look for churches that are serious about teaching the entire Bible. Only then can we be strong in our faith. Only then can we know the character of God and discover hidden treasures about Him. Do you have a hunger to know God? If so, then seek to know the Bible. But remember the goal is to know God through a study of the Bible.”

From Power Through Prayer by Edward M. Bounds, chapter 4, Tendencies to be Avoided.

It is impossible for the preacher to keep his spirit in harmony with the divine nature of his high calling without much prayer. That the preacher by dint of duty and laborious fidelity to the work and routine of the ministry can keep himself in trim and fitness is a serious mistake. Even sermon-making, incessant and taxing as an art, as a duty, as a work, or as a pleasure, will engross and harden, will estrange the heart, by neglect of prayer, from God. The scientist loses God in nature. The preacher may lose God in his sermon.

Pulpit Magazine’s blog has moved to my favorite blogging software, WordPress, and today posts an important piece on interpreting scripture. What Does This Verse Mean “to Me”?

The nucleus of all that is truly practical is sown up in the teaching of Scripture. We don’t make the Bible relevant; it is inherently so, simply because it is God’s Word. And after all, how can anything God says be irrelevant?

Paul Lamey over at Expository Thoughts summarizes D. A. Carson on Expository Preaching from a 1996 issue of Leadership Journal…

Don’t abandon expository preaching:

1. It is the method least likely to stray from Scripture.
2. It teaches people how to read their Bibles.
3. It gives confidence to the preacher and authorizes the sermon.
4. It meets the need for relevance without letting the clamor for relevance dictate the message.
5. It forces the preacher to handle the tough questions.
6. It enables the preacher to expound systematically the whole counsel of God.

From: Expository Thoughts posts part 1, part 2, part 3.

It’s been a long week. It’s Saturday night. I just finished studying for tomorrow’s services. I’d usually like to be ready before now but an eye problem took me to the doctor today, then I couldn’t get the van started, someone called and wanted to see the truck we’re selling, we had a little birthday party for Zack tonight, then… well you get the idea.

It’s times like this I remind myself why I do this–I love to preach God’s Word–I love being a part of God’s work in preaching His Word to His people. And then there are guys like Al Mohler who shoot straight about what the church really needs that give a good shot in the arm too.

From Al Mohler’s blog…

“Preaching is so important that the preacher must be willing to suffer to advance the proclamation of the Gospel, he said.”Every single Christian pastor ought to be ready and willing at a second’s notice to say, ‘I can put up with virtually anything if I get to preach,’” Mohler said, adding that preachers should rejoice in sufferings when they open the door for preaching opportunities.One difficulty of preaching is that frequently it produces no visible response in the congregation, he said. But preachers should not become frustrated at a lack of visible response because the Word of God often works silently in people’s hearts in ways that are undetectable to the eye, Mohler noted.”The Word of God goes in and does surgery that the hearer does not even immediately recognize is taking place,” he said. “It’s in the mystery of the preaching of the Word of God, accompanied by the Spirit, that the believer is conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ in the silent, invisible surgery of the soul.”If you want quick results, you’ll be tempted to do something other than preaching. If you want instant gratification, you’ll look at some other form of programming or you’ll get excited about some other dimension of ministry at the expense of preaching. But if you want to build Christ’s church and if you want to see Christ’s people conformed to His image, preaching is the indispensable mark of the church.”

Now that’s encouraging.

I know you all can’t wait to get my pick for Sunday’s Super Bowl. STEELERS it is. Had them picked early in the season–even over the unbeaten Colts. May be just wishful thinking on my part but it seems like its time for the Steelers. We’ll see. No Super Bowl party for us instead of church. But we’ll be recording the game to watch after our evening worship service–it’s better that way–no commercials or half-time show. Came across the Ben Roethlisberger Blog tonight.

For those of you who enjoy computers as I do, you might find this cool Mac Expose clone for the PC interesting–it’s called SmallWindows–it’s still in beta but works pretty well. I’m usually running five or six or ten applications at a time–especially since I just added a gig of ram to my workhorse notebook–so this is a fun tool that makes switching between open windows a breeze–no pun intended. I loaded it up last night and was showing the guys the cool application switching action and I was getting a bunch of oohs and aahs.

And my oldest son, Kevin, pointed me to the ESV Bible Firefox Plugin. If you use Firefox as your web browser–if you don’t you should–the plugin adds the ESV Bible to the list of available searches in the search menu bar.

Pray for me if you think about it this week as I prepare messages for Sunday. We’ll be in Acts 9 in the morning and I’ll be continuing a series on spiritual warfare in the evening. (When you’re preaching on spiritual warfare you definitely don’t cancel the service for a Super Bowl party.)

As a pastor I’ve found great encouragement from Charles Spurgeon. Preaching pastors–those who truly wish to preach God’s Word–those who would devote themselves to the work of preaching when it seems the world around them has better ideas for giving direction to the church and reaching the lost than with preaching–should find great encouragement in these words from Spurgeon we’re reminded of today by Jim Bublitz at sliceoflaodicea.com.

In the great day, when the muster-roll shall be read, of all those who are converted through fine music, and church decoration, and religious exhibitions and entertainments, they will amount to the tenth part of nothing; but it will always please God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Keep to your preaching; and if you do anything beside, do not let it throw your preaching into the background. In the first place preach, and in the second place preach, and in the third place preach.

Believe in preaching the love of Christ, believe in preaching the atoning sacrifice, believe in preaching the new birth, believe in preaching the whole counsel of God. The old hammer of the gospel will still break the rock in pieces; the ancient fire of Pentecost will still burn among the multitude. Try nothing new, but go on with preaching, and if we all preach with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, the results of preaching will astound us.

–Charles Spurgeon, How to Win Souls for Christ

Speaking of preaching–I’m looking forward to the one-day Pastors’ Enrichment Seminar I’m headed to on February 9 at West Cannon Baptist Church, Belmont, Michigan. The theme is “The Foolishness of Preaching - A Crucial Call to Biblical Preaching to a Postmodern Mind,” with guests Dr. Colin Smith and Dr. James Grier.