Preaching- christiansquoting.org.uk

Sermonettes make Christianettes

I don't care what people say, Pastor. I like your sermons.

The hungry sheep look up, and are not fed.
The hungry sheep, that crave the living Bread.
Grow few, and lean, and feeble as can be,
When fed not Gospel, but philosophy;
Not Love's eternal story, no, not this,
But apt allusion, keen analysis.
Discourse well framed -- forgot as soon as heard --
Man's thin dilution of the living Word.

O Preacher, leave the rhetorician's arts;
Preach Christ, the Food of hungry human hearts;
Hold fast to science, history, or creed,
But preach the Answer to our human need,
That in this place, at least, it may be said
No hungry sheep looks up and is not fed.
Robert Hammond Adams (1883-1975) INSCRIPTION FOR A PULPIT

I preached as never sure to preach again,
And as a dying man to dying men.
Richard Baxter, 1615-1691, Love Breathing Thanks and Praise.

Screw the truth into men's minds.- RICHARD BAXTER (on preaching)

He doth preach most that doth live best. - JOHN BOYS

He preaches well that lives well, quoth Sancho; that's all the divinity I understand.--Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616) _Don Quixote_

I may not practice what I preach, but God forbid that I preach what I practice. G K Chesterton

A hot iron, though blunt, will pierce sooner than a cold one, though sharper.- JOHN FLAVEL

The deeds you do today may be the only sermon some people will hear today. . Francis of Assisi

I'd rather see a sermon than hear one any day;
I'd rather one should walk with me than merely tell the way. - Edgar Guest

Judas heard all Christ's sermons.-- Thomas Goodwin

The preachers were the true authors of that advance, and among the preachers those were far from being the least influential who mainly devoted themselves to setting forth the Puritan way of life by precept, image and example in pulpit and press rather than to agitation against defiance of law. They and not the doctrinaire controversialists or the martyrs of persecution were the men who did the most in the long run to prepare the temper of the Long Parliament and to spread among their countrymen the characteristic Puritan version of the age-old epic of man's spiritual striving.
William Haller The Rise of Puritanism (p. 18)

The worst speak something good; if all want sense,
God takes a text, and preacheth Pa-ti-ence.
George Herbert

Sir, a woman's preaching is like a dog's walking on his hind legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all. Boswell: Life of Johnson

A good life is a maine Argument.
Ben Jonson_Timber: or, Discoveries, made vpon men and matter: as they have flow'd out of his daily Readings ; or had their refluxe to his peculiar Notion of the Times_, 1640 Discoveries, Topic 17, "Probitas. sapientia." ("Honesty and Wisdom")

Far too many relied on the classic formula of a beginning, a muddle, and an end.
Philip Larkin (1922-1985) Referring to modern novels; "New Fiction," 15 Jan 1978.

If the preaching of the gospel is not practical, it is not true preaching. - D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Unless the gospel is preached with contemporary relevance it has not been preached. MARTIN LUTHER

A good preacher should have these qualities and virtues: first, to teach systematically; second, he should have a ready wit; third, he should be eloquent; fourth, he should have a good voice; fifth, a good memory; sixth, he should know when to make an end; seventh, he should be sure of his doctrine; eighth, he should venture and engage body and blood, wealth and honor, in the world; ninth, he should suffer himself to be mocked and jeered of everyone.... Martin Luther (1483-1546), Table-Talk

A sermon is not made with an eye upon the sermon, but with both eyes upon the people and all the heart upon God. - JOHN OWEN

The preacher and the writer may seem to have an... easy task. At first sight, it may seem that they have only to proclaim and declare; but in fact, if their words are to enter men's hearts and bear fruit, they must be the right words, shaped cunningly to pass men's defenses and explode silently and effectually within their minds. This means, in practice, turning a face of flint toward the easy cliche, the well-worn religious cant and phraseology -- dear, no doubt, to the faithful, but utterly meaningless to those outside the fold. It means learning how people are thinking and how they are feeling; it means learning with patience, imagination and ingenuity the way to pierce apathy or blank lack of understanding. I sometimes wonder what hours of prayer and thought lie behind the apparently simple and spontaneous parables of the Gospel.... J. B. Phillips (1906-1982), Making Men Whole [1952]

Whatever subject I preach, I do not stop until I reach the Savior, the Lord Jesus, for in Him are all things. CHARLES SPURGEON

There is a limit, for "The Lord knoweth them that are His," but in the preaching of the Gospel we are not bound by the decree which is secret, but by our marching orders, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature; he that believeth and is baptised shall be saved. He who bade me preach to every creature did not bid me exempt one soul from my message. CHARLES SPURGEON

We are not diplomats but prophets, and our message is not a compromise but an ultimatum. --A. W. Tozer

Sound Bible exposition is an imperative must in the Church of the Living God. Without it no church can be a New Testament church in any strict meaning of that term. But exposition may be carried on in such a way as to leave the hearers devoid of any true spiritual nourishment whatever. For it is not mere words that nourish the soul, but God Himself, and unless and until the hearers find God in personal experience they are not the better for having heard the truth. The Bible is not an end in itself, but a means to bring men to an intimate and satisfying knowledge of God, that they may enter into Him, that they may delight in His presence, may taste and know the inner sweetness of the very God Himself in the core and center of their hearts.-A. W. Tozer (1879-

I wonder if you realize that in many ways the preaching of the Word of God is being pulled down to the level of the ignorant and spiritually obtuse; that we must tell stories and jokes and entertain and amuse in order to have a few people in the audience? We do these things that we may have some reputation and that there may be money in the treasury to meet the church bills....In many churches Christianity has been watered down until the solution is so weak that if it were poison it would not hurt anyone, and if it were medicine it would not cure anyone! - A.W. Tozer in I Talk Back to the Devil

When the judge is giving the charge on the bench, all attend. When the Word is preached, the great God is giving us his charge. Do we listen to it as to a matter of life and death? This is a good sign that we love the Word. THOMAS WATSON

[Concerning the Word preached:] "Do we prize it in our judgments? Do we receive in into our hearts? Do we fear the loss of the Word preached more than the loss of peace and trade? Is it the removal of the ark that troubles us? Again, do we attend to the Word with reverential devotion? When the judge is giving the charge on the bench, all attend. When the Word is preached, the great God is giving us his charge. Do we listen to it as to a matter of life and death? This is a good sign that we love the Word. - THOMAS WATSON

We can preach the Gospel of Christ no further than we have experienced the power of it in our own hearts.- George Whitefield journal: 1739

Indeed we are all in peril if the flawed messenger invalidates the message.~ Philip Yancey, Soul Survivor (2001)