Archive for the ‘Preaching’ Category

Preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ

Sunday, January 24th, 2010

Preaching the GospelIf you are going to preach anything in this world, this has to be your number one topic: Preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  We have no other valid message if we don’t preach this Gospel. The good news of Jesus’  life and resurection is the fundamental tenet that we hang all our teaching on.  It is the root of our testimony; the whole basis of all Christian outreach; and the essential ingredient in How to Preach.

  • Gospel = Good News

By definition the word Gospel denotes “the good news”, and of course the Good News is that Christ died to save us and is sitting at the right hand of God today.  The Good News is too that we need only to confess Him as our Lord and Saviour, repent and be baptized to have our sins forgiven; to have eternal life; and to live with Him in all eternity.

  • Preaching to Ourselves

It’s a funny thing, but we can’t preach without Preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ TO OURSELVES! Whenever we ponder the Word; whenever we pray for wisdom and guidance to preach; whenever we contemplate spiritually; we are teaching and blessing ourselves as well. It has been said that whenever we preach we are preaching to ourselves as much as to others.  This is true for me, I know, because whenever I prepare to preach, I enlarge my own understanding. Any revelation granted to me to share also remains within me.

  • Preaching Spiritual Revelation

I believe in preaching spiritual revelation. I do not believe in studying up some subject and sermonizing  a whole lot of  other people’s opinion about it.  To share spiritual revelation, you must first get it, and the only way I know to do this is to take your Bible into your ‘quiet place’ and start in praying and reading and allowing yourself to be ministered to by the Holy Spirit of God.  The truths you discover in this context will be inspired revelation, and will effectively be “God speaking to His people”; when you stand up to share on Sunday morning.

  • Throw Away Your Concordance!

You do not need a concordance, you do not need a book of scriptural reference; you do not need to look up a whole lot of stuff on the internet; and you certainly DO NOT need any theological books written by other people.  God is never boring, and He would never insult His children by offering them second-hand goods; what He will do is inspire you to share your convictions, your testimony, and your own intimate knowledge of His Kingdom – IF YOU LET HIM!  His offer to ‘provide all you need’ includes whatever anecdote or experience you will need.  Any preacher who starts off like this: “A funny thing happened to me this week…..” will be sharing right out of their own Christian walk.  It will be real! If God has called upon you to preach this Sunday, He will always have ALREADY PROVIDED you with what ever you need to make your points! You will be obedient, and you will be preaching the Gospels.

  • The Gospel is All You Need

If your circumstance requires you to preach from lectionary readings, and for instance, you are required to be preaching  the Gospel of John; then the only resource material you will need is that very same Gospel of John.  Likewise if you are needed to be preaching the Gospel at Christmas; then again, the only resource materials you will need are those very Gospel advent stories.

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How To Preach The Gospel

Saturday, December 12th, 2009
  • Preach the gospel

preach-the-gospelPreaching the gospel is what this site is all about, it is the driving force behind any quest for “how to preach”. The gospel preaching that comes from seeking and telling the inspired Word of God, by prayer, and by the inspiration of the Holy spirit of God is the only valid form of Gospel Preaching that you would want to preach.

  • Use the Lectionary.

I belong to a union church that uses the common Australian lectionary readings, and we follow these Sunday by Sunday, and over a period of three years the principal portions of the Bible are effectively covered. I was suspicious of this ‘formalised’ system at first, but I have come to see that God works within that system to illuminate His Word and to meet needs as they occur.  It never fails to awe me that I can see retrospectively, that the Word that came out of those readings was entirely appropriate for that day and in that place.

  • Seek His Spirit.

Given the subject, or rather the Gospel passage, we next need to put His spin on it.  We are not here to gallop forth on our own hobby horses, nor are we here to relate secondhand experience from others (Sermons out of a book, or worse, off the net!).  What we are here for is to share the wisdom that comes from the Holy Spirit of God.  By prayerful contemplation, we are to discern what God intends to say on this very day, and we need to contemplate that, and to digest it ourselves, so we can share it out on Sunday morning.

  • A Revelation From God

Paul explained to the Corinthians in Chapter 15 Verse 26 26 This is what I mean, my friends. When you meet for worship, one person has a hymn, another a teaching, another a revelation from God, another a message in strange tongues, and still another the explanation of what is said. Everything must be of help to the church. that when we meet together we each bring something to share.  It is the duty and the privelege of the preacher to bring “a revelation from God”. I take this very seriously, and I invite you to share this conviction, thus being totally sure that what you are bringing, is indeed the inspired Word of God.  This word, based on the scriptures, enlightened by God’s Holy Spirit, becomes truly the Gospel Preaching we aspire to.


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How to Preach With Conviction

Monday, October 12th, 2009
  • How to Preach With Conviction

Preach With Power

Preach With Power

How to preach with power;
Preaching with conviction;
How to know what to preach;
How to preach a good sermon; – these questions, and others like them are asked here all the time, so I now want to try and answer this point on how to Preach with conviction.

  • Testify from Experience and Knowledge

For me, the conviction has to shine through from what I know, from what I have experienced, from what the Spirit is telling me now, today. When you testify, the conviction is there in your voice because of course you must believe your own testimony, and your listeners will recognize that conviction. You are telling what you KNOW! You are the ‘first hand’ witness.

  • Conviction and Power From The Spirit

The other real source of power and conviction in your preaching is the Holy Spirit of God.  When you have prayed about what you are to speak on, when you have allowed the Spirit to illuminate your understanding of the scripture, then the power and conviction will be present and they will come shining through.

  • The Power of Scripture

God will never argue against Himself, so if what you are saying is based on pure scripture, and is expanding from that, then you have the confidence that it must be right. You know how it goes; God said it, I believe it! If you are quoting scripture, you are quoting God.  I believe, along with Timothy [2 Timothy 3:16]All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness that The Bible is the inspired Word of God, and that is something you really can Preach with Conviction.

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How Do You Seek First The Kingdom Of Heaven

Thursday, September 17th, 2009
  • Seek First The KingdomSeek First The Kingdom

This was the question asked here this morning; “How do you seek first the kingdom of heaven?”  It’s an easy thing to say; “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God“; but not so easy to understand, and harder still to put into practice!  It is a companion verse to Psalm 1: Verse 2, that says;”But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night“.

  • Simple Dialog with God

My understanding of this text is based on this assumption: That I can, and do, have constant dialog with God [How Do I Pray] as I perform my daily routines. This being so, it is not so hard to consult with God about everything I do. Prayer, which is no more than conversation with God, need not always be formal, but can be frequent simple [mental] communion with Him, and in this way, it is quite easy to get His guidance on anything we might feel led to do, and as we do it, we will indeed “seek first His Kingdom“.

  • Developing Mind Patterns.

If we cultivate the habit of constantly referring everything we do to Him, then it will become a habit  of mind, a behavioural pattern that will shape our lives and eventually fulfill the two texts above that speak about seeking first the Kingdom of Heaven, and meditating on His law both by day and by night.

  • The Payoff

Why bother, you might ask?. I’m so glad you asked this question, because it goes to the root of our entire Christian motivation. Check out Psalm 1 “1 Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. 2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. 3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.” where in Verse 3 it describes the life style of a person who does this – Wow! This is some promise, where you are guaranteed that everything you do will prosper!  And again in the other scripture from Matthew 6: “25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? 28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. where the promise is that all these things [food, clothing, etc] will be added unto us. Wow again!

  • Hallelujah Country

It is perfectly splendid to have everything you do prospering and to have “all these things” added unto you;” but the real pay-off, the “double whammy”, comes in the side effect of your obedience, the fact that you will be living in near perfect obedience, and thereby living a wholly fulfilled Christian live. Hallelujah!

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What is an Armor-bearer?

Thursday, July 30th, 2009
  • What is an Armourbearer?

In Bible imagery, we have always depicted the eternal struggle between good and bad as a ‘Battle’ and we use the appropriate military terminology to illustrate each analogy.  We talk about swords, spears, shields, and so on as the metaphorical weapons used to wage the war against evil.

  • The Whole Armor of God

The best illustration of this battle analogy is found in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians in [Chapter 6: 10-18]10 Finally, build up your strength in union with the Lord and by means of his mighty power. 11 Put on all the armor that God gives you, so that you will be able to stand up against the Devil’s evil tricks. 12 For we are not fighting against human beings but against the wicked spiritual forces in the heavenly world, the rulers, authorities, and cosmic powers of this dark age. 13 So put on God’s armor now! Then when the evil day comes, you will be able to resist the enemy’s attacks; and after fighting to the end, you will still hold your ground. 14 So stand ready, with truth as a belt tight around your waist, with righteousness as your breastplate, 15 and as your shoes the readiness to announce the Good News of peace. 16 At all times carry faith as a shield; for with it you will be able to put out all the burning arrows shot by the Evil One. 17 And accept salvation as a helmet, and the word of God as the sword which the Spirit gives you. 18 Do all this in prayer, asking for God’s help. Pray on every occasion, as the Spirit leads. For this reason keep alert and never give up; pray always for all God’s people. where he depicts the word of God as a sword, faith as a shield; and so on. The concept here is that we are at all times ready for battle if we always carry the spiritual weapons and armor.

  • God’s Armor Bearersarmor-bearer

Who then is an armor bearer? If you are standing with  some spiritual warrior with your Bible [sword] in your hand, with your faith and your conviction of salvation,  ready to pray or counsel or whatever may be required, you qualify as an armor bearer of God. You might be a counsellor in an outreach with some evangelist; you might be part of a support group in your pastors ministry/visitation team; Hopefully we are using our spiritual (body) gifts 4 Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. 7 If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; 8 if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully. as defined in Romans 12: 4-8; and when we find ourselves in a support role, we can be said to be God’s armor bearers whereas if we are doing the teaching or the evangelising ourselves then we are warriors, not armor-bearers.

  • The importance of an armour bearer.

Be aware that a warrior cannot function alone, nor can armorbearers fight the battle.  They are totally interdependent. So go forth to the battle, knowing what is an armor bearer, and be prepared to don the breastplate of righteousness, the helmet of salvation; and with truth as a belt, faith as a shield and the sword of the spirit in your hand  and you will have put on the whole armor of God.

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