Preaching to the Heart

Last week, I was fortunate enough (along with Teresa) to attend the MTS/College of Preachers Preaching Conference held at Moore College

Here are some reflections:

- as a preacher, we are not lecturers, life coaches, entertainers only. Whilst there might be elements of those, our main job is to be a herald. To proclaim a message on behalf of the king of heaven!

- our aim is to move people forward spiritually. To do this, according to Murray Capill, you need to take people BACK to the Biblical text, UP to our glorious God and IN to the heart.

GOING BACKWARDS:

- the puritan style of preaching involved looking at the text/explaining what it means, then looking at how this truth applies to life by linking the text to various doctrines and proofs. Finally, the puritans would then talk about the uses of Scripture by asking the question, how do I USE this text - in relationships, in thinking, in approaching God's word, in work.

- a helpful reminder was how I need to not be so concerned with rehearsing my sermon, but rather pleading with God to impress the main point on people's heart. That I should be praying point by point for the hearers to heed the Word.

GOING UPWARDS:

- as we are engaged in the business of setting hearts and minds on things above, we are to lift people's eyes to God for that is where there is true joy and true peace.

- we are to take up great truths about God, Jesus and the Spirit and work those truths into people's affections. Not only do we address the mind, but also the yearnings of the soul.

- words are our tool - they can be sharp, blunet, insightful or pedestrian. Therefore use affective language - words that are different to what they would normally hear, analogies

- In the words of Richard Baxter: "The best matter will scarcely move people, less it be movingly delivered"

GOING INWARDS:

- The Bible is like a mirror - as preachers, we hold up the mirro to people and say this is what its really like - its not pretty, but its reality as we perform delicate heart surgery. When doing this, we need to help them to keep going upwards

- William Perkins defined 7 categories of people whom we preach to:
i. Hardened sinners
ii. Teachable sinners
iii. Informed sinners
iv. The humbled
v. The saved
vi. The backslidden
vii. The mixed mass

- The Puritans also divided people into spiritual categories too:
i. Going well and they know it
ii. Going well and they don't know it
iii. Not going well and they know it
iv. Not going well and they don't know it

Our job as preachers therefore is to try to speak to people with different heart conditions.

- As 2 Tim 3:16 says, there are varied applications to God's word. We are to teach, rebuke, correct, train and encourage

- we are to avoid that 'sameness' in application - eg. love more, serve more, give more.....a moreness in what you're saying

- as we deliver application, there is to be varied tone (like that of a father, mother, school teacher, lecturer, doctor, wife, investigator)

- we are to drawn upon our own life experience - this is the advantage of real pastoral work as we observe different heart conditions as we deal with different people.

- in preaching we draw upon two sources - the text and life's reservoir (ie. our life and what we've built up from reading, pastoring, being a husband, from evangelism, from watching movies). The larger the reservoir, the richer the preaching.


We also heard two great "model" sermons from Psalm 24 and 45 from David Jones. Heard about the life of Martyn Lloyd-Jones (a Welsh preachers affectionately known as "The Doctor") and two expositions from Acts 20:17-38 about the priority of preaching.

In closing, I think I'll be reminded by what's in store for the preacher (both as I start out preaching as well as for those I sit under)

- preachers need to put their hand up for first the suffering, to count today's cost in order to receive tomorrow's glory.

- the pain of being like Paul - a slave, a prisoner, a marathon runner and seeing people reject, oppose, wander and those we 'never' see again is hard, toilsome work. But we have the privilege of entering the Holy City where there will be eternal rewards as God gathers his people.