A sermon is not a talk, a speech, or a lecture. It is an oral address upon revealed truth, elaborately treated with a view to persuasion — governed by a defined purpose, formed according to recognizable types, and built from three necessary structural parts. The person…
Effectiveness depends upon proper arrangement. The best material in the world, poorly arranged, will not accomplish what properly arranged material of lesser strength will. Structure is not decoration — it is the difference between a sermon that arrives and a sermon that dissipates. The principle of…
Service is the fundamental structure of Christian existence, modeled by Christ himself — “the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). The motive of service determines its character: fear-motivated service…
Anxiety is not merely an emotional condition — it is the practical expression of misplaced trust. The person who worries about what they will eat or wear has, at the level of daily functioning, placed more confidence in their own management of material circumstances than in…
God blesses men through men. This has been his consistent pattern from Abraham to Christ: the person through whom God works is the person God has sanctified — set apart, consecrated, made fit for the work assigned. The degree of sanctification corresponds to the greatness of…
The claim that a Christian can reach a state of sinless perfection — a condition in which sin is no longer possible or even inclined toward — contradicts the explicit warnings of I Cor. 10:12, Heb. 4:1, and Phil. 2:12, misreads the commands to “be holy”…
When a person begins to seek God, Satan begins to seek that person. The obstacles are predictable and consistent: laziness, pride, fear, prejudice, and the love of an evil life. Each has appeared in the lives of people who sought God and failed to find him…
The statement “there was no room for them in the inn” is not incidental. It is the emblem of everything that follows. The world that had no room in the manger had no room in Nazareth, no room in the synagogues, no room at the table…
Responsibility is not assigned generically — it is measured by ability and opportunity. The Christian who has both is the most accountable person in the world: accountable for what they do, accountable for what they could have done and did not, and accountable for whether they…
The preacher’s body, voice, and manner are either servants of the message or competitors with it. Every pulpit habit that draws attention to the preacher rather than to Christ has failed the sermon before the first word is spoken. The standard is simple: does this help…