Preaching...



“Take heed to yourselves, lest you live in those sins which you preach against in others, and lest you be guilty of that which you daily condemn.” – Richard Baxter



“Preach all your sermons over to yourself. Remember that your own heart must ever be your first congregation.” – F.B. Meyer


“Beware of entrance into controversy unless faithfulness to Christ makes it imperative.” – George Henderson


“...the work of preaching is the highest and the greatest and the most glorious calling to which anyone can ever be called.” – Martyn Lloyd-Jones


“The primary task of the church and of the Christian ministry is the preaching of the Word of God.” – Martyn Lloyd-Jones


“It was said of George Fox “In his preaching he wore out clothes, horses, critics, persecutors, and eventually himself.”


“He with whom the ministry is a secondary thing, may be a correct, a learned, an elegant, even an oratorical, but will never be a powerful preacher.” – J. W. Alexander


“I preached as never sure to preach again and as a dying man to dying men.” –Richard Baxter


“A perversion of the pulpit is surely followed by spiritual apostasy in the church.” – R. L. Dabney


“Preach not calmly and quietly as though you were asleep, but preach with fire and pathos and passion.” – C.H. Spurgeon


“When I hear a man preach, I like to see him act as if he were fighting bees.” – Abraham Lincoln


“O my brethren, my heart is enlarged towards you. I trust I feel something of that hidden, but powerful presence of Christ, whilst I am preaching to you.” – George Whitefield


“A preacher must be both soldier and shepherd. He must nourish, defend, and teach; he must have teeth in his mouth, and be able to bite and fight.” – Martin Luther


“I know of no surer way of a people’s perishing than by being led by one who does not speak out straight and honestly denounce evil. If the minister halts between two opinions, do you wonder that the congregation is undecided? If the preacher trims and twists to please all parties, can you expect his people to be honest? If I wink at your inconsistencies will you not soon be hardened in them? Like priest, like people. A cowardly preacher suits hardened sinners. Those who are afraid to rebuke sin, or to probe the conscience, will have much to answer for. May God save you from being led into the ditch by a blind guide.” – C.H. Spurgeon


“He that is more frequent in his pulpit to his people than he is in his closet for his people, is but a sorry watchman.” – John Owen


“We have utterly failed in our preaching of Jesus if we have not set Him forth to you as ‘a feast of fat things, of wine on the lees well refined’.” – R. M. M’Cheyne


“Ministers knock at the door of men’s hearts; the Spirit comes with a key and opens the door.” – Thomas Watson


“A preacher’s life should be a commentary upon his doctrine… Heavenly doctrines should always be adorned with a heavenly life.” – Thomas Brooks


“Do I want to be heard? Do I want to be seen? Do I want anything on the line of finances? If I have these things in my heart I have no right to be there. The one thing that must move us must be the constraining love of God to minister for Him. A preacher always loses out when he gets his mind on finances. It is well for Pentecostal preachers to avoid making much of finances except to stir up people to help our missionaries on financial lines. A preacher who gets big collections for the missionaries need never fear, the Lord will take care of his finances. A preacher should not land at a place and say that God had sent him. I am always fearful when I hear a man advertising this. If he is sent of God, the saints will know it.” – Smith Wigglesworth


“A man, who had his eyes up to heaven, the best of books was in his hand, the law of truth was upon his lips, and he stood as if he pleaded with men.” – John Bunyan, Pilgrims Progress


“If Jesus had preached the same message that ministers preach today, He would never have been crucified.” – Leonard Ravenhill


“The motto of all true servants of God must be, ‘We preach Christ; and him crucified.’ A sermon without Christ in it is like a loaf of bread without any flour in it. No Christ in your sermon, sir? Then go home, and never preach again until you have something worth preaching.” – C.H. Spurgeon


“Leave Christ out? O my brethren, better leave the pulpit out altogether. If a man can preach one sermon without mentioning Christ’s name in it, it ought to be his last, certainly the last that any Christian ought to go to hear him preach.” –C.H. Spurgeon


“The man who is a preacher, if he has lost the unction, will be well repaid if he will repent and get right with God and get the unction back.” – Smith Wigglesworth


“A prayerful ministry is the only ministry that brings the preacher into sympathy with the people.” – E.M. Bounds


“If a minister becomes absorbed in the financial affairs of the church, he not only offends his congregation, but hinders his own spiritual life. How can a preacher be concerned in a man’s soul and, in the man’s pocket book at the same time?” – T.A. Gonce


My friends, we have too many orators. I am tired and sick of your “silver-tongued orators.” I used to mourn because I couldn’t be an orator. I thought, Oh, if I could only have the gift of speech like some men! I have heard men with a smooth flow of language take the audience captive, but they came and they went, their voice was like the air, there wasn't any power back of it; they trusted in their eloquence and their fine speeches. That is what Paul was thinking of when he wrote to the Corinthians: — “My speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.’