"Tozer argued that the preacher’s first aim should be to turn a convert into a worshipper before a worker."
— Tony Sargent
"When the day of recompense comes, the regret will only be that we have done so little for him, not that we have done too much."
— George Muller
God is the creator of all things. The best life imaginable in a creation is one that glorifies and enjoys the creator, one where the creature lives the life they were created to live.
"The man who preaches what he does not constantly experience is, at best, an actor and, at worst, a charlatan."
— Tony Sargent
"My dear friend, the only way to live life, the only way to die, is to know Jesus Christ, to believe in him. I know him in whom I have believed."
— D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
"Paul had one all-embracing concern. It was to live for Jesus Christ, to die daily, to surrender all, to run the race and complete his life’s work."
— Tony Sargent
Expectant Faith
Faith in the promises of God should produce a confident expectation in the believer. In fact, a lack of expectation is sinful. If we don’t expect God to follow through on His promises, we are implying that He is not faithful, not true and is, in fact, capable of lying.
God has promised He will not let us be tempted beyond our ability and with each temptation He will provide a way of escape. If we truly believe this promise, we will expect Him to provide escape for every temptation that comes our way. Any temptation we experienced without a clear means of escape would shock us to the core of our being.
This expectation should be so confident that we would be sorely disappointed if God didn’t follow through on any promise He has made. Sadly, it seems the opposite is often true. Many of us would be surprised or even shocked if God did something undeniably real in our lives as a result of faith in His promises.
"My desire should not primarily be to be happy, but to be holy."
— D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Spiritual preaching and teaching requires one to spend as much time with their knees on the floor as with their nose in a book.
Preachers and teachers should spend as much time preparing the messenger as they spend preparing the message.
Preachers are messengers
Being a messenger of God is a responsibility that is both easy and difficult at the same time. It is easy because all you have to do is deliver a message. It is difficult because you must not mix in your own message.
Few preachers seem to see themselves as delivering a message received. Rather, they see themselves as delivering a message prepared. The difference is dramatic. God is under no obligation to bless, with power and effectiveness, a message prepared by a man. Yet, for His own name’s sake, He will empower a message received from Himself.
Messages received from God accomplish His purposes while messages prepared by men accomplish their purposes. A God empowered message will affect the hearers entirely as God intended. This may or may not be the effect we want or expect from the preaching ministry in our local church. It may cause people to leave our church, join our church or some of both. It may cause sorrow or joy. It may cause tremendous conviction or grant great confirmation.
Regardless of the effect, the church today can only be what she was intended when preachers see themselves as messengers delivering a message first received from God. (1 Corinthians 15:3)
Spirituality is a lot like pair programming. Let’s call it “pair living” where the Holy Spirit is everyone’s designated pair. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pair_programming)
"The natural mind is ever prone to reason, when we ought to believe; to be at work, when we ought to be quiet; to go our own way, when we ought steadily to walk on in God’s ways."
— George Muller
We reject the experiences of men and women in the bible as things that can not happen today. Therefore, they do not happen today.
It is when we get to the end of ourselves that we come to the beginning of God.
