“To avoid wearying people and unbalancing the sermon, an introduction should contain only one main thought” (David Murray, How Sermons Work, 74).

“As ‘God is not the author of confusion’ but of order and structure, any sermon that claims to set forth God should be made in his image, i.e. with order and structure. Sermon structure and order will also help the preacher to preach and the hearers to hear, as they are both made in the image of God” (David Murray, How Sermons Work, 71).

“An awareness of the various kinds of sermon that may be preached challenges the preacher to vary his style and content, and so prevent monotonous sameness” (David Murray, How Sermons Work, 59).

“The gospel should lead us to pray, ‘God be merciful to me, a sinner. Please take away all the unrighteousness of self that fills me and fill me with all that I am missing — the righteousness of Jesus Christ.’… You are too sinful not to pray; sinners are the very people who need prayer. Therefore, pray” (James W. Beeke and Joel R. Beeke, Developing A Healthy Prayer Life, 3).

“Christian prayer embraces God’s will as revealed in Scripture for its rule or guide. The goal is to ask for things in harmony with what God wants for us” (James W. Beeke and Joel R. Beeke, Developing A Healthy Prayer Life, xi-xii).

“Usually sermons are far fresher and more interesting if commentaries are read later in the [sermon prep] process…. Further, when the preacher forms his own thoughts and uses his own words, he will greatly reduce dependence on a manuscript when preaching…. While depending on commentaries alone will generally produce stale and predictable sermons, depending on our own mind alone will eventually have the same effect” (David Murray, How Sermons Work, 57).

“There is much instruction in the Bible’s plain teaching on the nature of praying, warnings about hypocritical praying, and the examples of the psalmists, the apostles, and our Lord Himself. After the way of salvation, the theme most common in Scripture is the nature of true praying” (Geoff Thomas in the “Foreword” to James W. Beeke and Joel R. Beeke’s Developing A Healthy Prayer Life, vii-viii).

“Hebrews 1-10 sets forth Christ in all his glory. Hebrews 11 then sets forth the heroic faith of the Old Testament believers. Implicitly and explicitly we are being told that their faith was faith in Christ. So, when we are preaching about them we must remember that, like us, they were saved by grace alone through faith” (David Murray, How Sermons Work, 55).

What a great interview with G.I. Williamson. GIW is the author of The Westminster Confession of Faith: A Study Guide, which I have been blogging through as time allows.

GIW has ‘been around the block,’ he’s been an ordained minister for over 60 years. Below is an excerpt/question from the interview… I love GIW’s pastoral insight and answer.

 What advice would you give young men who sense a call to be preachers?

Find a seminary that still believes and teaches the doctrine of six-day creation as stated in the Westminster Confession and Catechisms.

What does WCF teach about creation?

Chapter IV

Of Creation

I. It pleased God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, for the manifestation of the glory of His eternal power, wisdom, and goodness, in the beginning, to create, or make of nothing, the world, and all things therein whether visible or invisible, in the space of six days; and all very good.

II. After God had made all other creatures, He created man, male and female, with reasonable and immortal souls, endued with knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness, after His own image; having the law of God written in their hearts, and power to fulfil it; and yet under a possibility of transgressing, being left to the liberty of their own will, which was subject unto change. Beside this law written in their hearts, they received a command, not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; which while they kept, they were happy in their communion with God, and had dominion over the creatures.

The doctrine of creation is of paramount importance because what a person believes about creation will determine what they believe about the doctrines of “the fall” and “redemption”, as well as an entire array of theological loci.

If Genesis 1-2 is not literal, i.e., creation in six days, Adam/Eve created with original righteousness/holiness, all that was created was “very good”, etc., then what compels someone to interpret “the fall” as literal? or God’s great rescue plan to save his people from her enemy (the serpent/Satan) and sin?

‘”If I hear one more person at a church conference tell me that they finished Walter Isaacson’s biography on Steve Jobs and picked up lots of great ideas on how to lead their church, I’m going to scream,” says [Pastor Rene] Schlaepfer’ (excerpt from a recent CT article).