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The New Attitude Conference this last year produced a great theme and some great messages about discernment. The Fellows highly recommend that you go, download, and listen to these free messages. Mark Dever's message about Discern Your Doctrine is great!

Preaching To Engage The Affections

I know it's been a while (too long actually) but Greek is actually over and I am starting to pick up on my reading again. This of course is giving me lots to think about and to process. Lately in the reading list has been a collection of sermons from the Puritan Jeremiah Burroughs called Gospel Fear. The text of Burrough's sermons is Isaiah 66:2. He argues that we should be people that are humble and trembling at the Word of God, and this statement is directed specifically at preachers and people who teach the Word of God.

"If this is such a disposition that God so looks at [a broken heart that trembles at the Word], it should teach the ministers of God who have to deal with God's Word that when they speak it, they must speak it in such a manner that it may gain fear and trembling, that the hearts of people may be struck with fear and trembling. They must not come to dally and to play with men's fancies, nor with their own wit; but when they come to speak the Word of God, in God's name, they should labor to speak it so that the hearts of their listeners may be struck with fear and trembling. For, indeed, there is such a way of speaking the Word of God that will bring it with majesty to the hearts of the people to whom we speak." (pp. 45-46)

The implications, at least in my mind, are that preachers should not come to the pulpit with brevity or a "light-hearted" talk. We don't need preachers who want to tell jokes, give funny little stories, or entertain a crowd with their clever wit. They should come sober-minded, not wasting any words, but directly, specifically, passionately preaching the Word of God, so that the people of God might tremble at His Word. That's the kind of preaching God uses.