And seldom if ever do I leave the pulpit without a sense of partial failure, a mood of penitence, a cry to God for forgiveness, and a resolve to look to Him for grace to do better in the future.
We preachers cannot expect to communicate verbally from the pulpit if we visually out of it contradict ourselves.
Author: John Stott Source: Between Two Worlds, Eerdmans, 1882, p. 78.
Word and worship belong indissolubly to each other. All worship is an intelligent and loving response to the revelation of God, because it is the adoration of His name. Therefore, acceptable worship is impossible without preaching. For preaching is making known the name of the Lord, and worship is praising the name of the Lord made known.
Author: John Stott Source: Between Two Worlds, Eerdmans, 1992, p. 82-83.
Every sermon must have a solid rest in Scripture, and the pointedness which comes of a clear subject, and the conviction which belongs to well-thought argument, and the warmth that proceeds from earnest appeal.
A preacher should have the mind of a scholar, the heart of a child and the hide of a rhinoceros. His biggest problem is how to toughen his hide without hardening his heart.
A man who feels he is competent, and that he can do this easily, and so rushes to preach without any sense of fear or trembling, or any hesitation whatsoever, is a man who is proclaiming that he has never been "called" to be a preacher.
Author: Martyn Lloyd-Jones Source: Preachers and Preaching, Zondervan, 1971, p. 107,
Any true definition of preaching must say that that man is there to deliver the message of God, a message from God to those people. If you prefer the language of Paul, he is 'an ambassador for Christ.' That is what he is. He has been sent, he is a commissioned person, and he is standing there as the mouthpiece of God and of Christ to address these people.
Author: Martyn Lloyd-Jones Source: Preachers and Preaching, Zondervan, 1971, p. 53.
Avoid cleverness and smartness. The people will detect this, and they will get the impression that you are more interested in yourself and your cleverness than in the truth of God and their souls.
Author: Martyn Lloyd-Jones Source: Preaching and Preachers, Zondervan, 1972, p. 209.
I have never once feared the devil, but I tremble every time I enter the pulpit.