Welcome to episode #31 of The On Preaching Podcast, the podcast dedicated to helping you preach faithfully, clearly, and better.
In this episode, we talk about importance of praying for Sunday’s sermon. When I was a boy growing up in church, I often heard it said…
“Preaching and praying go together. If there is going to be preaching in the pulpit, there must be praying in the pews.”
Indeed, powerful pulpits are prayerful pulpits. You fervently pray for Sunday’s sermon. And you should enlist others to pray with and for you as you prepare for Sunday. In fact, it is good to have others praying for you on Sunday’s as you preach! When someone asks me how to pray for my preaching, the words of Paul in Ephesians 6:19-20 readily come to mind…
And also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak. – Ephesians 6:19-20
There are three requests from this passage that I ask others to make on my behalf…
- Pray for biblical content: “that words may be given to me”
- Pray for gospel clarity: “in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel”
- Pray for spiritual confidence: “that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak”
The bottom-line is that you do not want to say in the pulpit anything that is untrue, unwise, or unhelpful.
Recommended Resources
- On Preaching by H.B. Charles Jr.
- On Pastoring by H.B. Charles Jr.
- The Passionate Preaching of Martyn Lloyd-Jones by Steven J. Lawson
- The Gospel Focus of Charles Spurgeon by Steven J. Lawson
Announcements
- The National Conference on Preaching | May 2016 | Washington D.C.
- The E.K. Bailey Preaching Conference | July 11-14, 2016 | Dallas
- The Cutting It Straight Expository Preaching Conference | September 20-22, 2016 | Jacksonville
- The SBTS Expositors’ Summit | October 2016 | Louisville
“The Primary need is for preachers. God has done His greatest work in the world and in the church through preachers and never was there a greater need of preachers than today.” – D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
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