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Podcast

#183 | My Sermon Preparation Hacks [PODCAST]

May 12, 2025
By H.B. Charles Jr.
Welcome to The On Preaching Podcast, the podcast dedicated to helping you to preach faithfully, clearly, and better. The weekly call to preach is a sacred trust, one that demands our utmost diligence and care. As the wisdom of Ecclesiastes 10:10 reminds us, true effectiveness comes not just from expending great effort, but from sharpening our tools: "If the iron is blunt, and one does not sharpen the edge, he must use more strength, but wisdom helps one to succeed." In the context of sermon preparation, this wisdom translates into adopting strategic practices that streamline our process and amplify our...
Sermons

The Good Wife | Proverbs 31:10-31

May 12, 2025
Mark Twain said, “Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example.” No one exemplifies this reality more than the woman of Proverbs 31. The Proverbs 31 Woman is idolized by many Christians. She is notorious to just as many. Her good example is an annoyance that is hard for many to put up with. But the tension of the text is eased by knowing that Proverbs 31 is one long discourse.  King Lemuel wrote this chapter. Proverbs 31:1 is the only place where the name occurs. Lemuel may be a pseudonym for Solomon or Hezekiah. All we know for sure is that Lemuel was a wise king whose mother taught him the ways of wisdom. Proverbs 31:1 calls this chapter “an...
Sermons

Intimate Identification | Matthew 5:7

May 9, 2025
By H.B. Charles Jr.
The beatitudes teach the attitudes of heart that God blesses. Poverty of spirit, mourning, meekness, and hungering and thirsting for righteousness are dispositions that characterize citizens of the kingdom of heaven. In Matthew 5:7, Jesus adds mercy to this blessed list. But this beatitude is about more than possessing a merciful spirit. It is about practicing a lifestyle of mercy.  The first four beatitudes are purely and primarily God-centered. The poor in spirit acknowledge their bankruptcy before God.  Those who mourn grieve the sinfulness of their sin against God.  The meek adopt a posture of lowliness under the authority of God.  Those who hunger and...
Podcast

#182 | Principles for Evanglistic Preaching [PODCAST]

May 5, 2025
Welcome to The On Preaching Podcast, the podcast dedicated to helping you to preach faithfully, clearly, and better. In 2 Timothy 4:5, Paul charges Timothy (and, thus, the Lord Jesus Christ charges the church and its ministers) to "do the work of an evangelist." We do not know if Timothy had the gift of evangelism. But he had a sacred duty to do the work of an evangelist. As we preach, there are two groups of people in the congregation: true believers, false believers, and unbelievers. We should always be sensitive to the unbelievers who may be present, so that...
Sermons

Faces Around The Cross | Mark 15:22-32

May 4, 2025
Mark 15:22-32 records the crucifixion of Jesus. The word “crucified” occurs four times in these verses. That terrible term is the dominating theme of the text. Crucifixion was a slow death by dehydration, exhaustion, and asphyxiation. It was illegal for the Roman government to crucify Roman citizens. Foreign slaves, soldiers, and citizens were crucified. This “cruel and unusual punishment” was a public service announcement that warned all of the consequences of defying Caesar and Rome. The Jewish religious establishment and Roman political authorities did not crucify Jesus simply to get rid of him. They did it to make a point. Mark’s account focuses on the point that the Jews and Romans were making. The text is about the crucifixion of Jesus. Yet Mark says little about the crucifixion itself. The Gospels describe the crucifixion of Jesus in an economy of words. Mark ignores the physical...
Articles

A-C-T-S Prayer | Responsive Reading

May 2, 2025
ADORATION PASTOR: Before we ask God for anything in prayer, we should begin our prayers with adoration to God. To adore God is to worship God for who he is and to praise God for what he has done. Psalm 145:1-2 says: “I will extol you, my God and King, and bless your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless you and praise your name forever and ever.”  CONGREGATION: Lord, we worship you as the only living God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. You are our Creator, Sustainer, and Redeemer. It is in you that we...
Sermons

A Waiting God and His Waiting People | Isaiah 30:18

May 1, 2025
Phillips Brooks was visited by a friend who found the typically calm pastor pacing the floor like a caged lion. He finally asked what was wrong. Brooks replied, “The trouble is I’m in a hurry, but God isn’t.” Have you ever been there? Are you there now? This was the situation Judah faced. Unrepentant sin had invoked divine judgment. Assyria would be the means and mechanism through which the Lord would punish his people. The northern kingdom of Israel had already fallen. The same fate would soon befall the southern kingdom of Judah. Rather than coming back to God in repentance, Judah went to Egypt, hoping a political alliance would rescue them from danger.  Isaiah 30:1-2 rebukes their foolish and futile plans: “Ah, stubborn children,”...
Articles

Fencing The Lord’s Table

April 29, 2025
In the church I grew up in, Deacon Heart and his team would go down the aisles with their hole punchers before Communion. Each congregant was given a membership card. It was the size of a business card with boxes for each month of the year at the bottom. Before Communion started, the deacons would go through the congregation and punch a hole in the box for that month.  If your box was hole-punched, it indicated that you were permitted to receive the bread and cup. If not, you were not to take the Lord’s Supper that day. I didn’t...
Sermons

How Is Your Appetite? | Matthew 5:6

April 29, 2025
Franz Kafka wrote a story entitled “The Hunger Artist.” Professional fasting was a respected, lucrative, and celebrated art. The Hunger Artist was the main attraction. He sat in a cage for forty days without eating or drinking. When the fast ended, his manager made a speech. The band played. A woman led the weakened but triumphant hunger artist out of the cage. But the day came when fasting was no longer understood or appreciated. The hunger artist lost everything and joined the circus to survive. His cage was placed with the animals. He became depressed. No one paid him any attention. One fast went past forty days because his attendants neglected to count the days....
Sermons

Walking With God | Genesis 5:21-24

April 28, 2025
You start reading through Genesis. In Genesis 1, you read how God created the heavens and the earth. In Genesis 2, you read how God created Adam and Eve and placed them in the Garden of Eden. In Genesis 3, you read about the Fall, when Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden tree. In Genesis 4, you read how Cain killed his brother Abel. After breezing through these historical narratives, you hit a speed bump at the genealogy in Genesis 5.  The temptation is to skip over this biblical ancestry.com record. That would be a mistake. Nothing in scripture is meaningless, unnecessary, or superfluous. 2 Timothy 3:16 asserts: “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.” After Cain killed Abel, Eve gave birth to a son named Seth....
Podcast

#181 | Studying To Preach [PODCAST]

April 28, 2025
Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. – 2 Timothy 2:15 I often say that I don’t want God to speak to me in the pulpit. I concluded this after hearing the story about the unprepared preacher who walked to the pulpit begging God to speak to him. To his surprise and dismay, the Lord spoke to him and said, “You should have studied.”  Get it?  If that’s how the Lord speaks, I don’t want the Lord to speak to me in...
Sermons

The Accidental Disciple | Mark 15:21

April 27, 2025
By H.B. Charles Jr.
You have heard of a “one-hit wonder” in music. Have you heard of a “one-scene wonder” in movies? The term refers to a moving or memorable cameo appearance, even though it is not central to the plot. There are many “one-scene wonders” in the story of Jesus. None stand out as much as Simon of Cyrene. He is only mentioned in three verses in the Bible: Matthew 27:32, Mark 15:21, and Luke 23:26. All three verses record the same incident.  Simon enters the story out of nowhere.  His screentime is minimal with no callbacks.  Yet you can’t forget him as the story moves on without him.  It was Good Friday. The Jewish religious establishment and the Roman political machine condemned Jesus...