Welcome to The On Preaching Podcast, the podcast dedicated to helping you preach faithfully, clearly, and better.  In this episode, I want to talk to you about three essential elements of effective sermon preparation. There are basically two days on the preacher's calendar: Sunday and Saturday. We preach on Sundays and then have to spend another week getting ready to do it again. This is the joyful burden and delightful burden of weekly sermon preparation. To prepare effectively and consistently, you need a sermon preparation system. I call this the essential elements of sermon preparation. What are the essential...

LA Focus Article   H.B. Charles Make His Gospel Debut   H.B. Charles, Jr. – the widely respected pastor of 5,000 member strong, Shiloh Metropolitan Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Florida – has operated with the title of “preacher” for decades. He can now add the title “recording artist” as his first solo album, Psalms, Hymns & Spiritual Songs, debuted in the Top-10 on the Billboard Gospel Sales chart when it was recently released. The single, “I’ll Fly Away,” is already cracking the Billboard Top-100. A program director in Mobile, Alabama calls the song “traditional Gospel at its best.” Produced by...

  Welcome to The On Preaching Podcast, the podcast dedicated to helping you preach faithfully, clearly, and better.  In this episode, I want to talk to you about using someone else's sermon material. We've all done it. We've been in a jam and used someone else's work. But this visited place should not be a place where you reside. How do you avoid living off of someone else's sermon material from week to week?  Take your call to preach seriously. Guard your integrity. Recognize you are not original. Give credit where credit is due. Make it your own. Do not...

God is not a Sleepy Friend

  So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.– Galatians 6:10   Galatians 6:10 issues a call to do good to others. This command drafts every Christian into service. No Christian can dodge this draft. It is not a suggestion, recommendation, or even an invitation. It is a divine mandate. The word of God commands us to do good for others to the glory of God. The Christian life is about more than what you know, say, or feel. It is about what you do....

The Good Samaritan

  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. – Galatians 5:22-23 When you become a Christian, God the Holy Spirit takes us residence in your heart immediately, permanently, and completely. If you do not have the Spirit of Christ, you are not a Christian (Romans 8:9b). If you are a Christian, you do not need to receive the Spirit. He is already there! The indwelling Spirit gifts the believer for Christian service (1 Corinthians 12:4-7). These gifts, or gracious enablement for service to others,...

Welcome to The On Preaching Podcast, the podcast dedicated to helping you preach faithfully, clearly, and better.  In this episode, I want to give you ten principles for preaching the parables of Jesus in the Gospels. How do preach a parable of Jesus?  Understand the nature of parables. Study the context of the parable. Analyze the structure of the parable. Seek the main idea of the parable. Be careful of interpreting the parable allegorically. Let the parable speak for itself. Do not get lost in the details of the parable. Pay attention to the conclusion of the parable. Determine the...

The Cost of Following Jesus

  Racism is an ugly reality of American society. You may debate if things are getting better or worse. But no one can honestly deny the reality of racism in society. It is simply and sadly the way the world is. Racism also rears its ugly head in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. This should not be so. Yet, unfortunately, it is true. There is no longer the open racism of slavery or segregation. Yet the spirit of racism is evident in our inability to rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep (Romans 12:15)....

Welcome to the The On Preaching Podcast, the podcast dedicated to helping you preach faithfully, clearly, and better.  In this episode, I want to talk to you about avoiding indecent exposure in the pulpit... To illustrate is to shed light on the subject. Illustrations are like windows in a house. They let the light in. They can also let in voyeurs, seeking to eye the forbidden. There is no place for voyeurism in the pulpit. Sermon illustrations should be like letting sunlight into a window, not like putting a spotlight on a stage. Here are ten guidelines for avoiding indecent...

A Spiritual Credit Check