Thoughts on Preaching: by Dr. Lawrence D. Hufhand A couple years ago, a pastor invited into his church a verity of preachers from old to young to middle age. Being one of the invitees, after the service, he confided in me with this thought: “The difference between young preachers and old preachers is that young preachers have a lot of excellent content, while the old time preachers, like yourself, have a lot of heart.” I thought that was an interesting observation. Of course everyone knows that the combination of the two is what really makes up a great sermon. The question though, is this: why is it that the young preachers don’t have any heart? Recently another preacher told me that “you can study and dig into the Scriptures and get lots of content, but heart comes from God, and the filling of the Holy Spirit.” Given that expositional preaching seems to be the trend in sermon preparation today, young preachers are offering up some mighty fine sermons; however, if they are presented without heart, all they are is a lot of good information. But information without inspiration will never move anyone to action. Real heart preaching stimulates the mind, energizes the emotions, and activates the will. That is “heart” preaching. If these three things don’t happen when a sermon is preached, it becomes little more than sounding brass and tinkling cymbals. The heart is at the very core of everything we do. It doesn’t matter whether it’s sacred or secular; the heart is the key to success. Marriage takes on new life when two people put their heart in it. A job takes on new meaning when a person puts their heart into it. Playing a game, teaching a Sunday School class, operating a machine, climbing a mountain, singing a song, playing an instrument, all take on a new dimension when one puts their heart into it. The same is true of preaching. I have heard sermons that were so disconnected and so unbiblical, that it makes me laugh, yet it got wide applause, simply because the one who preached it, got his heart in it. It was the Psalmist who said, “while I mused, the fire burned. That’s what we need to get into our preaching….we need to get some fire in our soul, but fire comes from God. It can’t be worked up as in the charismatic circles; it must come down…from God. The bottom line in all of this is preachers need to get some unction if they want to function.
Posted on: Fri, 12 Sep 2014 18:11:51 +0000
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