In his sermon 'Preaching with Spirit-Enflamed Affections,' Brian Borgman emphasizes the significant role of emotions in the Christian life and in preaching. Initially inspired to address the downplaying of emotions in religious circles, Borgman expanded a planned series of three sermons to twenty-two and eventually authored a book on the subject. He argues that effective preaching requires a preacher who is deeply affected by the Holy Spirit, as this earnestness and heartfelt conviction are essential for connecting with the congregation. Borgman cites historical figures like Jonathan Edwards and Charles Spurgeon to illustrate that inflamed affections do not manifest uniformly in all preachers but are vital for impactful communication of God's word. He highlights the importance of narrative in scripture for engaging both the mind and heart of the listener. Borgman warns against fabricated fervor, urging preachers to maintain genuine emotional engagement and to cultivate a personal, experiential relationship with Christ. The sermon concludes with practical advice on preparing for preaching, emphasizing meditation, prayer, and the solemn responsibility of addressing eternal souls.

All right, well let me just give you a little bit of background to this session, Preaching with Spirit-Enflamed Affections. So, back around 2002 or so, I had decided that I would preach a series of sermons, actually I thought it would be about three, on the role of the emotions in the Christian life. And the reason I did that is because I felt like so many within our circles in a sense downplayed the role of the affections. And I'll use affections and emotions interchangeably. I know that they're not precisely interchangeable, but what started out as three formans turned into 22.

And then those... Those... Tell them my clothes got here already. In 2007, I had a very severe back injury and it was very slow recuperation after surgery and my dear friend and theology professor Bruce Ware called me and he said, why don't you take those sermons, which he and his wife had listened to, and write a book? And so that's what happened in 2009.

Crossway had published Feelings and Faith Cultivating Godly Emotions in the Christian Life. But one of the things that came out of that study was looking at the role of the emotions or the affections in preaching. And so I don't know exactly, what time is this session over David or whoever? Oh, that means I can go as long as I want? Okay, great.

What ended up happening was that as I started to look at the scriptures, I started to see more and more connections of the role of the affections in preaching. And so here's basically the premise of this session. Experiential preaching requires a Christian, a preacher, who is an experiential Christian. So experiential preaching requires a preacher who is an experiential Christian, And so experiential preaching in large part flows from a preacher whose heart has been inflamed, whose affections have been inflamed by the Holy Spirit. And in a real sense, As that preacher whose heart has been inflamed by the Spirit steps into the pulpit, there is a sense in which that earnestness, we'll talk about all these things in more detail, but that earnestness is a demonstration of a heart or affections that have been captured by God.

Charles Bridges, Christian ministry, he wrote, the minister that does not manifestly put his heart into his sermon will never put his sermon into the hearts of his people." So what are inflamed affections in preaching or emotions in preaching? Let me tell you first of all what they're not. First of all, inflamed affections do not look the same in every preacher. They are unique to the servant of Christ. And I would argue that inflamed affections or emotions can be just as lively in a quiet intensity like a Jonathan Edwards, as well as the thunder and the lightning of a George Whitefield.

So it doesn't depend on volume, it doesn't depend upon perspiration, it doesn't, now a little pulpit sweat will actually cure a lot of ills by the way, but it doesn't depend on the amount of spittle, it doesn't, right? At our church there's like a row where they have plastic bags. No, I'm teasing, but so if it's not volume, if it's not sweat, if it's not animation, What is it? Well, preaching with inflamed affections is preaching with a sense of conviction. It's preaching with a sense of earnestness.

It's preaching with a sense of urgency. It's preaching with a zeal and a joy and a solemnity and a gravity. It's preaching with an intensity that is nothing less than the preacher experiencing the felt power of the truth as he proclaims it. Now such preaching actually does have to do with the preacher's emotional involvement with the truth that he's preaching. And so preaching with affection is preaching which grips the whole preacher.

It grips his heart, his head, his body, it's something that's discernible. John Piper, years ago, probably about 1994, I heard him in a little small pastor's fraternal in the Bay Area of California. And I'm sure this is in one of his books now, it was just such a good quote. He says, there's a song you can play without a piano. It's the song of prizing Jesus when you preach, loving, cherishing, and treasuring Jesus when you preach.

If they, that is the congregation, do not hear the music in the preacher's preaching. If he's not singing as it were over the truth, then why should they come? And so preaching with with spirit inflamed affection is preaching in a way that people can can both see and hear that you really do believe the things that you're saying. Years ago we had a couple of people, they were from a more liturgical church with Lutheran and they after the first Sunday they were there, they came up to me and they said, wow, you really believe what you preach. And I said, yeah.

And they said, you know, Pastor Larry is a really nice guy, but you could never tell that he actually really believes the things he says. That's discernible, right? That's identifiable. And so there is a sense where just going through the motions is a disservice to God and to His people. So let me make the case as quickly as I can for preaching with spirit inflamed affection.

Number one, the nature of man requires preaching with spirit inflamed affection. And so yes, mankind, humanity is fallen in all of their faculties, mind, will, and affections. But the reality is, is that the affections are still a part of our humanity, and I would say is a reflection of what it means to be made in the image of God. And so what happens is in redemption, there is a process of being restored to the image of the last Adam, Jesus Christ, Colossians 3.10, and that progressive restoration includes not only the renewing of the mind, not only the renewing of the will, but also the renewing of the affections. And so I would argue that the affections actually are central in our state of grace.

And so in a real sense regeneration is the awakening, yes, of the mind, yes an empowerment of the will, but It's also an awakening of godly affections for Christ, 1 Peter 1, 8. Though you have not seen him, you love him. And so Jonathan Edwards in Religious Affections says, that religion which God requires and will accept does not consist in weak, dull, lifeless wishes raising us but a little above a state of indifference, God in His Word greatly insists upon it that we be in good earnest. God has given to mankind affections for the same purpose which he has given all the faculties and principles of the human soul that they might be subservient to man's chief end and the great business for which God created him that is the business of religion. And so as human beings made in the image and likeness of God, yes fallen, yes that image is marred, but the reality is is that those components, those faculties still remain in us.

And therefore, to simply just be an intellectual preacher, we're missing actually a major part of the humanity of the listener. The second point would be this, human communication includes the transfer of human emotion. Now I actually don't need to prove this to you because if you're married you know right if if you took your wife out for your anniversary and you took her to this wonderful dinner and you were sitting there and you had bought her roses because she loves roses and you were at her favorite restaurant. You hate sushi. She loves sushi.

There you are at sushi. And she looks at you and she says, I love you. I love being married to you. You are so good to me. And if like a stone I just said, well on July 11th, 1987 we made vows.

Wrong answer. Wrong answer. She's communicating, right? And what actually is the proper response to communicate in kind. And so there is a real sense in which human communication includes the transfer of human emotion.

Listen to Paul in 2 Corinthians 6 verse 11. Paul says, you remember the problems that he had with the Corinthians, he says, our mouth has spoken freely to you, O Corinthians. All right? Our mouth has spoken freely to you, O Corinthians. Our heart is opened wide.

And notice what he says then, you are not restrained by us, but you're restrained in your own affections. Now in like exchange, I speak as to children, open wide to us also. And so John Angel James, preacher of a different generation, but boy, his book, Earnestness in Ministry is so good. He says, that man must be a stone and destitute of the ordinary feelings of humanity who can see another interested, active, and zealous for his welfare while he himself remains inert and indifferent. Even the apathetic and indolent have been kindled into ardor and led to make efforts for themselves by solicitude manifested by others for their welfare.

And so I actually, when I think of that, I think of Spurgeon and Spurgeon's earnestness in preaching so that people could look at Spurgeon and say, that man is dying to see me saved. And of course Spurgeon talked like that, didn't he? And so the very idea of that there is a transfer of affection or emotion in human communication. And so since man is made in God's image and he's got this God created Constitution and he is in part an emotional being, even those of you who think that you could actually serve as a as a palace guard at Buckingham, you still have emotions, okay, just to wake up call to all the men that think no that's for my wife no you actually have them too just because you don't show them doesn't mean they're not there okay and so if if we're going to preach we have to communicate we would say the whole truth to the whole man. Preaching shouldn't only infuriate the mind, it should not only present the volition with action, it should actually seek to move the heart.

And so if you follow Jonathan Edwards like I do, then you see the affections as a driving force of our humanity, and to preach without that driving force coming through our preaching is to nullify much of its effect. Next, I would argue the nature of Scripture requires affection in preaching. So we mentioned earlier the Scriptures are the revelation of God, they're the voice of God, and how does God communicate to us? He communicates to us in a way that, yes, informs the mind, but he also communicates to us in his word earnest intensity that's designed to move the heart. Now this is this is where we have to appreciate the way that God has communicated.

And So I just said preaching with affection demands affection because there is this transfer of emotion in communication. I'm going to argue the same thing happens in the Bible. Alright? So if you were to take your Bible, what is the largest genre in your Bible? What's that?

Nope. Narrative. Narrative. By the way, both Old and New Testaments, narrative is the largest genre, literary type, in the Bible. And so you have to ask yourself why?

Why does God actually take time to communicate to us in story? Why not just give us a series of propositions? You know, God decided to test Abraham. Stop. God told Abraham to take his son and kill him.

Stop. Abraham obeyed God. Stop. Why not just give, why not just give propositions? Why actually draw out this agonizing story?

Well, I would argue that one of the main reasons why God communicates through narrative is because it is meant to not only inform us of divine truth but to move us with divine truth. Okay? And so this is what I tell our people all the time. I say, when you read your Bible, you got to read it with sanctified imagination. Okay?

By that, I just simply mean you sanctified imagination. You need to realize this story really happened to these people, God really did this, Jesus really did that, there was actually really a dead guy in a tomb, right? So sanctified imagination. So you are, and again, what's the point? What's the motive of story?

The motive of story is often to draw the listener or the reader into that story. Now the story's not about you, but the narrative draws you into it. And so here, so since I was 13 years old, I have tried to make it a practice to read through my Bible in a year at least once. And so I'm 57, be 58 here pretty soon. So that's been that's been a while.

And I've preached through Genesis, absolutely loved it, one of my favorite books that I ever preach through. And I come to Genesis 45 every year. And you have that build up, brothers are in, and by the way, nobody cries in the Bible more than Joseph. There are more records of Joseph weeping than anybody else in the Bible. And in Genesis 45, he dismisses his staff as he's weeping and he cries out, Ani Yosef, Ani Yosef, Ani Yosef, I I'm Joseph, I'm Joseph." And boy you can just enter into that story for a moment.

God didn't, God could have just simply said on such and such a date in Egypt Joseph revealed himself to his brothers. He doesn't do that way and he doesn't do it that way because there is a sense in which the story itself, The truth itself is designed to impact us deeply. If you're a dad, how can you read 2 Samuel chapter 17 or 18? Sorry. And David is so concerned about Absalom, do the man no harm, and of course, Joab doesn't follow orders, Absalom is murdered, and here's David, whose kingdom is on the brink of absolute destruction and being taken away.

And what is he concerned about? He's concerned about his son. And if you read your Bible slowly enough and carefully enough and engage the heart enough, do you not think that as David is standing waiting for news that those three years where he kept him at a distance were just gnawing at his just gnawing at his soul. And then the report comes. David doesn't say, how do we do?

Did we gain ground? Did we lose ground? Did we keep the kingdom? He said what about the young man Absalom? And the servant just simply being a loyalist to David said I would to God that all of the King's enemies were as that young man and in that moment what happens?

David's soul explodes. Oh Absalom my son my son Absalom my son I would to God it were me instead of you oh Absalom my son. Why would God communicate stuff like that to us in that way? And the answer is, is because his goal in communication is not just to fill your head, it is to shape your heart. We could go on and on, we could think about the stories in the Gospels.

I mean, how often have you just read, and I'll just do just one here because Time is failing me, but think about Mark chapter 1 and the leper who and again sanctified imagination so that leper when he comes into Capernaum is is that leper actually demonstrating a courage just to get to Jesus. You better believe it. Everywhere he went for the last who knows how many years, if he was around anybody, he had to put his hand over his mouth and actually declare unclean, unclean. And so There he is and he asked Jesus Jesus says what do you want me to do Lord? I want to be clean.

He says I am willing be clean and he reaches out and he touches him How long do you think it it was since that man had actually felt human touch? You're supposed to think about these stories and to think about them in a way that grips the heart and then I would argue brothers that you need to preach them in a way that grips the heart. Now I don't have time for more Jonathan Edwards but I will tell you Edwards has an awesome statement in religious affections on being moved by the scriptures. I'll just read one sentence. He says, all the virtues of the Lamb of God, his humility, patience, meekness, submission, obedience, love, and compassion are exhibited before us in a manner that is most tending to move our affections.

And then he concludes this section with, how great cause we have therefore to be humbled to dust that we're no more affected. Have you ever actually been reading, and let's say you read the the the Last Supper or you read the crucifixion or you read the resurrection and you just kind of just read through it and all of a sudden you stopped and you just thought think to yourself I've just read the most awesome thing in all of the world, in all of human history, and I just read it like it was some post on social media. I just read something that was designed to affect me, to move me. The Son of God offered himself up and he did it in the most... Offered himself up in a way that was cruel and inhumane and he suffered.

That is supposed to drive us. Next, I would argue that the nature of preaching requires spirit-inflamed affections. So we've already touched on this in the first hour, so I'll just be brief here. So God-centered, Spirit-empowered, Christ-exalting, biblically saturated preaching is a redemptive event. We looked at that in the first hour.

Now, I want you to think with me just for a second. Think of the most powerful sermon or sermons that you've ever heard. Think. Anything come to mind? If you were to ask me that, I would say there are three sermons that come to my mind.

All preached in the same place, by the way, Montville, New Jersey at Trinity Baptist Church The first Was by an Englishman pastor Bill Hughes preached on Judas I Had a terrible migraine headache I was gonna stay home or stay at the house I was at. I decided to go to church anyway. I sat in the back because my head hurt so bad and I just stuck it on the pew in front of me. And Pastor Hughes starts preaching and I got lost in the preaching and forgot that I felt terrible. Second, Pastor Ted Donnelly from Ireland preached the pastor's conference on Hebrews 12-7, for discipline you endure.

When he was done preaching, That room of maybe 150 pastors, nobody moved. Just sobs. Third, Pastor Albert Martin preached on the cry of dereliction in an evangelistic service, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And it was one of the most gripping, most powerful sermons I've ever heard. Now here's the thing, I can't tell you what the outlines were.

I remember phrases, Pastor Hughes, and Judas was with them. And Judas was with them. But I don't remember, I can't just conjure up the points. Conjure up the points. What makes preaching powerful is not your ability to remember the points.

What makes preaching powerful is the encounter with God that happens in the preaching. And it is that that you remember, And as you remember that, it may bring back other things from the sermon that prove useful to you. And so if you will just indulge me, Edwards says, the main benefit obtained by preaching is by impression made upon the mind at the time and not by an effect that arises afterwards by remembrance of what was delivered. And though an after remembrance of what was heard in a sermon is oftentimes very profitable, yet for the most part, that remembrance is from an impression that the words made on the heart at the time, the memory profits as it renews and increases that impression. And so there is this magnificent sense in which God takes preaching, takes His Word, and actually impacts our hearts with the truth of God.

And that is what makes preaching the instrument of redemption in God's hands and sanctification. There are times, and here's the thing, brothers, there are times where God draws straight lines with crooked sticks. And there are times, I think back to a sermon that was so convicting in my life that God just forced me to repent, brought sins to light, convicted me deeply, brought me to repentance through the preaching of a pastor at Calvary Chapel in Cathedral City, California. I know you would have loved it if I'd have said it was John MacArthur or St. Clair Ferguson, but understand this, God is not constrained to use his word only with the people that cross the t's and dot the i's like we do.

Alright? Okay, so and Scott do you know what time I'm supposed to be done? Okay, okay. Alright, so if examples and precepts. So I would argue that the revelation of redemptive history actually demonstrates earnestness and affection in preaching.

And we don't have time to look at these but there may be passages that come to mind. The woe oracles of the prophets drip with thoughts. And we could give literally dozens and dozens of examples. So when God uses Hosea, don't wish to be an Old Testament prophet. You don't know what God might ask you to do.

Okay. But boy, that, that, that, that infidelity, that's the message. Or when he's speaking in Amos and he uses the imagery of God as a roaring lion who's going to drag off his prey but by the way that language drips with pathos especially if you lived in an area where the roar of a lion struck fear into everybody in the village. You can go to, when God actually is talking in Ezekiel 6, he uses adultery. Isn't it interesting that God uses the idolatry of his people.

He uses adultery to illustrate the idolatry of his people. Why do you think? Because it's one of the most painful experiences people have in this life. And God's saying, as it were, Ezekiel 6, 9, that, you, you hurt my heart. You pained my heart by your infidelities.

And so on and on it goes, there are these invitations. By the way, Isaiah 55, ho, everyone who thirsts. It's actually a shame, I think the ESV leaves out the whole part, okay, but it's the cry of a street vendor trying to get the attention of the people, right? And then he makes this unbelievable offer, And so you have invitations of salvation that drip with pathos. You have solicitations to comfort and consolation.

God actually rejoices over us with loud singing. He's quiet over us in His love. I mean, this is the language of Scripture. And so you get to the New Testament and my goodness was John the Baptist just a talking head? And the Son of God on the last day of the great feast Jesus stood and he cried out if anyone thirsts let him come to me and drink you see in our Lord Jesus that the tenderness in in the Beatitudes the stinging rebuke to the scribes and the Pharisees, passion and zeal and fervency and intensity, all in perfect proportion.

Never was there a preacher like the Lord Jesus. That perfect proportion to the truth that he was declaring and then of course take the Apostles themselves take the preaching in Acts this by the way this was no take it or leave it gospel I just presented you the facts there was a desire there was desire to speak in such a way that people would believe. Now here's the thing, is that as good Calvinists, we believe in the sovereignty of God and the sovereign spirit and we know that we can't actually affect anything in somebody's heart right I can't change somebody's heart I can't open somebody's mind but here's the thing you get to the book of Acts and it says and they spoke in such a manner that many believed. And so, as you look at the great history of redemption, we see whether it's prophets or apostles, even our Lord Jesus, who felt as it were deeply the truth that they proclaimed. Whether it was the sober notes of judgment and wrath, or whether it was the joyful strains of comfort and consolation to a beleaguered people, the manner of speaking these truths was commensurate in the one who spoke them.

They were no talking heads. When I was a kid, I loved, I loved two shows. One was Adam 12. I got my grandkids watching Adam 12. They love it.

The other was Dragnet. Do you remember Joe Friday's line, just the facts ma'am, just the facts, brothers I fear that too many preachers get up like Joe Friday and want to just give the facts. Let me just give the facts. And we are missing a massive note of our humanity not only as preachers but also as the listeners. And so Professor John Murray wrote, he says to me, preaching without passion is not preaching at all.

The Prince of Preachers, Charles Spurgeon, oh I love this. He says, the world also will suffer as well as the church if we're not fervent. We cannot expect a gospel devoid of earnestness to have any mighty effect upon the unconverted around us. Now you know Spurgeon was a Calvinist. He says the whole outside world receives serious danger from the cold-hearted preacher.

If the prophet leaves his heart behind him when he professes to speak in the name of God, what can he expect but that the ungodly around him will persuade themselves that there's nothing in his message and that his commission is a farce? Presbyterian pastor and educator Thomas Murphy, by the way, his pastoral theology is newly reprinted. I highly recommend it. And this is what Thomas Murphy wrote, he was Presbyterian, he says, I mean, this is great for a Presbyterian. To preach in a cold, unfeeling manner, to preach without earnestness is sinful.

It shows in the preacher a heart that is hard. Deep is the guilt of handling the Word of God in an unfeeling manner. What? Speak coldly for God and for men's salvation? Can we believe that our people must be converted or condemned and yet we speak in a drowsy tone?

In the name of God, brethren, labor to awaken your hearts before you come to the pulpit. Remember that they must, they the listeners must be awakened or damned and a sleepy preacher will hardly awaken them. We should not be afraid of enthusiasm here. Enthusiasm is surely excusable when life and death and the souls of men and the glory of God's Son are all at stake. Edwards, if a minister has light, heat, and entertains his auditory with a learned discourse without a savor of the power of godliness or any appearance of fervency of spirit and zeal for God and the good of souls.

He may gratify itching ears and fill the heads of people with empty notions, but it will not be very likely to reach their hearts and save their souls." So brothers, this is the consistent witness of our reformed and Puritan forebears of how the Word of God was to be preached. Now just in the last few minutes, cautions on preaching with inflamed affections. First caution is this, there is the danger of affectation. Now that's not a word that we use very much anymore, but affectation is the idea of basically I've fabricated it. It's fake.

And so although earnestness and inflamed affection are desirable in preaching, they have to be genuine if they're to be effective. Affectation should be avoided like the plague because affectation will be powerless and turn people off. J.W. Alexander, feeling is the prime mover in eloquence. Wow, Feeling is the prime mover in eloquence.

But feeling cannot be produced to order. And the affectation of it, however elegant, is powerless. I don't have time for stories. My wife was sitting in the back. She'd say, no, no old stories.

But she's in Nevada. So when I was when I was a young pastor in Nevada I befriended another pastor who was in the California Bay Area and we became very very very good friends and he was he was a phenomenal preacher and I'd go preach for him he'd come preach for me we would stay at each other's homes, our families were friends and he was animated. I mean he was animated. In fact my daughter at about eight years old made up a dance that mimicked some of his motions And she, I won't tell you his name, but you know, she had the already not yet down, and I mean, it was great. And He took another position somewhere and hadn't seen him or heard him preach for several years.

And then he preached at a big conference. And they were, and clips of him preaching were going around. And I watched, and my heart sunk. Because before, his animation was just simply the exhibition of his earnestness in the preaching. Later, Everything looked choreographed.

Everything looked planned. It was as if he was working through, I don't know, like some martial arts thing or something where, and it was so disturbing. And I'm not saying that this has a direct connection but maybe it does. That man disqualified himself from ministry because of sexual immorality. Because of sexual immorality.

Maybe there is something to an earnestness and an affection that's real. And then what happens in the heart to when it becomes fake? So there is the danger of affectation of just You know you write your notes, you know weak point pound pulpit, you know. What's the remedy for affectation? Okay, simple, John Broadus's axiom, forget yourself and be yourself.

Forget yourself and be yourself. The minute you start thinking about, man, I wonder if they noticed I was wearing tennis shoes this morning. It's all over. Right? Forget yourself, be yourself.

All right. In closing, what are the prerequisites for preaching with spirit-empowered or inflamed affection? Number one, you have to keep close experimental communion with Christ. You have to be able to say with with John what our eyes have seen, right? What our hands have handled concerning this word of life our fellowship is with him and with the father And and so there is this there has to be this sense of an experiential walk with God By the way, if you if you are if you are in ministry and you go week by week and there's very, very little communion with God, and all of a sudden on Sunday morning your prayer is just, oh God help me for all of my deficiencies and defects and for not spending time in prayer and help me Lord, help me.

Brothers, I would encourage you to understand that what flows out of us is what God puts into us in the course of a week. It is in seeking Him in prayer, praying with the brethren. It is in studying that Word with a sense of dependence upon the Spirit. And so George Whitefield, he says, for my part, I would not preach an unknown Christ for 10, 000 worlds. James Stewart, the old Scottish preacher, you may preach Paul's Christ or Calvin's Christ and not break a single shackle of sin or bind up one broken heart.

There is not authority enough in a secondhand religion to rouse the listless and set the captives free, but how different it is when like the apostles, the 20th century preacher declares, my gospel, when he is manifestly building, not on rumor, not on hearsay, but on the proved facts of his own experience when the hearkening to his words are constrained to say, there I stand with Jesus. John Owen, if the Word does not dwell with power in us, it will not pass with power from us. Next, in cultivating spirit inflamed affections, meditation is critical. Meditation is a lost art. Go to the Reformation Heritage book table and you will find wonderful Puritan works that deal with meditation.

It's a lost art for us, and we could talk for a long time about why it's a lost art to us. Maybe one thing is is that we're never very far from that little devilish device, right? Interesting, in Psalm 39 3 David says, while I meditated the fire burned. While I meditated the fire burned. Brothers, as you preach the Word of God, meditate often on the fact that God is not only your ultimate authority, but he is also your judge.

You preach before an audience of one. To keep that consciously in mind, to have it written down somewhere so that you remind yourself that we're not as so many peddling the word of God, but as of sincerity, but as of God, we speak in the sight of God in Christ. And so meditate on what you're about to do. I'm about to stand before God's people and I'm about to open up my Bible and I am about to tell them what the Bible says and I'm going to apply that to their lives and brothers that is a solemn thing. You can't do it half-heartedly.

You can't do it in a way that's just perfunctory. We preach before the one who sees all things, who knows all things, And so meditate on the fact that we speak in the sight of God in Christ. But then also meditate on the truth that you're about to preach. And sometimes there are gonna be passages, If you're committed to expositional preaching, sometimes there are gonna be passages where you're just like, man, I wish this was John 10, or I wish this was Romans 5, right? You ever get to those passages, right?

And so you have to work a little harder. What would happen with my congregation if they didn't know this truth at all? Right? Think about it as part of that God-breathed Scripture, and so you allow the felt power of truth to sink in to your soul So just as a personal thing for me, I try to have my sermons done on Friday I'm not always successful because you know things happen, right? And but the reason I do is because I want to be done on Friday and then Saturday night, so just all day just, of course, is it going through your mind?

The answer is yes. And then that Saturday night just go over, spend time in prayer with my wife, praying for the Lord's Day, praying for, We've taught our people, pray your pastors full and they'll preach you full. And then meditate on the truth that you're about to preach. The beauty of it, the power of it, or the necessity of it. And then meditate on the fact that you're about to address never-dying souls.

You are about to talk to people who actually are going to end up a hundred years from now. Every single person that you preach to is going to either be in heaven or in hell. Let that sink in. The one that's annoying and always cracks his knuckles while you're preaching and You're breathing in precatory Psalms under your breath that his hands would fall off or something used to have a guy sit in the front row and Halfway through the sermon he'd get fingernail clippers start clipping his fingernails. I wanted to grab those fingernail clippers and I won't tell you what I wanted to do with them.

Every one of them has a soul that will never die. And so sometimes I'll come in to our church building early in the morning, and I'll walk through and I'll think about who sits there, who sits there, who sits there, and just pray. Just pray. Boy, there's something that happens in your own soul. When you've prayed for that 17-year-old boy who all of his siblings have come to Christ and he's the holdout and you're praying and you start praying for him God make today the day that you break his heart do you not think that translates into something when you're preaching And so brothers think about think about the audience before whom we preach God alone think about the beauty the glory the weight the gravity the joy of the truth that you're about to preach and then meditate on the fact that you're about to minister to people who one day will stand and give an account before God.

Don't cooperate with the devil in their condemnation. In their condemnation. Stop and think. Last day. They're going to give an account.

So will we. That is sobering. Many years ago, we started to try to plant a church in a little tiny town in California, about three hours from us, called Bishop, California. I'd preach in the morning. One of my fellow elders would preach in our church in the evening, and then I would drive three hours and go and preach in Bishop, and there was 12, 15 people.

And one evening I preached Colossians 3, 1 through 4 and I remember explicitly saying as does one of my deacons who was in that meeting, By the time I come back next Sunday, one of us may not even be here. It's 12, 15 people. You know, you say that to a group of 400, it's a little different, you know. That next Thursday, one of the men who was a part of that church was a police officer and he was killed in an automobile accident and I got the call at about one in the morning and had to drive past the accident site. Now every time you drive through Bishop there are signs that the highway is dedicated to officer Rich Perkins.

And every time I see those signs, I think about what I said. And brothers, that's always true. There are no guarantees in this life and so you preach as a dying man to dying men as if never to preach again. Let's pray. Father thank you for the beauty and the power and the gravity and the gladness of your word.

Father, we pray that you would be working in us that we might preach that word set on fire by the Holy Spirit. We pray, Father, that You would help us to demonstrate an earnestness and an urgency in our preaching that makes it clear to every little boy and every little girl and every young person and old person that eternity is at stake. Help us we pray in Jesus name. Amen.