Tuesday is for Preaching
“… preaching is meant to be and to kindle God-exalting worship.”
“First, I believe it because the Word of God says that everything is to be done in a worshipful, God-centered way: “Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor 10:31); “Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus” (Col 3:17). If everything is to be radically oriented on magnifying the glory of God and exalting the name of Jesus, how much more preaching. Whatever preaching deals with—and it is to deal with everything—it must be done with a view to begetting and sustaining worship—the valuing and cherishing and displaying of the glory of God.”** John Piper, quoted in Trinity Journal. Originally delivered as the Bernard H. Rom Lectures. electronic edition. Deerfield, IL: Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, 1998.
Commentary: One of the tensions that many church planters have is that they forget the Christ-exalting, worship-deepening, glory of God-producing purpose of their preaching. They get so caught up in the therapeutic concerns of congregants that the larger over-riding purpose of preaching disappears.
Don’t let that happen to you. Make your preparation to preach the endless pursuit of the glory of God. Make it your goal to give such a clear and compelling picture of the Savior that hearers will do anything, endure anything, go anywhere for him. Their therapeutic concerns will be met as they take up the mission of doing everything for the glory and exaltation of God.
