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Warren: 9 Preaching Tips that Will Save Lives

7. You don’t change people’s minds; the applied Word of God does.

First Corinthians 2:13 (NLT) helps us keep this in focus: “We speak words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit’s words to explain spiritual truths.” In real preaching, God is at work in the speaker.

Second Samuel 23:2 (NIV) says, “The Spirit of the Lord spoke through me. His word was on my tongue.”

Zechariah 4:6 (NIV) says, “‘Not by might nor by power but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty.”

So keep in mind: You don’t change people’s minds; the applied Word of God does.

8. Changing the way I act is the fruit of repentance.

Technically, repentance is not behavioral change. Behavior change is the result of repentance. Repentance does not mean forsaking your sin. Repentance simply means to change your mind. John the Baptist said in Matthew 3:8 (NIV), “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.” In other words, “OK, you’ve changed your mind about God, about life, about sin, about yourself—now let’s see some fruit as a result of it.”

9. The deepest kind of preaching is preaching for repentance.

Because life change happens only after you change somebody’s thinking, then preaching for repentance is preaching for life change. It is the deepest kind of preaching you can preach.

Every week, I try to communicate God’s Word in such a way that it changes the way people think. The word “repentance” has taken on such a negative image that I rarely use the word. But I preach it every single week.

Repentance is the central message of the New Testament. What did the New Testament preachers preach on?

  • John the Baptist: “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.” (Matt. 3:2 NIV)
  • Jesus: “Repent and believe in the Gospel.” (Mark 1:15 NIV)
  • What did Jesus tell his disciples to preach? “So they went off and preached repentance.” (Mark 6:12 NAB)
  • What did Peter preach at Pentecost? “Repent and be baptized every one of you.” (Acts 2:38 NAB)
  • What did John preach in Revelation? Repent.

I believe that one of the great weaknesses of preaching today is that there are a lot of folks who are afraid to stand on the Word of God and humbly but forcefully challenge the will of people. It takes courage to do that because they may reject you. They may reject your message; they may get mad at you and talk about you behind your back.

And because so many pastors have been unwilling to challenge people and cause a change in belief resulting in behavior change, our nation is falling apart. Proverbs 29:18 (NCV) warns, “Where there is no word from God, people are uncontrolled.”

P.T. Forsythe says, “What the world is looking for is an authoritative Gospel spoken through a humble personality.” An authoritative Gospel spoken not as a hammer but with humility.

So now, I have a personal challenge for you—life application. Are you going to use the Bible the way it was intended or not? Will you repent of preaching in ways that were not focused on application that could change people’s character and conduct?  

This post originally appeared on SermonCentral.com.