“‘God’s grace is sufficient.’ I might say that six times before I have finished this 45 minute- to an hour-long message. That’s not too many times.”
“I’m going to tell them, what did the passage say? There’s observation. Then I’m going to tell them what the passage means. That’s interpretation…And then as quick as I can, I’m going to get to that third question: What does the passage mean to me?”
“The older and older I get, the more words I’m finding are actually on the page. And I do think that I think the older I get, the more of a respect I have about making sure I’m precise in what I’m saying so that I am honoring the text.”
“I’m including in [my prep time the time] when I step away from all the notes and study in the Bible and the computer and I’m actually just making dinner for my family, but I’m ruminating. It’s still on me, like, a message sits on me until I’m finished.”
“Sometimes I think we devalue that part of the process where we let it rest, where we step away from it, where we go to sleep for the night, go to sleep, put it aside, and let the Lord just do some things in your heart and mind…I wish I had learned earlier not to devalue the importance of letting a message rest and marinate instead of trying to strain to make it happen.”
“I want to acknowledge the fact that I would be very different than a pastor who’s preaching weekly to the same group of people.”
“To me, an illustration is an incubator. The point of it is to build enough of an ecosystem that I can rest my point in it, and it’s to support this point and incubate this point so that it provides an opportunity for the entire message to be cultivated in the heart of the reader.”
“I try to discipline myself not to look at any extrabiblical information too soon. I try to sit with the passage for a minute.”
“There is always some margin in every message that I prepare that I feel is unprepared…That margin I have found for me is that Holy Spirit margin.”
“I think it is both/and. I think the Holy Spirit is leading us in the preparation, and I do think that that’s what that margin is for when I stand up to teach.”
“The older I get, the more precise that I want to be. I feel like there isn’t a lot of time to waste with fluff. I feel like I was a little bit more fluffy 15 years ago.”
“Be yourself as you communicate God’s word. There is such power in making sure that the way you are sharing what it is that God has laid on your heart to share is coming through the prism of who he’s created you to be.”
Mentioned in the Show
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Anne Graham Lotz
A.W. Tozer
Charles Spurgeon
Elisabeth Elliott
The God margin – Priscilla Shirer on #TheExchange with @EdStetzer
Howard Hendricks
