The Missing Heart in AI-Generated Sermons "Nowadays, a frequent conversation among pastors concerns the use of AI platforms—like Gemini or ChatGPT—for sermon preparation. Everywhere I turn, church leaders are wowed by these tools’ generative capability,
Three Levels of Sermon Introduction "Though every sermon necessarily needs a beginning, it does not necessarily need a formal introduction. Though it has to begin somewhere, there is no rule that it must begin with
The Creational Goodness of Sports and Competition in the Biblical Story "Here, I will consider sports and competition primarily as a good gift of creation. Much could also be said about the way sin has
The Danger of an Inward Focused Church "The consequences of turning inward are serious. A self-focused church loses spiritual vitality. Jesus warned the church in Laodicea of the danger of becoming “lukewarm” (Revelation 3:16). As
When The Path That I Fear Is the Way He Has Set Here Tim Challis writes, "At certain times each of us finds that God is leading us down the path we had dreaded, the
The Use of Emotion in Preaching "To preach is to lead. Whether preachers realize it or not, they lead when proclaiming God’s word. The only question is, “To where or to what?” If the proclamation
Don’t Preach a Commentary "The congregation was impressed. They now knew the Greek words, the interpretive options, and the history of how Calvin, Luther, and Ryle interpreted the verse. But no hearts were changed. No
Every Good Sermon Has Application Here John Piper notes, "I want to make the case that all good application is further exposition. That is, it’s part of the explanation of the meaning of the text.
“I Don’t Deserve This” "How do I know if I am self-righteous? I’m concerned with Christian counselees that are focused on their own good deeds, but don’t realize it. For this blog I’m defining self-righteousness
No One’s Born to Preach "Miraculously, you — one who was born in sin — have come to love the word of God, and the gospel of Christ, and the preached word, and in you is