The Quotable Round-Up # 61

Hey people its a new again and heres your favorite post. Hot and fresh quotes from the book”Preaching Killer Sermons” by Lane Sebring. If you enjoyed these quotes, please buy the book at your nearest Christian bookstore or on Amazon. Feel free to share this post over your social media. God bless you and enjoy your week!

“Your listeners are desperate to be inspired. They need you to show them that it is possible, it matters, and if they take Jesus at his word and do what he says, it will make a difference because it is simply and absolutely the best way to live.”– Lane Sebring, “Preaching Killer Sermons” #preachingkillersermons #lanesebring #preaching #sermonprep

“If we can learn anything from companies such as Google, it is that simplicity rules the day. A wordy, crowded, alliterated outline makes it difficult to navigate what is most important for your listeners to remember.”– Lane Sebring, “Preaching Killer Sermons” #preachingkillersermons #lanesebring #preaching #sermonprep

“Alliteration is not technically the problem. Overuse of alliteration and forced alliteration are the problems. Sometimes it can be very helpful. Other times it is a huge distraction. In my view, what makes the difference is whether memorizing it will help your audience when they walk away. If memorizing the outline is not something that would help them, then there is no need to alliterate.”– Lane Sebring, “Preaching Killer Sermons” #preachingkillersermons #lanesebring #preaching #sermonprep

“An effective illustration is the secret sauce that makes your listeners grab onto your ideas on an emotional level. A good illustration will reach out and grab your listeners and pull them into your content. It will help you establish an emotional connection and make them care.”– Lane Sebring, “Preaching Killer Sermons” #preachingkillersermons #lanesebring #preaching #sermonprep

“Just say it. Just tell the story. Just give the example. Just give the illustration. There is no need to introduce it. Your listeners’ brains are working much faster than your mouth is moving. They will connect the dots if the illustration is effective and makes sense. It is much more interesting to move right into a story, example, metaphor, or analogy than to spend precious time setting it up.”- Lane Sebring, “Preaching Killer Sermons” #preachingkillersermons #lanesebring #preaching #sermonprep

“If you have to force-fit an illustration to get it to connect to your point, don’t use it. It’s like telling a joke and then having to explain the punchline. The joke is no longer funny. It never was. If you have to map out how the illustration connects at every level, it has already lost its potency. The illustration is supposed to give your ideas clarity, so if instead it confuses and leaves your listeners scratching their heads trying to connect the dots, the illustration has defeated its purpose.”- Lane Sebring, “Preaching Killer Sermons” #preachingkillersermons #lanesebring #preaching #sermonprep

“Information without application is education. If your goal is simply to educate or inform your audience so they are more knowledgeable about the Bible, then stop preaching.”- Lane Sebring, “Preaching Killer Sermons” #preachingkillersermons #lanesebring #preaching #sermonprep

 

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The Quotable Round-Up # 60

Hey people its a new again and heres your favorite post. Hot and fresh quotes from the book”Preaching Killer Sermons” by Lane Sebring. If you enjoyed these quotes, please buy the book at your nearest Christian bookstore or on Amazon. Feel free to share this post over your social media. God bless you and enjoy your week!

“When you do not adequately prepare your sermons, you ensure you will deliver an aimless sermon. Lack of preparation leads most preachers to ramble, to preach longer than they should, and to struggle to define and clearly communicate the point of the sermon.” — Lane Sebring, “Preaching Killer Sermons” #preachingkillersermons #lanesebring #preaching #sermonprep

“The people who fill your church every week are desperate—in some cases even dying—to be inspired. They are eager to be given a sense of hope and reassurance that life can be lived better. When you lack passion you reinforce the feeling some of your people have: “There is nothing in this for me.” — Lane Sebring, “Preaching Killer Sermons” #preachingkillersermons #lanesebring #preaching #sermonprep

“Nothing will hinder our ability to improve as a preacher more than thinking we have nothing more to learn.” — Lane Sebring, “Preaching Killer Sermons” #preachingkillersermons #lanesebring #preaching #sermonprep

“Every sermon needs a purposeful objective. If you have not clearly defined the objective for your sermon, you will not know whether you have hit it. The objective is not the same as a main point. Your point(s) should correspond to your objective, but your objective rises above your point to another level. The objective is what your sermon does, while your point is what your sermon teaches.”– Lane Sebring, “Preaching Killer Sermons” #preachingkillersermons #lanesebring #preaching #sermonprep

“Sermons must have all three of these elements to be effective. Information without inspiration is boring. Inspiration without application is useless. Here is a simple equation to make sense of it all: Information + Inspiration + Application = Killer Sermon.”– Lane Sebring, “Preaching Killer Sermons” #preachingkillersermons #lanesebring #preaching #sermonprep

“Consider the people you are speaking to and factor in their specific life-stages, needs, educational levels, backgrounds, and preferences. Communication is about the listener, so you should avoid having a one-size-fits-all approach to sermon structure.”– Lane Sebring, “Preaching Killer Sermons” #preachingkillersermons #lanesebring #preaching #sermonprep

“Begin your sermon by presenting a problem and helping everyone see they have a stake in it. You want to make every listener know that your sermon is going to be helpful and add value to his or her life. Perhaps they should be interested regardless, but this is not usually the case.”- Lane Sebring, “Preaching Killer Sermons” #preachingkillersermons #lanesebring #preaching #sermonprep

The Quotable Round-Up # 59

Hey people  heres your favorite post. Hot and fresh quotes from the book“God Is: How Christianity Explains Everything” by Douglas Wilson. If you enjoyed these quotes, please buy the book at your nearest Christian bookstore or on Amazon. Feel free to share this post over your social media. God bless you and enjoy your week!

“So whenever Hitchens condemns the moral behavior of anyone else, he is not proving that atheists can be moral too. He is proving, instead, that he is incapable of following his own premises out to the end of the road. He is proving that he is blissfully unaware of the blatant contradictions in his system where no one can impose his morality on another.” — Douglas Wilson, “God Is: How Christianity Explains Everything” #atheism #douglaswilson #christopherhitchens #gospel #GodIs #Godisnotgreat #religionpoisonseverything #howchristianityexplainseverything

“There are plenty of miracle-mongers who are doing their thing in the name of Jesus, and they deserve everything that Hitchens can deliver to them, and they deserve it good and hard. But as Hitchens acknowledges here briefly, and should do so far more extensively, this is the same kind of critique of gullibility that is found in John Calvin’s Inventory of Relics. When Hitchens comes to attack this kind of credulity and hypocrisy, he finds that many Christians have preceded him.” –Douglas Wilson, “God Is: How Christianity Explains Everything” #atheism #douglaswilson #christopherhitchens #gospel #GodIs #Godisnotgreat #religionpoisonseverything #howchristianityexplainseverything

“God does not wave a compromise-wand over us and declare us to be forgiven. That would justify us, but He would not be just. Or He could send us all to hell—then He would be just, but not the one who justifies. Rather, He sent a new Adam. He established the whole human race all over again—Jesus Christ established a new way of being human.” — Douglas Wilson, “God Is: How Christianity Explains Everything” #atheism #douglaswilson #christopherhitchens #gospel #GodIs #Godisnotgreat #religionpoisonseverything #howchristianityexplainseverything

“This is why there is no injustice in the gospel. I do not just walk away from my sins. Sinners are guilty and all sinners must die. What the cross does is provide us with a way of dying, with resurrection as a promised consequence. Jesus did not die so that we might live. He died so that we might die; He lives so that we might live. This is our hope, and this is our glory. And God in His kindness has authorized His people to extend this offer—full of grace—to people like Christopher Hitchens.” — Douglas Wilson, “God Is: How Christianity Explains Everything” #atheism #douglaswilson #christopherhitchens #gospel #GodIs #Godisnotgreat #religionpoisonseverything #howchristianityexplainseverything

“If there is no God above the system, then the system is god. All societies are religious organisms, not just the ones with a religious exoskeleton.”– Douglas Wilson, “God Is: How Christianity Explains Everything” #atheism #douglaswilson #christopherhitchens #gospel #GodIs #Godisnotgreat #religionpoisonseverything #howchristianityexplainseverything

“All human societies are theocracies. The only issue that confronts us is which theos we will serve. The atrocious cultures are the ones who serve atrocious gods.” — Douglas Wilson, “God Is: How Christianity Explains Everything” #atheism #douglaswilson #christopherhitchens #gospel #GodIs #Godisnotgreat #religionpoisonseverything #howchristianityexplainseverything

“Hitchens acknowledges that secularist hellholes are wrong. He explains (in many ways, accurately) how they came to be so wrong. In many cases it was because of the previous misbehavior of believers. Granted. He vividly lances the pomposity and pretensions of those who are wrong in this way. The only thing he does not explain—for he cannot explain—is why they are wrong.” — Douglas Wilson, “God Is: How Christianity Explains Everything” #atheism #douglaswilson #christopherhitchens #gospel #GodIs #Godisnotgreat #religionpoisonseverything #howchristianityexplainseverything

The Quotable Round-Up #58

 Here are some of the quotes from the booklet “A Primer on Free Will” by John Gerstner. If you enjoy these quotes, please buy the book at your nearest Christian bookstore or on Amazon. Feel free to share this post over your social media. God bless you and enjoy your week!

“If you are born of His Spirit, you will naturally choose the goals of the Spirit. It will really be irresistible. It will be impossible for you to reject virtue utterly. It will be impossible for you to love vice utterly, if and when God pleases and gives you a new heart.” — John Gerstner, “A Primer on Free Will” #aprimeronfreewill #johngerstner #freewill #irresistiblegrace ##calvinism #sovereigntyofGod

“As a sinner you are free. In heaven or hell you are free, in the sense that you make choices according to what seems good to you. But when those choices are always the choices of evil, then of course you are in a bondage to the evil consequences of those evil choices.” — John Gerstner, “A Primer on Free Will” #aprimeronfreewill #johngerstner #freewill #irresistiblegrace ##calvinism #sovereigntyofGod

“But when you have a new heart from above, when you are born from above, when you are born by the Spirit, then you are, in a really wonderful sense, freed. Then you really choose the good because the good is naturally attractive to your new heart.” — John Gerstner, “A Primer on Free Will” #aprimeronfreewill #johngerstner #freewill #irresistiblegrace ##calvinism #sovereigntyofGod

“But, you see, the unregenerate person, as long as he is unregenerate, never will come because he hates Jesus Christ. He simply spurns and detests His invitation. The invitation is standing and any time his heart is changed, his attitude is different, he will want to claim the promises which the Savior offers, and he shall most certainly have them.” — John Gerstner, “A Primer on Free Will” #aprimeronfreewill #johngerstner #freewill #irresistiblegrace ##calvinism #sovereigntyofGod

“He is the one who does the choosing, and our response is the choosing of Him. We are conscious, of course, first of our choosing Him and only afterwards do we realize that we chose Him because He has first chosen us.” — John Gerstner, “A Primer on Free Will” #aprimeronfreewill #johngerstner #freewill #irresistiblegrace ##calvinism #sovereigntyofGod

“Spiritually dead people do not will to come to Christ. They must be given a new heart. These evangelists should continue to invite (as Christ does) without neglecting to teach the divine initiative!” — John Gerstner, “A Primer on Free Will” #aprimeronfreewill #johngerstner #freewill #irresistiblegrace ##calvinism #sovereigntyofGod

Quotables from Sufficiency of Scripture Conference

Between being starstruck and my eagerness to absorb all teachings in the conference, I still manage to jot down some quotes from the guest speaker, Dr. Steve Lawson. Last June 17 was a real treat for me as I enjoyed and be biblically equipped by this conference. Here’s a few which I was able to catch. You can check out Dr. Lawson over his website, http://www.onepassionministries.org and head over http://www.higherrockchurch.org to see future conferences by Higher Rock.
“Every book, every chapter, every verse, every word, every letter, every jot [in the Bible] is the breath of God.”—Dr. Steven J. Lawson, “Sufficiency of Scripture for Faith and Practice” #stevelawsoninmanila #scriptureissufficient #higherrockconference
“You don’t need a PhD to understand the Bible. God knows how to communicate.” —Dr. Steven J. Lawson, “Sufficiency of Scripture for Faith and Practice” #stevelawsoninmanila #scriptureissufficient #higherrockconference
“A worldly message, produce a worldly life.” —Dr. Steven J. Lawson, “Sufficiency of Scripture for Faith and Practice” #stevelawsoninmanila #scriptureissufficient #higherrockconference
“You will either be on fire for God or in fire of God in judgment.” —Dr. Steven J. Lawson on the Bible as a consuming fire, “Sufficiency of Scripture for Faith and Practice” #stevelawsoninmanila #scriptureissufficient #higherrockconference
“How can the Word of God dominate your life? Give [the Bible] preeminence in our life.” —Dr. Steven J. Lawson, “Sufficiency of Scripture for Faith and Practice” #stevelawsoninmanila #scriptureissufficient #higherrockconference
“The Bible is the highest arbitrator. The Bible is the supreme judge.” —Dr. Steven J. Lawson on the Authority of the Scripture, “Sufficiency of Scripture for Faith and Practice” #stevelawsoninmanila #scriptureissufficient #higherrockconference

Book Review: A Practical Guide to Culture by John Stonestreet and Brett Kunkle

If parents are feeling the heat of this demanding culture and want their kids to stand for God, here’s a book that help them navigate through the tidal waves. “A Practical Guide to Culture” promises to avoid alarmism in a culture that is getting harder and harder to be a Christian.
Putting the word “practical” on the title doesn’t mean that you’ll dive in immediately to the advice and put it into action. Stonestreet and Kunkle first unpack the meaning of culture. And boy they sure did define it so clearly in the first part of the book and gradually opens other boxes of truth surrounding the word culture.
The authors want us to change the question Christians usually ask when culture comes to their doors. Rather ask “Where do we draw the line?” or “Have we lost the culture?” we need to go back to the Story of God to know the real question. The better question should be “What is our salvation for?” This question is essential as we know what culture is and what can we do to it.
The practical part of the book is seasoned with godly wisdom, true life stories, and well research information, mixed with grace without compromising the gospel. Every chapter is short but solid. You will always some take away that will leave you informed and ready to put in action.
The last chapter is as important as the practical stuff in this book. It’s building the Christian worldview for our kids. Some books left this vital part after they shared the practical part. It’s a good thing that the authors included this, not as fillers but as essential part in the foundation of our kids. For us readers we should not skip this part.
“A Practical Guide to Culture” is clear, precise and readable book on navigating your kids in this culture. If you have read plenty of books on culture, consider this a diversion from the buzz other books on culture is generating. You don’t want noise, you want practical book. You don’t want an edgy, radical just a simple cool book that will help parents raise their kids biblically ready to face this culture.

My verdict: 5 out of 5

The Quotable Round-Up #57

Here are some of the quotes from the book “We Destroy Arguments” by Stephen Feinstein. If you enjoy these quotes, please buy the book at your nearest Christian bookstore or on Amazon. Feel free to share this post over your social media. God bless you and enjoy your week!

“Christians are not out there to prove that a god exists, but instead that the biblical God exists. We are to prove that this biblical God has made Himself clearly known to all people at all times with clear distinct revelation that has left people without excuse. You cannot accomplish this by using piecemeal arguments that only demonstrate one sliver of the Christian worldview at a time. Instead, the Christian worldview as a whole is what is to be presented. Yet, it is even more than this. Christianity must be presented not only as an entire system, but as the only system of truth that is even possible.” – Stephen Feinstein, “We Destroy Arguments”

“When 1 John 4:8 declares that God is love, we need to ask, “Love of what?” If the answer is love of the world, then the divine attribute of love depends on the existence of the world, once again removing the independence of God and the creator-creature distinction. Furthermore, an attribute by definition is something that God must possess to in fact be God. If love could not exist until the creation existed, then God also could not have existed as God until He first created the creation! The position becomes logically self-defeating. Yet, if God is one, and yet three persons, then God can share love in an absolute sense being an absolute person and still be absolutely independent of creation. John 17:24 clearly teaches that the Father and Son loved each other in eternity past, thereby demonstrating from Scripture that God’s attribute of love is independent of the creation. Thus, the Trinity actually is necessary in order to keep every single one of God’s communicable attributes intact.” – Stephen Feinstein, “We Destroy Arguments”

“Under the Christian, metaphysical worldview God is only one God and is a perfect unity, but is also a unity of a plurality (three persons). Since God is a unity of plurality, it is not difficult to see creation in a similar light. We are all made from the dust of the ground making us one with creation (unity), but we are different ontologically from plants, animals, rocks, and other humans (plurality). There is no absolute unity devoid of plurality, and there is no absolute plurality devoid of unity. Only the Christian worldview accounts for this, and even though many secular philosophers and pagan religions reject a universe of both one and many, nearly all people live their day-to-day lives as though it were true.” – Stephen Feinstein, “We Destroy Arguments”

“Dependence on God leads to consistent and true knowledge and a consistent view of reality that makes learning and discovery possible. Independence from God leads to millions of inconsistencies on various views of reality, and it renders the idea of true knowledge and standards as impossible.” – Stephen Feinstein, “We Destroy Arguments”

“Atheism can be theoretical or practical, or both. The theoretical atheist outright denies the existence of God, whereas the practical atheist just lives as though there is no God. Based on the definition of practical atheism, agnostics truly are atheists just in disguise. After all, if they truly did not know whether or not God existed, would they not show up to church every other week and try to live in obedience to Scripture half of the time in order to shore up their bets? Yet, just about every agnostic most of us have ever met never goes to church and live their lives as though no God exists. Their words do not comport with their actions but instead are a mere attempt to take some misconstrued highroad of humility.” – Stephen Feinstein, “We Destroy Arguments”

“Ultimately, the combination of atheism and idolatry is the unbeliever’s way of suppressing the truth of God that is within them, and yet being able to navigate through the world with set standards. When the Christian apologist begins to critique unbelieving thought, unbelievers will move thoughtlessly back and forth between these two positions making it difficult to pin them down. For example, when you press their relativism to its conclusion, they will then appeal to reason (their idol) to support the items that they feel are absolutely true. When you then push them with reason into a self-defeating position, they will effortlessly move right back into their atheistic relativism. It will take patience and skill to reveal this to them, and ultimately it will take the work of the Holy Spirit.” – Stephen Feinstein, “We Destroy Arguments”

“If a Christian presuppositionalist pushed epistemology with such atheists, he could easily reveal to the atheist the impossibility of objective truth in an atheistic worldview. Thus consistent atheism requires the extreme of relativism, which itself is self-defeating. After all, would not a declaration that there is no absolute truth be in of itself an absolute truth? Furthermore, the atheist who holds to relativism is never consistent with it. After all, he acts as though reason and logic are trustworthy (absolute) and would seek justice if robbed (a moral absolute). Thus, the unbeliever committed to atheism in either its theoretical or practical form is left in a state of absolute certainty (rationalism) and absolute uncertainty (irrationalism) simultaneously and cannot account for it.” – Stephen Feinstein, “We Destroy Arguments”