Inspirational Quotes on Preaching

“Now they always accuse me of carrying around a sledge hammer with which to pound the church members. Yes sir, I do pound them, every time I come down, I knock one of the halfway fellows out of the doorway, and every time I knock one out I get a sinner in.”

“The elements which determine the make of any particular sermon are three; the preacher, the material, and the audience; just as the character of any battle is determined by three elements; the gun (including the gunner), the ammunition, and the fortress against which the attack is made.”

“Preaching is truth mediated through personality.”

“Every sermon must have a solid rest in Scripture, and the pointedness which comes of a clear subject, and the conviction which belongs to well-thought argument, and the warmth that proceeds from earnest appeal.”

“Prayer must carry on our work as much as preaching; he preacheth not heartily to his people that will not pray for them.”

“I preached as never sure to preach again, and as a dying man to dying men.”

“The world looks at preachers out of church to know what they mean in it.”

“It requires as much reflection and wisdom to know what is not to be put into a sermon, as what is.”

“To love to preach is one thing to love those to whom we preach, quite another.”

“Study universal holiness of life. Your whole usefulness depends on this, for your sermons last but an hour or two: your life preaches all week. If Satan can only make a covetous minister a lover of praise, of pleasure, of good eating, he has ruined your ministry. Give yourself to prayer, and get your texts, your thoughts, your words, from God.”

“A holy minister is an awful weapon in the hand of God. A word spoken by you when your conscience is clear, and your heart full of God's Spirit, is worth ten thousand words spoken in unbelief and sin. ”

“God the Holy Ghost calls for crusaders. How many ministers would be in church if it were not their job? The answer will be found in the number who never go to the job that is outside.”

“I fully intend to preach the word of God to you until there's a difference between how you walk out of here and how you walked in here.”

“The lives of ministers oftentimes convince more strongly than their words; their tongues may persuade, but their lives command.”

“Reasons are the pillars of the fabric of a sermon, but similitudes are the windows which give the best light. The faithful minister avoids such stories as may suggest bad thoughts to the auditors, and will not use a light comparison to make thereof a grave application, for fear lest his poison go further than his antidote.”

“It was said of one who preached very well, and lived very ill, "that when he was out of the pulpit it was pity he should ever go into it; and when he was in the pulpit, it was pity he should ever come out of it."”

“Some preachers ought to put more fire into their sermons, or more sermons into the fire.”

“If you want to be popular, preach happiness. If you want to be unpopular, preach holiness.”

“A country schoolteacher, applying for a job, was asked, 'Do you teach that the earth is round or flat?' 'Which way do you want it taught?' was the reply, 'I can teach it either way.' Something like that is the attitude in many a pulpit today.”

“Some preachers never appreciate the compliment given them when a saint disagrees with the pastor's exposition of a text. At least the Christian under his care is devoted more to Scripture than to the man in the pulpit. Under his ministry the child of God has reached a maturity to think through issues for himself and has imbibed a Berean spirit (Acts 17:11).”