Sermon Central
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Does Your Preaching Wield A Sword Or An Anvil?
By Peter Mead on Jun 29, 2012
God's word is a living and active sword. Peter Mead suggests that too often preachers try to drop an anvil on their listeners.
Is it just me, or was there an ultimate weapon used in cartoons that isn’t used quite so much in real life? Whether it was a cat chasing a mouse or a bird fleet of foot, sooner or not much later the arch nemesis would bring them into collision with a great heavy anvil. Ouch.
I suppose in real life the anvil has its disadvantages as a weapon. It is probably fairly heavy. Somewhat cumbersome. And it is probably fairly avoidable. What it gains in gravitas it loses in penetrative impact. To put it another way, I’d rather fight a foe with an anvil than an enemy with a blade.
Which brings me to preaching. Some sermons feel like the preacher is trying to reproduce the cartoon impact of an anvil. A massive amount of weighty content delivered as quickly as possible. Much better to sharpen that sermon and preach a single point, rather than trying to deliver the whole container load of exegetical insights. The blade may feel lighter to carry, but it will have a great impact in listeners’ lives.
I need to ponder this afresh before tomorrow. It is so tempting to try to give ‘em everything right between the eyes. In my cartoon-like prayers they will all be stunned and transformed. In reality they will both see it coming and feel annoyingly pushed by it, but without the message penetrating. How can I sharpen my main idea? What can I cut out to make the message do its work in a streamlined way?
The Word of God is sharper than any double-edge anvil. Obviously. May our preaching of His Word have the massive weight of the text behind it, but the sharpness of a deft blade in terms of its focus.
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By Joe Hoagland on Jul 24, 2017
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