“Who’s your favorite authors to read ?” came the question across the table from Pastor Scott Hooks. That question took me off guard, strangely enough, for as much as I love to read, to think about all the books I have read or used, it was hard to reduce that to 2 or 3 names. After an awkward pause, I started naming 5 or 6 names. Guess who they all were? Preachers. Men who had not set out to be authors, but whose sermons made it into print.
Books of sermons should be part of every good family or ministry library. For any Christian they have great devotional value. The only downside to it is that you may decide that some of us pastors really don’t know how to preach. For we pastors, reading the best sermons challenges us, shows us what preaching ought to be, and encourages us to work harder. The only downside for us would be that instead of being inspired, we would just steal them. To present another’s work as our own is an incredible dishonesty shocking to find in someone speaking for Jesus Christ.
Think of the impact the sermons of Jesus had. Even though the Bible likely only records parts of His sermons (We know this because at times He would spend the whole day teaching and preaching), they are so powerful. The parts of Paul’s preaching that we have also make sermon series for us. It wasn’t, however, till after the invention of the printing press that lots of sermons made it into print. Not all of them were great, but some are treasures for all time. It was in the 1800s, in my opinion, that we had the golden age of preaching. Praise the Lord, we can read them today.
I want to blog about them individually. I want to tell of Spurgeon, MacLaren, and a few others that you perhaps haven’t heard as much about. I may do other book reviews and still have guest blogs coming, but I want to start a series of blogs about preachers and their written sermons that have enriched my life and ministry and makes me want to reach to greater heights in the grand work the Lord has called me to do.
Preachers in the series so far:
More to come…
The Reagan Review 