Living Heroes 1 - Quote the Bible in Your Preaching

"One of the biggest problems I have with younger preachers I am called on to critique is that they failed to quote the texts that support the points they are making. It makes me wonder if they have been taught that you should get the drift of a text and then talk in your own words for thirty minutes. The effect of that kind of preaching is to leave people groping for the Word of God and wondering wheter what you said is really in the Bible.

Instead, in the literate Western culture we need to get people to open their Bibles and put their fingers on the text. Then we need to quote a piece of our text and explain what it means. Tell them which half of the verse it is in. People lose the whole drift of a message when they are groping to find where the pastor's ideas are coming from. Then we should quote another piece of the text and explain what it means. Our explanation will draw in other passages of Scripture. Quote them! Don't say general things like, "As Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount." Along the way or at the end we should urge it into their consciences with penetrating application.

We are simply pulling rank on people when we tell them, and don't show them from the text. This does not honor the Word of God or the work of the Holy Spirit. I urge you to rely on the Holy Spirit by saturating your preaching with the Word he inspired."

John Piper
The Supremacy of God in Preaching, pp. 41-42