How’s that for the title of a sermon on the story of Adam and Eve’s fall in Genesis 3? It popped into my head while my daughter and I read that story from The Jesus Storybook Bible.

(Jenni and I are currently listening to Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy [1, 2, 3] in which the “One Ring to rule them all” is prominent.)

Here are two sermons I preached on Romans 3:21–26 back in June:

• part 1
• part 2
• 4-page handout as a PDF

On October 19, 2008, Tim Keller presented two lectures at Oak Hill College on “Preaching to the Heart”:

• Part 1
• Part 2

Here’s how Oak Hill College describes them:

Jonathan Edwards believed that the ultimate purpose of preaching is not only to make the truth clear, but also to make it real—affecting and life-changing. This is usually covered under the topic of “application”, though framing the subject in that way often results in a “tack-on” of practical advice after a dry, academic exposition.

How can we preach the text from first to last in a way that exalts Christ, changes heart motivations, produces wisdom and wonder, persuades the sceptical and results in real life change? In his two lectures, Tim Keller explores these challenges to the preacher.

I just noticed that the following article is available online:

D. A. Carson. “Challenges for 21st-Century Preaching.” Preaching 23:6 (May–June 2008): 20–24.

Introduction

I have visited many parts of the world in which the challenges to the 21st-century pulpit look rather different. So part of the purpose of the rest of this essay is modest: to stimulate thinking that will help others flesh out this list and modify it for different cultural locations.

Six challenges that DAC fleshes out

1. Multiculturalism
2. Rising Biblical Illiteracy
3. Shifting Epistemology
4. Integration
5. Pace of Change
6. Modeling and Mentoring

Concluding Reflections

Preachers cannot responsibly ignore these things, for they stand between the speaking God and the listening people—people who are not empty ciphers but culturally located men and women who must be addressed where they are, even if our hope and prayer is that they will not remain where they are, but begin by God’s grace the march down the King’s highway, the narrow road that leads to life.

Our motivation to understand and address people in the 21st century is not to domesticate the gospel by constant appeal to cultural analysis, but to prove effective ambassadors of the Sovereign whose Word we announce. For one day the kingdom of this world will become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He will reign for ever and ever (Rev. 11:15). It is precisely because we are anchored in eternity that we are so utterly resolved, like Paul, to address lost men and women who must one day meet their God.

Read the whole thing.

Kudos to Rod Decker for posting A. T. Robertson’s inaugural address at Southern Seminary in 1890: “Preaching and Scholarship.”

Dr. Mike Bullmore delivered the annual Rom lectures on October 7-9, 2008 at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School on “The Heart of Preaching and the Preacher’s Heart.” Q & A followed each of his three outstanding lectures:

1. Session 1: The Functional Centrality of the Gospel in Preaching | 42:56
2. Session 1: Q & A (beginning with responses from an M.Div. student, a Ph.D. student, and Pastor Lee Eclov) | 58:32
3. Session 2: The Five Greatest Heart Challenges in Preaching | 41:18
4. Session 2: Q & A (beginning with responses from Andy Naselli and Dr. Dick Averbeck) | 42:24
5. Session 3: A Passion for the Gospel (Philippians 1) | 38:15
6. Session 3: Q & A | 36:03

I was humbled that Dr. Scharf asked me to respond to Mike’s second lecture. (more…)