“On the one hand, some sermons are so dull you wonder if the calling of the messenger is to cure insomnia. Perhaps we can attribute the malady to the disposition of the preacher alone. In many circles, however, you can sense a created dichotomy between appeals to the mind and appeals to the heart. Highly academic models of preaching tend, as a general rule, to downplay the importance of engaging the emotions of listeners as we preach. Some even label these appeals or motivations as a form of manipulation.

“D. Martyn Lloyd Jones sensed the same false polarization half a century ago when he described pathos as ‘what has been so seriously lacking in the present century. . . . We tend to lose our balance and to become over-intellectual, indeed almost to despise the element of feeling and emotion. We are such learned men, we have a great grasp of the Truth, that we tend to despise feeling.’”

Jerry Vines and Adam B Dooley

Passion in the Pulpit

Moody, 2018

“The aim of preaching is the glory of God through Jesus Christ. The glory of God is the aim of all preaching,” says Piper. Every Sunday morning poses an opportunity to sing the glories of God — and not just with music, but in the heralding of God’s life-giving words. Preaching isn’t an effort to entertain or amuse, but a chance to point God’s people to the wonder, excellence, and greatness of their Saviour.

Everyday life presents endless options to distract us from what matters most. But Christian preaching, in the context of corporate worship, shines as an opportunity to draw people away from broken, leaky cisterns and direct them to the fountain of living waters (Jeremiah 2:13).

“Your aim is to produce a God-besotted people, who by their God-besottedness, echo and reflect and have the aroma of the glory of God in their lives. They live for the glory of God.”

Marco Silva

Desiring God

(This link will take you to a series of lectures on preaching by John Piper which have now been made available for the first time.)

“Lack of intensity in preaching can only communicate that the preacher has never been seriously gripped by the reality of which he speaks – or that the subject matter is insignificant.”

John Piper
The Supremacy of God In Preaching
Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1990     p103

“See that the work of saving grace be thoroughly wrought in your own souls. Take heed to yourselves, lest you be void of that saving grace of God which you offer to others, and be strangers to the effectual working of that gospel which you preach; and lest, while you proclaim to the world the necessity of a Saviour, your own hearts should neglect him, and you should miss of an interest in him and his saving benefits. Take heed to yourselves, lest you perish, while you call upon others to take heed of perishing; and lest you famish yourselves while you prepare food for them. Though there is a promise of shining as the stars, to those ‘who turn many to righteousness,’ that is but on supposition that they are first turned to it themselves. Their own sincerity in the faith is the condition of their glory, simply considered, though their great ministerial labours may be a condition of the promise of their greater glory. Many have warned others that they come not to that place of torment, while yet they hastened to it themselves: many a preacher is now in hell, who hath a hundred times called upon his hearers to use the utmost care and diligence to escape it. Can any reasonable man imagine that God should save men for offering salvation to others, while they refuse it themselves; and for telling others those truths which they themselves neglect and abuse? Many a tailor goes in rags, that maketh costly clothes for others; and many a cook scarcely licks his fingers, when he hath dressed for others the most costly dishes. Believe it, brethren, God never saved any man for being a preacher, nor because he was an able preacher; but because he was a justified, sanctified man, and consequently faithful in his Master’s work. Take heed, therefore, to ourselves first, that you he that which you persuade your hearers to be, and believe that which you persuade them to believe, and heartily entertain that Saviour whom you offer to them. He that bade you love your neighbours as yourselves, did imply that you should love yourselves, and not hate and destroy yourselves and them.”

Richard Baxter

The Reformed Pastor

Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1974  pp53-54