Personal Notes from a Tim Keller Lecture
As people adore Christ they will apply Christ.
The best way to lead people to worship is to worship Christ yourself during the sermon.
George Whitefield agreed to having his sermons printed but said ‘you’ll never get the thunder’.
The sermon is what you write
Preaching is the active delivery of the preaching
The spiritual quality and character of the person shines through during preaching more than the sermon itself.
Keep in your mind the differences between graces and gifts. You can be using gifts without being godly.
The fruit of the Spirit is character change. The gifts of the Spirit are skills or abilities.
People often assume that skill or gifts indicates Spiritual gifts with spiritual fruit is like a tire without air.
When you’re far from God
Traditions:
Sacramental: meeting God in the sacraments and traditions
Evangelical: meeting God in your quiet times
Charismatic: emphasis on meeting God in corporate worship
The Puritans were bigger on experiencing God compared with other reformed evangelicals today.
MLJ (Martyn Lloyd-Jones) was on a farm trying to pray and couldn’t pray. Looked at the word glory in an AW Pink book and felt God’s glory for a couple of hours. He then looked back at the Puritans and saw these themes were present in there writings.
Meditation is the overlap between prayer and Bible study. Read and meditate on scripture until your heart gets hot, then move on to pray.
Bible reading should be a slow and careful reading of scripture. Give yourself time to meditate on truths you haven’t enjoyed before. Listen to God’s voice and enjoy the truth.
In meditation you take parts that have impressed you from the Bible reading and think about how this helps you to:
1) adore God
2) confess sin
3) petition to grace
Good structure for quiet times:
Listen to God through the Word
Reflect on what He is saying
Respond by speaking to Him
Sense and enjoy His grace
Meditation is truth with you left in it. What is this truth saying to me? What would happen if I were living in light of this?
The minds must descend into the heart. To hunger for God and not eat is better than not to be hungry.
Contemplation is the witness of the Spirit telling us that we are children of God.
Mini sermon on John 2
The first of Christ’s miraculous signs is featured in John 2 when he turns water into wine. When you go to a web page you want the content of that page to get straight to the point, you want to find out the essence of that page straight away. Christ shows hi heart and essence in the performance of His first miracle.
What is Christ doing? He’s not healing anyone. He’s taking a party and restoring it.
a) What did He come to bring?
Christ came to be lord of the feast. Verse 10 is talking about the master of the banquet. His job was to make sure that the party went well. Christ kept the party going by making 150 gallons of the best wine. Christ is saying I’m the real master of the banquet. I can bring taste and experience and fullness of life.
Why does the Bible talk about tasting? Psalm 34: ‘taste and see’. God wants you to experience Him- He wants your senses. There’s a difference between knowing God’s holiness and feeling His holiness. Jesus Christ wants you to know the sweetness of God.
He is the master of the banquet. He wants to come into your life and bring sweetness.
b) How does He bring this?
Mary says ‘We’ve run out of wine?’ Jesus responds: ‘Woman, why do you involve me? My hour has not yet come.’ He is not referring to his time of miracles. He is referring to the hour of His death. Jesus is thinking of His wedding. He is thinking of His wedding feast.
How is Christ going to give you incredible sensation? He dies to give you Himself. To purchase the wedding feast He had to be slaughtered.
Christ adores His bride. Jesus feel ravished when He sees us. He came to give us festival joy by dieing so that we would be His bride.
Applied to non-Christians:
1) Admit you’re out- admit you’re empty, devoid of goodness.
2) Take the credit for what He’s done- love me and praise me because Jesus is lovely and praiseworthy
Applied to prayer:
1) Pray for small things – Christ was willing to use divine time for small things
2) Learn patience prayer – pray yourself patient
3) Get perspective on Christ’s wedding day. There’s only one spouse that awaits you and He will fulfill you- He’s waiting for you if you believe in Him.
4) Presence prayer- He wants to come into your life and give you wine. Don’t settle for bread and water- you’re missing the feast!
Filed under: Pastoral Resources, Preaching, Sermon Preparation, Tim Keller Tagged: How to adore Jesus, Meditation, Meeting with God in sermon preparation, prayer habits
