QTC preaching week - O'Donnell #2

7 quotes of WL in NT.  Most are asking the question: How do we respond to the reality of God's judgement.

Tip #2: Gospel ethics .

The cross should use the cross not to 'let people off the hook' but to drive them on in godliness.

Proverbs 31 -> Advice to a young man on what to look for in a wife.

Chiastic structure, and the middle of the poem is v23 "Her husband is known in the gates when he sits among the elders of the land." (Pro 31:23 ESV)

So, the point is about what kind of wife a man is wise to look for.

What to look for?  Well, there's lots of action words!  A group of young men should be excited at the industriousness of a member of the opposite sex.

Point #1: she should be industrious.
Point #2: she should be fearless, of the present and the future
Point #3:

He got to be the head honcho (v23), because of her work.  He married well.

Charm is often deceptive, and beauty is always fleeting.

Boaz selected his wife by his ears, rather than by his eye.  Oh that we would do the same.

Lady Wisdom has been calling all through proverbs, and by proverbs 31 she has taken on flesh and blood.

Every man has a choice between Lady Folly and Lady Wisdom.  Wisdom is at first not an intellectual concept, but a relational one.  Response to God. (?)

How is a woman to gain the praise of the world?

She is praised because of her sacrifice.  Because of her sacrifice of personal glory.

How ought a man find a wife?  Find one who fears God and serves.
How ought a woman find praise from God and others?  To fear God and serve.

QTC Preaching Week - Plenary #1 - Gary Millar

The Wisdom of God: Preaching, Wisdom and Prayer

"God works through preaching"

A big statement, but to which end of that clause is the weight?

Does God work through preaching?  Or does God work through preaching?

It is GOD who works through preaching.  A deep conviction about this reality will drive us not to work harder on our sermons, but to PRAY.

2 problems: one general and one specific.

1: A general lack of prayer.
2: Specifically, do we pray for preachers if we're listeners?  And do we pray for our preaching if we're preachers?

The rise of and emphasis on small groups has come, Gary suspects, at the cost of prayer meetings and prayer in those small groups.

Often it seems that as teaching quality goes up, emphasis on prayer goes down.

Why?  Gary has a few thoughts.

1. The emphasis on training and reliance upon trained people decreases our reliance upon God.  They're trained, why would I need to pray?
2. Dangers of the digital consumption of preaching?  Takes preaching out of the context of relationship, and holds all preaching up is compared up against the big guns.  It breaks the connection between praying and preaching.

God uses people not because they're gifted but because he is gracious.  If we believe this then we will pray.  And we will pray for preachers.

What do I make the most of?  My training?  My gifting?  My creativity?  My wisdom?

Or do I make the most of the grace of God, and pray?

Preparation can crush devotion.

In Acts 6 it seems that prayer and ministry of the word seems to clearly mean prayer FOR the ministry of the word.  Gary suggests that prayer for the impact of the apostles' preaching is a no brainer.

Double challenge:

1. Resolve to make a habit of praying for your own preaching of the Word.
2. Make sure that our churches pray together for preaching.

In a church Gary was once in, a phrase that was the heartbeat of the church was "the ministry of the Word, nourished by prayer."  It was a church where it was clear that God showed up when His people gather and heard his Word.

God is strong.  We are weak.  Pray.

QTC Preaching Week - Gospels Elective with Luke Tattersall #1

First thing:  Work out the structure (particularly important for gospels because it can be hard to tell!)

To preach on a bit, you have to have some idea of the purpose of the gospel, where the gospel writer is going with this.

Encouraging us to work out our own  idea first before bouncing off other people's structures.

Two levels of structure: the structure of the book, and then the breakup you do for your preaching series.

"The question that I keep coming back to in how to break up passages into preaching portions is: will this break-up help people learn to read this book for themselves?"

QTC preaching week - O'Donnell #1

"Our adult age doesn't bring us so near to God as we are apt to think" - Jonathan Edwards

The wisdom literature puts us in our place, for the Lord alone has heavenly wisdom.  He alone is truly wise.  Knowledge of the Holy One can't be gained from within us.  We can't fathom the one who gathers the waters and winds in his hand.

The key to wisdom: the fear of Yhwh.

Ultimately, God's wisdom is displayed in Christ crucified.  He is no fool who abandons human wisdom to follow a secret but now revealed foolishness, which is the perfection of heavenly wisdom.


Tip #1 for preaching Wisdom Literature (WL): Gospel Awe.

The necessary bridge between hermeneutics and homiletics.
There is a certain ethos that must go with preaching WL.

Holiness brings happiness.
Purity gives power.

The preacher's awe builds ethics as much as the preacher's ethos.

"Amazing condescencion, that God would become a man and have a genealogy."  Charles Spurgeon.  (in a sermon on Matthew 1)