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Preaching as “Whetting Your Appetite for the Word of God”

Below was an original post I shared through LifeWay’s Pastor’s Today Blogpost.

Recently, my wife and I had the joy of bringing our second son, Nathan, into the world. Newborns cry (for those of you who are not parents yet). Nathan cries amazingly loud when he’s hungry. He desires, with unfettered passion, to be fed every 2-3 hours. God reminds us in 1 Peter 2:2 that we are to desire his Word as babies desire to be fed. I had to ask myself when was the last time I cried out for the Word of God. I think that may be a good question for our congregations as well.

I realize we live in a culture full of distractions. Unfortunately, our enemy is adept at using the distractions that surround us to keep us from desiring and ingesting God’s Word into our lives. Part of our responsibility as preachers and teachers is to whet our hearers’ appetites for the Word of God.

I first heard that expression from Dr. Kenneth Ridings, an excellent expositor and my first homiletics professor. His primary method of teaching homiletics, was preaching his best sermons to novice preachers in class. Dr. Ridings said to us,

“I want to whet your appetites for the Word of God.”

He delivered sermonic insights to his class in order to motivate us to study, pray, and meditate on Scripture so we too could learn to preach insightfully and practically. He wanted to make us spiritually hungry so that we would have to go to the Word to be fed. I’ve never forgotten his lesson about whetting my appetite for God’s Word.

I believe one of our aims in preaching is to motivate our hearers to desire the “pure spiritual milk” that is God’s Word. In that sense then, preaching is the confluence of three important dimensions.

  • First, our preaching must lift up Scripture as God’s authoritative declaration to us.
  • Second, our preaching must flow out of a passionate, insightful, and personal experience we as preachers have had in our study of the Word.
  • Third, our preaching must deliver practical application, model good scriptural reading and interpretation, as well as motivate our hearers to personally engage and apply God’s Word in their lives.

Here are a few suggestions to us as preachers for whetting the appetites of our hearers.

  1. Shine a light on your study insights. Though it goes without saying, we must make time weekly for intense study and application of Scripture. Not only does this build the foundation for the content of our preaching, but we should also offer commentary when appropriate in our preaching as to how we came across biblical insights and application. We might also want to use social media (Twitter, Facebook, and blogging) as a means to shed light on our study habits for the benefit of our congregation.
  2. Preach in series that encourages your congregation to read and study along with your series. We should preach in series regularly that help our congregation understand Scripture and books of the Bible as a whole. We should suggest with our series ways to read, study, meditate, and memorize in the passages we are going to preach. It might also be helpful to recommend books and commentaries along with each series and make them available as resources to our hearers.
  3. Show and share how the practical application of Scripture is developing you as a preacher of God’s Word. Finally, if we want to whet our hearers’ appetites for God’s Word, we must assure them that the interpretation and application of Scripture can be accessed and accomplished by the Christian who is not a professional preacher. We can do this by regularly illustrating how Scripture is molding and shaping us. We can also be intentional about offering clear insights in our sermons as to how our hearers could read, study, meditate on, and apply Scripture.

The bottom line is that our congregation’s desire for and growth in the Word of God will seldom if ever exceed the example of its pastor. And if we want hearers who desire the spiritual milk of God’s Word, it is our job to deliver the Word in such a way as to make its intake desirable and effective. So let’s try in our preaching to make them hungry for God’s Word.

Memorial Day as an Illustration

On Memorial Day we remember the great sacrifices of the men and women who gave their fortunes, their youth, their health, and their lives to the cause of freedom.  This weekend, give gratitude and thanks for their sacrifices which poignantly, if imperfectly, illustrate the greatest sacrifice of God himself through Jesus Christ for the freedom of mankind.

I would like to echo these words from our nation’s founder and first President, George Washington, as he prayed:

Almighty and eternal Lord God, the great creator of heaven & earth, and the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; look down from heaven, in pity and compassion upon me thy servant, who humbly prostrate myself before thee, sensible of thy mercy and my own misery; there is an infinite distance between thy glorious majesty and me, thy poor creature, the work of thy hand, between thy infinite power, and my weakness, thy wisdom, and my folly, thy eternal Being, and my mortal frame, but, O Lord, I have set myself at a greater distance from the by my sin and wickedness and humbly acknowledge the corruption of my nature and the many rebellions of my life… I humbly beseech thee to be merciful to me in the free pardon of my sins, for the sake of thy dear Son, my only Savior, J.C.*, who came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance; be pleased to renew my nature and write thy laws upon my heart, and help me to live, righteously, soberly, and godly in this evil worlds [sic]; make me humble, meek, patient and contented, and work in me the grace of thy holy spirit… Help all in affliction or adversity—give them patience and a sanctified use of their affliction, and in thy good time deliverance from them; forgive my enemies, take me unto thy protection this day, keep me in perfect peace, which I ask for in the name & for the sake of Jesus. Amen.

This prayer from Washington was found in his field journal which was with him during his time served as general of the continental army.  Washington was remembered as a man of prayer and devotion.  Other of Washington’s prayers and details about his spiritual life can be found in George Washington’s Prayers by Robert Pelton.

I chose this prayer because at Mud Creek Baptist Church this Sunday Dr. Mathis will be preaching on the great exchange Jesus offered to us by His death on the cross.  I believe Washington’s confession and hope firmly set on Jesus illustrates our greatest need individually, corporately (as the body of Christ), and nationally—to confess in humility our sin and cast ourselves in faith upon Jesus Christ.

We should celebrate the sacrifices of many on this Memorial Day.  We should express gratitude to those who have served and are serving our nation to preserve freedom.  But let us remember these are but illustrations of the great and glorious sacrifice of Jesus for our freedom.  “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Cor. 5:21)

What a truth!

What an exchange!

What a memorial sacrifice illustrated on this day of national celebration that should drive us to genuine spiritual worship!

* J.C. was used commonly by Washington as shorthand for Jesus Christ.