Preaching and Prayer

Why preaching is important

10 minute read

I want to start by taking some time to set out why this is so important and worthy of a whole article. It is important because the preaching of the Word of God is foundational in the life of the church. Once upon a time I could have made such a statement in evangelical circles and been confident of approval, almost to the extent that I would be stating the obvious. Now, I’m not so sure. There is a lot more emphasis on the quality of what is called “the worship”, by which is meant the time of singing worship songs. People do seem to appreciate good preaching, but I do not get the sense that the preaching is seen as the fundamental building block of the church.

Of course, I accept that there are other important elements in the life of the church. Home groups for example are often cited as the place where people are fed and where discipleship really happens. God certainly uses home groups and all sorts of other means to speak to his people and mould and shape them according to his will and purpose for them. But I want to argue that preaching is God’s primary method for speaking to his people. Martyn Lloyd Jones certainly thought so. In his classic book on preaching, “Preaching and Preachers”, his first chapter is called “The Primacy of Preaching”. E. M. Bounds began  “Power through Prayer” emphasizing the role of the preacher as “the golden pipe through which the divine oil flows”. Some will say that these men were men of their time, and what they had to say in the 19^th and 20^th centuries is less relevant today. I want to argue that the core of what they had to say is as pertinent today as it ever was

Preaching in Scripture

It is pertinent because it is what Scripture both teaches and demonstrates by example. Most of the teaching that Jesus gave was delivered publicly. The Church came to birth through the preaching of Peter in Acts 2, and Acts is full of preaching.

Preaching in the pastoral epistles

At the other end of the time scale of the New Testament, Paul writes to Timothy and Titus to guide them in their leadership roles in Ephesus and Crete. He is anxious that their churches should stay on track and grow and be fruitful. Much of what he has to say has to do with preaching. The command that he urges on young Timothy includes teaching on a range of matters. He is to teach these things with authority, and he is to dedicate himself to this task:

            11Command and teach these things. 12Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity. 13Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching. 14Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands on you.

            15Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress. 16Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.

1 Tim 4:11-16.

This is surely all about preaching, about Timothy devoting himself to this primary task. He is to be diligent in developing and using his gift; he is to be disciplined in living a disciplined and holy life; and all of this in order to preach in such a way that lives are shaped and influenced in godliness.

In the second letter to Timothy, with Paul reaching the very end of his life, he urges his young protégé,

            Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.

2 Tim 4:2.

To Titus he writes,

These, then, are the things you should teach. Encourage and rebuke with all authority. Do not let anyone despise you.

Titus 2:15.

The role of preaching in revival

God has sovereignly moved in all kinds of ways in the great revivals through the history of the Church, but preachers have often played a central role. There was Evan Roberts in the Welsh revival of 1904, William Seymour in the Azuza Street revival in Los Angeles in 1906 and Duncan Campbell in the revival in the Hebrides in 1949. In the 18^th century, John Wesley was mightily used by God in bringing huge numbers to Christ, largely through open air preaching. At the same time, George Whitfield also preached to great crowds in both Britain and America, with amazing results. In the 20^th century, Billy Graham preached to countless thousands across the world.

Preaching: To be recognised as a primary means that God uses

I accept that there are all kinds of gifts in the Church, and all kinds of means that God uses. Preaching is only one of them. But it is a means of central importance. I am arguing that we must recognise again what Lloyd Jones called “The primacy of preaching”. We can do that by guarding time for preaching in our services, by recognising calling and gifting and by giving our preachers the support they need. Above all, we can do it by praying for our preachers.

Preaching and Prayer

If preaching is a central means that God uses, then surely, we should be praying for it. We have an enemy, the devil, who seeks to oppose and thwart everything that promotes the kingdom of God. We must understand, therefore, that he will do all he can to undermine Spirit anointed preachers and preaching, to devalue it and to render it ineffective. We must engage in the spiritual battle of prayer (see article on The Warfare of Prayer) to defend and uphold preachers and the power of their message. I would like to suggest that we need to pray for four key areas—and we can also play a part by praying for prayer! We can pray that prayer will take place for all four of them. Let’s pray that across Cornwall, God would raise up prayer for preachers!

1.     Prayer by the preacher

In “Power through Prayer”, E. M. Bounds argues that prayer is just as important in the preparation of a sermon as the study involved in putting it together. His book is challenging stuff! For Bounds, preaching that is not bathed in prayer does more harm than good, because it is letter that kills and not life-giving spirit (2 Cor 3:6). This is the case, he says, no matter how orthodox the teaching. For him, prayer is more important than technique or method. He explains the kind of dedicated prayer that he means:

Prayer is no petty duty, put into a corner; no piecemeal performance made out of the fragments of time which have been snatched from business and other engagements of life; but it means that the best of our time, the heart of our time and strength must be given.((Bounds, E. M.. The Complete Works of E. M. Bounds: Power Through Prayer; Prayer and Praying Men; The Essentials of Prayer; The Necessity of Prayer; The Possibilities … Purpose in Prayer; The Weapon of Prayer (Kindle Locations 325-326). Wilder Publications, Inc.. Kindle Edition.))

He goes on to say,

The character of our praying will determine the character of our preaching. Light praying will make light preaching.((Ibid. Kindle Locations 335-336))

I want to challenge all of us who preach to make prayer as important in our preparation as our study and our writing of notes. I have to be honest and realistic: if I spend 10 hours preparing a sermon, sadly, I can’t see myself spending a further 10 hours in prayer. However, I think I could set aside an extra half hour to pray each day for a few days before delivering the sermon. It will be different for each individual, but I suggest that all preachers should ask God how they can increase the quantity and the quality of their own praying before they preach.

Perhaps more important than targeted prayer before the sermon is the preacher’s prayer life as a whole.

What the preacher is in prayer to God, for himself, for his people, so is his power for real good to men, so is his true fruitfulness, his true fidelity to God, to man, for time, for eternity.((Ibid. Kindle Locations 309-311))

Bounds also quotes Spurgeon:

“Of course the preacher is above all others distinguished as a man of prayer. He prays as an ordinary Christian, else he were a hypocrite. He prays more than ordinary Christians, else he were disqualified for the office he has undertaken. If you as ministers are not very prayerful, you are to be pitied. If you become lax in sacred devotion, not only will you need to be pitied but your people also, and the day cometh in which you shall be ashamed and confounded.((Ibid. Kindle Locations 318-321))

Note on learning how to pray more effectively

Bounds is great on challenging and inspiring us to pray, but disappointingly thin on how to do it. Thankfully, there is great help available nowadays for anyone, preachers included, who want to grow in praying more and more effectively. See for example Pete Greig’s books, “How to Pray” and “God on Mute”, which are both very accessible (see review of “God on Mute” on this site). Tim Keller’s “Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God” is a little more demanding but I found it very helpful.

2.     Prayer for the preacher

How should we pray for our preachers? Evidently, from point one above, a crucial thing to pray is that the preacher will see the need for prayer and have victory in the daily discipline of actually praying. But effective and sustained prayer that leads to Holy Spirit anointed preaching requires much more than daily discipline. It will only happen if the man or woman of God is truly seeking to follow Jesus with all of their hearts and are surrendered to him. Ultimately, it will be the quality of the preacher’s daily walk with the Lord and their growth in holiness which will determine their effectiveness in the pulpit. E. M. Bounds puts it like this:

Preaching is not the performance of an hour. It is the outflow of a life. It takes twenty years to make a sermon, because it takes twenty years to make the man. The true sermon is a thing of life. The sermon grows because the man grows. The sermon is forceful because the man is forceful. The sermon is holy because the man is holy. The sermon is full of the divine unction because the man is full of the divine unction.((Ibid. Kindle Locations 156-159))

As we consider these things, I think we get an inkling of the enormity of the spiritual battle that is going on in the preacher’s life before ever he or she begins to speak in church. How we need to pray for them! Let’s pray for our preachers:

• That they will understand at a deep level the vital importance of prayer
• That they will have victory in the daily battle to make time for prayer and to pray effectively
• That they and their families will be protected from the attacks of the devil
• That they will grow in personal holiness and have victory over temptation
• That they will grow in their grasp of the love of God (Eph 3:16-19) and the power of God on their behalf (Eph 1:18-19)

The growth of our churches is tied closely to the spiritual growth of our preachers. If we want to see our churches grow, then we must engage in the spiritual battle of prayer, and that must include earnest prayer for our preachers!

3.     Pray for the sermon

Thirdly, let’s pray for the sermon itself.

• We can pray that our preacher will be guided by the Holy Spirit throughout their preparation and that they will hear his voice clearly.
• We can pray that the preacher will be able to speak not from theory only, but from experience of the Word of God applied and lived out.
• We can pray for the process of preparation, that our preacher will be able to give the necessary time to preparation without distraction.
• We can pray for the delivery of the sermon, that it will be clear and accessible to all and that it will be powerfully anointed by the Holy Spirit.

4.     Pray for the congregation

Lastly, we must pray for the those who will hear the sermon. Often a service leader will pray for the preacher just before they come to speak. Their prayer will often include a line of prayer for the congregation, such as, “Grant us ears to hear and hearts to obey your word”. That is a recognition that sermons are two-way communication((Martyn Lloyd Jones has a great deal to say on the dynamic interplay between preacher and hearers in his book “Preaching and Preachers”. He has a whole chapter on “The Congregation”.)) Hearers must be open to what God is saying, attentive and willing to respond as God touches their hearts. If hearts are hard, it won’t matter how good the preacher is, how dynamic and anointed the sermon is, the message is likely to fall on stony ground. There must be a fundamental trust on the part of the people, a willingness to see beyond the faults and failings of an imperfect delivery and recognise that God has something to say through the message that must be heard and responded to. At the same time, the congregation must listen proactively, weighing what is said against Scripture (Acts 17:11). So, let’s include prayer for the hearers of the sermon! We can pray for example,

• That people will trust the preacher and see him or her as speaking for God;
• That the Holy Spirit will be at work in each individual heart, even before they come to the service to prepare them to hear what he has to say to them;
• That individual members of the congregation will learn to cooperate with God in this by taking time to prepare their hearts before they come to church;
• That no distractions will arise during the service that will take people’s attention away from the sermon;
• That God will work among the people to prevent disagreements and unforgiveness which can block the working of the Holy Spirit.

Conclusion

We have stated our case that God uses preaching as a primary means of teaching and shaping his church. He uses other things too, but preaching is of central importance. It is therefore something that should be supported in earnest, sustained and believing prayer. Preachers themselves must be men and women of prayer and we must support them and engage with them in the spiritual battle of prayer. We should pray too each week for the sermon, for its preparation and its delivery. Lastly, let’s pray for our church congregations that they will be able to hear and truly receive God’s word to them.

It’s great that we usually pray for the preacher in our services in the moments before they preach, but sad if this most important of ministries only gets prayed for in a one-liner on a Sunday morning. Let’s do all we can to encourage ongoing, sustained and united prayer for preaching.