Heart Preparation Necessary
for Christian Service
from
POWER THROUGH PRAYER
by
Edward M. Bounds
Gen 6:5 (KJV)
And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth,
and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart
was only evil continually.
James 4:6-10 (KJV)
But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith,
God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.
{7} Submit yourselves therefore to God.
Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
{8} Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.
Cleanse your hands, ye sinners;
and purify your hearts, ye double minded.
{9} Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep:
let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.
{10} Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord,
and he shall lift you up.
Exo 4:10-12 (KJV)
And Moses said unto the LORD,
O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore,
nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant:
but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue.
{11} And the LORD said unto him,
Who hath made man's mouth?
or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind?
have not I the LORD?
{12} Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth,
and teach thee what thou shalt say.
Psa 32:11-33:1 (KJV)
Be glad in the LORD, and rejoice, ye righteous:
and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart.
{33:1}Rejoice in the LORD, O ye righteous:
for praise is comely{HB=beautiful} for the upright.
2 Cor 5:17-18 (KJV)
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature:
old things are passed away;
behold, all things are become new.
{18} And all things are of God,
who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ,
and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;
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For nothing reaches the heart but what is from the heart or pierces the conscience but what comes from a living conscience.—William Penn
In the morning was more engaged in preparing the head than the heart. This has been frequently my error, and I have always felt the evil of it especially in prayer. Reform it then, O Lord! Enlarge my heart and I shall preach.—Robert Murray McCheyne
A sermon that has more head infused into it than heart will not borne home with efficacy to the hearers.—Richard Cecil
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Prayer, with its manifold and many-sided forces, helps the mouth to utter the truth in its fullness and freedom. The preacher is to be prayed for, the preacher is made by prayer. The preacher’s mouth is to be prayed for; his mouth is to be opened and filled by prayer. A holy mouth is made by praying, by much praying; a brave mouth is made by praying, by much praying. The Church and the world, God and heaven, owe much to Paul’s mouth; Paul’s mouth owed its power to prayer.
How manifold, illimitable, valuable, and helpful prayer is to the preacher in so many ways, at so many points, in every way! One great value is, it helps his heart.
Praying makes the preacher a heart preacher. Prayer puts the preacher’s heart into the preacher’s sermon; prayer puts the preacher’s sermon into the preacher’s heart.
The heart makes the preacher. Men of great hearts are great preachers. Men of bad hearts may do a measure of good, but this is rare. The hireling and the stranger may help the sheep at some points, but it is the good shepherd with the good shepherd’s heart who will bless the sheep and answer the full measure of the shepherd’s place.
We have emphasized sermon-preparation until we have lost sight of the important thing to be prepared—the heart. A prepared heart is much better than a prepared sermon. A prepared heart will make a prepared sermon.
Volumes have been written laying down the mechanics and taste of sermon-making, until we have become possessed with the idea that this scaffolding is the building. The young preacher has been taught to lay out all his strength on the form, taste, and beauty of his sermon as a mechanical and intellectual product. We have thereby cultivated a vicious taste among the people and raised the clamor for talent instead of grace, eloquence instead of piety, rhetoric instead of revelation, reputation and brilliancy instead of holiness. By it we have lost the true idea of preaching, lost preaching power, lost pungent conviction for sin, lost the rich experience and elevated Christian character, lost the authority over consciences and lives which always results from genuine preaching.
It would not do to say that preachers study too much. Some of them do not study at all; others do not study enough. Numbers do not study the right way to show themselves workmen approved of God. But our great lack is not in head culture, but in heart culture; not lack of knowledge but lack of holiness is our sad and telling defect—not that we know too much, but that we do not meditate on God and his word and watch and fast and pray enough. The heart is the great hindrance to our preaching. Words pregnant with divine truth find in our hearts nonconductors; arrested, they fall shorn and powerless.
Can ambition, that lusts after praise and place, preach the gospel of Him who made himself of no reputation and took on Him the form of a servant? Can the proud, the vain, the egotistical preach the gospel of him who was meek and lowly? Can the bad-tempered, passionate, selfish, hard, worldly man preach the system which teems with long-suffering, self-denial, tenderness, which imperatively demands separation from enmity and crucifixion to the world?
Can the hireling official, heartless, perfunctory, preach the gospel which demands the shepherd to give his life for the sheep? Can the covetous man, who counts salary and money, preach the gospel till he has gleaned his heart and can say in the spirit of Christ and Paul in the words of Wesley: "I count it dung and dross; I trample it under my feet; I (yet not I, but the grace of God in me) esteem it just as the mire of the streets, I desire it not, I seek it not?" God’s revelation does not need the light of human genius, the polish and strength of human culture, the brilliancy of human thought, the force of human brains to adorn or enforce it; but it does demand the simplicity, the docility, humility, and faith of a child’s heart.
It was this surrender and subordination of intellect and genius to the divine and spiritual forces which made Paul peerless among the apostles. It was this which gave Wesley his power and radicated his labors in the history of humanity. This gave to Loyola the strength to arrest the retreating forces of Catholicism.
Our great need is heart-preparation. Luther held it as an axiom: "He who has prayed well has studied well." We do not say that men are not to think and use their intellects; but he will use his intellect best who cultivates his heart most. We do not say that preachers should not be students; but we do say that their great study should be the Bible, and he studies the Bible best who has kept his heart with diligence. We do not say that the preacher should not know men, but he will be the greater adept in human nature who has fathomed the depths and intricacies of his own heart.
We do say that while the channel of preaching is the mind, its fountain is the heart; you may broaden and deepen the channel, but if you do not look well to the purity and depth of the fountain, you will have a dry or polluted channel. We do say that almost any man of common intelligence has sense enough to preach the gospel, but very few have grace enough to do so. We do say that he who has struggled with his own heart and conquered it; who has taught it humility, faith, love, truth, mercy, sympathy, courage; who can pour the rich treasures of the heart thus trained, through a manly intellect, all surcharged with the power of the gospel on the consciences of his hearers—such a one will be the truest, most successful preacher in the esteem of his Lord.
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Ezek 36:22-28 (KJV)
Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD;
I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel,
but for mine holy name's sake,
which ye have profaned among the heathen, whither ye went.
{23} And I will sanctify my great name,
which was profaned among the heathen,
which ye have profaned in the midst of them;
and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, saith the Lord GOD,
when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes.
{24} For I will take you from among the heathen,
and gather you out of all countries,
and will bring you into your own land.
{25} Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you,
and ye shall be clean:
from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.
{26} A new heart also will I give you,
and a new spirit will I put within you:
and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh,
and I will give you an heart of flesh.
{27} And I will put my spirit within you,
and cause you to walk in my statutes,
and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.
{28} And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers;
and ye shall be my people,
and I will be your God.
Psa 51:9-17 (KJV)
Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.
{10} Create in me a clean heart, O God;
and renew a right spirit within me.
{11} Cast me not away from thy presence;
and take not thy holy spirit from me.
{12} Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation;
and uphold me with thy free{HB=generous} spirit.
{13} Then will I teach transgressors thy ways;
and sinners shall be converted unto thee.
{14} Deliver me from bloodguiltiness,
O God, thou God of my salvation:
and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.
{15} O Lord, open thou my lips;
and my mouth shall show forth thy praise.
{16} For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it:
thou delightest not in burnt offering.
{17} The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit:
a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
Psa 4:3-8 (KJV)
{3} But know that the LORD hath set apart him that is godly for himself:
the LORD will hear when I call unto him.
{4} Stand in awe, and sin not:
commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah.
{5} Offer the sacrifices of righteousness,
and put your trust in the LORD.
{6} There be many that say, Who will show us any good?
LORD, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us.
{7} Thou hast put gladness in my heart,
more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased.
{8} I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep:
for thou, LORD, only makest me dwell in safety.
Ezek 18:31-32 (KJV)
Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed;
and make you a new heart and a new spirit:
for why will ye die, O house of Israel?
{32} For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord GOD: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye.
1 Pet 1:22-23 (KJV)
Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth
through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren,
see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently:
{23} Being born again,
not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible,
by the word of God,
which liveth and abideth for ever.
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