My good friends at Fellowship of Wildwood in Missouri are giving away copies of Pleased to Dwell as part of their pre-Christmas outreach this year. Alongside the book, they have a weekly reading and a discussion about an aspect of it. Here is the first reading:
And here is the first discussion:
I will post the others on here, but feel free to subscribe to their channel and see them as soon as they come out. Thanks so much!
Starting today, you would be very welcome to follow along with the Pleased to Dwell advent video playlist. It can work alongside the book, or you can just watch the videos. Here is the playlist, please do subscribe to the YouTube channel and use the playlist to work your way through these short videos as Christmas approaches!
The end of the year brings a strange combination of familiar traditions and genuine challenges. While we may be surrounded by bright lights and cheerful music, with parties and celebratory gatherings, we may also be struggling financially, wondering how we are supposed to get everything done and concerned about how we will handle looming difficulties. It could be navigating an awkward conversation with that difficult family member, or coping with the exuberant happiness when we are grieving a loved one, or facing particular challenges that would be hard enough at any time of the year, let alone during the “festive season.” Life can feel like too much, and Christmas sometimes makes it feel even worse.
As Christmas approaches, whether we are dealing with a particular challenge or not, we will all again be confronted with the challenge of seeing past the consumer festival and the nostalgic traditions to the reality of the incarnation. Finding the relevance of this critical doctrine is not achieved by simply revisiting familiar truths through nostalgic traditions. We also have a fresh need to explore how the old truth resonates with contemporary life – including all its challenges.
We are familiar with reviewing the great step taken by the Son of God from heaven to earth – the infinite taking on infancy, the glorious riches to abject poverty, etc. We are used to noting that He came with a purpose; He took on a human body and life so that He could experience death in that body for us. Indeed, Christmas is an arrow pointing to Easter, and it is right to think of that each year.
More than that, Christmas is an arrow pointing to a God who is revealing Himself in the ultimate way, and an invitation opened to rich and poor, local and global, Jew and Gentile. It is a story to stir our nostalgia and our worship, an inspiring example, and, if told well, a thriller with a villain, a deadly threat, and a perfectly-timed escape.
Actually, Christmas is a many-layered story, with intriguing characters, long-awaited prophecies, and profoundly moving themes woven together.
And yet, we so often end up repeating it as if it were merely a nostalgic children’s story to retell like an old family tale that gets trotted out once a year as we gather around a fire and nibble on seasonal treats.
How will you engage the Christmas story this year? How will it connect with your current experiences and concerns in a unique and fresh way in 2025?
Your life, your struggles, are very real. So was the first Christmas. It was not a pretty scene with snow falling peacefully. It contained real fear, real confusion, real hopelessness, real heartbreak. The bewilderment for Mary would have been so constant, the uncertainty for Joseph so vivid. The emptiness and despair of life for the shepherds would have been genuinely bleak. The intrigue of the wise men and all who came into contact with them must have been genuinely perplexing. The first Christmas was real.
As we come to another Christmas, let’s not just go through the motions of another ritual celebration. Let’s not think of it only in picture book scenes, nor apply its truth in nice generalities. Let’s be sure to bring the most real concerns of our time to the Christmas story and find in it a Saviour who has learned what it is to be human, what it is to enter into a world of political tensions, of the deadly inhumanity of men to one another, of the searing heartache of poverty. May we find a richer appreciation for our Lord because our 2025 Christmas realities meet with His first Christmas realities.
The reality of the incarnation is big enough to maintain its relevance and to shine forth its significance, no matter how difficult our current experience might be. May we honour God by bringing our real mess up close to the very real messiness of the first Christmas. There we will find a true Saviour, who is Christ our Lord, and that really is good news for all of humanity.
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Peter’s book, Pleased to Dwell, is an ideal read in the Christmas season. To buy in the UK or Europe, click here, and to buy in North America, click here. Please do subscribe to the podcast, and let others know about it too:
It has been a busy few months and I haven’t posted links to the podcast on here as much as I had planned. But let’s do a quick catch-up:
After a sequence of weddings, I shared some thoughts on preaching at a wedding. The last months included some great interviews, including:
Andy Paterson – Firstly, on how the Word does the work of ministry, and then, the relationships of a preacher.
Marcus Honeysett – First, on painting with fire, then on the nature of true transformation, and finally, on the heart of the preacher.
Steve Mathewson, we crossed the ocean to hear from Steve on the importance of all scripture in our preaching, and then we reminisced together about lessons learned from our mutual mentor, Haddon Robinson!
Jonathan Lamb – back to the UK to hear from Jonathan on crossing cultures as we think about preaching, and then we thought about how preaching models for listeners!
Rick McKinley – and once more back to the US to hear from an experienced pastor in the Portland metro area on connections required to connect with our listeners, and a great discussion about the role of humility in preaching.
Along the way, we have had some bitesize episodes on specific subjects, like adding to the text, is something missing in your preaching?, preaching the prophets, preaching at Christmas, and highlighting historical accuracy when we preach.
Mike and I have also enjoyed some helpful discussions: thoughts on being a guest preacher – something we’ve both done quite a bit of over the years!, landing a message, bad preaching (another area where we have experience!), a chat about Pleased to Dwell in anticipation of the advent season, and a chat about preaching at Christmastime!
We hope these episodes have been helpful for you, and if you have missed any, please do catch up! As ever, we really appreciate any help in getting the word out about the podcast – sharing links, liking, subscribing, etc., is all really helpful. If you particularly like an episode, please do let others know about it on social media – thank you in advance!
I can remember the first time I saw a Star Wars film in the cinema. This was back in the 1980s. With popcorn in hand, we found our plush velvet seats and tried to get comfortable. Then we were plunged into darkness. A slight pause. And then it began. In just two minutes, I was transported into another world. Everything normal seemed like a distant memory. “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…” Then the blast of the brass section of an orchestra as the film title appeared. Three paragraphs of background story to orient us, and we were there. The start of the Star Wars movies was genuinely epic.
The Bible can, and should, have that same effect on us. Lifting us out of the everyday rhythms of life and helping us to see another whole realm of reality. For instance, consider the theme of The Day of the LORD. It is mentioned eighteen times in the Old Testament, plus dozens of other references like “on that day.” It is that future moment when God would step into history, bringing judgment for the wicked and blessing for His people.
Not only is it anticipated in the Old Testament, but it is also still anticipated in the New Testament. Consider, for example, 2 Peter chapter 3. There, Peter describes how scoffers will ridicule the idea of anticipating that day. Their tactic? They will suggest that “nothing really changes.” And how effective that tactic can be. Nothing really changes. So why should we be concerned about anything happening in the world? Nothing really changes. Why should we try to influence what is going on around us? Nothing really changes. Why look for something to break in from outside of our world? Nothing really changes. Today is like yesterday, and tomorrow will be more of the same. As one fiction writer put it, “it is a pity that thoughts always ran the easiest way, like water in old ditches.”
And yet, the Bible wants to lift our eyes and our hearts beyond our psychological preference for predictability. It wants us to know, and live in light of, the reality that one day, God Himself will step into history again.
Consider one of the passages that anticipates “that day” – Malachi chapter 3. For the first few verses, we read of how God is coming, the messenger of the covenant who will come like the purifier’s fire, like fuller’s soap. Two vivid images of cleansing, purging, separating – that fire so hot that metal melts and the impurities are separated; that lye that pulls out the impurities from fabric and bleaches it clean. The Lord is coming to cleanse and purify. Yes, the focus is on restoring proper worship, but the imagery is imposing and intimidating.
We might expect the passage to conclude with a call to run. Run for your lives! Flee this terrible day that is coming! And yet, as in so many of the “Day of the LORD” passages, we find an invitation. This God, who is coming to purge and to cleanse, is a God of grace who invites His people to draw near to Him.
In verses 6 and 7, God speaks of His character. He does not change, which means they are not consumed (because He keeps His promises). But they should change. They should change direction. They have gone away from God, but if they return to Him, then He will return to them. As James later put it, “Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you” (James 4:8).
They asked how they could return. So God raised the issue of their giving. In verses 8-12, God describes how they should test Him (an unusual concept in the Bible!) by seeing if they could outgive God. They never would be able to do that! As we come to the end of the chapter, we find that some of the people who were challenged to give of their treasure, which really belonged to God anyway, were also moved in heart to fear God and be responsive to Him. So they are described as being God’s treasured possession.
A chapter that begins with such overpowering imagery of judgment is so full of God’s overflowing grace. Yes, the Day of the LORD is terrifying, and many in this world should be shaking with fear at what is coming. And yet, for those of us who know what it means to belong to this God, we can look forward, waiting, anticipating, hoping. We live today in light of that day, knowing that the old ditches of life are not forever. We understand that the “nothing really changes” mindset is doomed to be proven profoundly wrong. We wait, knowing that with a blast of the brass section of heaven’s orchestra, we will be transported into another time.
Honestly, I am not concerned with whether we agree on the details of what is to come in the future. I am worried that we are discouraged by the scoffers who claim that nothing really changes. Let’s read God’s Word and let it lift our eyes and our hearts. We have a God who has stepped into time and history and who will again. His coming will shake up everything. And we who live in anticipation of that day should live differently today.
In light of Malachi 3, let’s be sure to turn to God now and be ready for that day. Let’s consider our “tithing” – that is, our giving and investing in eternity today. And let’s rejoice at the privilege of being His treasured possession. May the Lord use us now as we live for Him, and wouldn’t it be great if He came back soon!
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With Christmas coming soon, it is time to start making plans … especially if you are involved in preaching or teaching! Check out the latest episode of the podcast, and please do subscribe so you don’t miss any of the forthcoming episodes!
Speaking truth in a world of lies is not easy. Serving God in a world that hates Him is not comfortable. Standing for what is right in a world hell-bent on evil is anything but pleasant. We all know this. We all feel it. And there are times when we feel it more vividly.
What causes discouragement? Of course, there is the insidious work of the enemy to tear down our resolve and distract our hearts. Then there are the people who stand opposed, with their ideologies, threats, and apparent power to harm. But perhaps the greatest discouragement comes from those who should know better. As the years pass, I see time and again the difficulty posed by other Christians and their reasons why we shouldn’t speak truth, serve God, and stand for what is right quite so boldly.
I have been encouraged by reading through Jeremiah again in recent days. God called him to speak God’s message to God’s people. What could be difficult about that? In Jeremiah 11:18-23, we see the men of his own hometown conspiring to kill him because he spoke for God. In Jeremiah 26, he speaks God’s message in the temple courts. Surely there, the people of God would be responsive to the truth? No, the prophets, the priests and all the people wanted to kill Jeremiah. Is it possible to imagine a time when speaking the truth brings condemnation and calls for elimination and death?
In Jeremiah 37-38, we see the prophet being lied about, beaten, imprisoned, and thrown into a cistern to die. And yet, Jeremiah continued to speak truth, to serve God, to stand for what was right. Yes, his message was controversial; it was unpopular, as it went against the prevailing narrative, and he knew the consequences of continuing to speak. And still, he continued to talk about truth, to serve God, and to stand for what was right.
The passage that grips my heart and lifts me to speak again is Jeremiah 20. In this passage, it was also a priest who opposed Jeremiah. Pashhur the priest beat the prophet and humiliated him at the gate. And yet, Jeremiah continued to speak the truth, for God, boldly. From verse 7, we get a glimpse into the suffering heart of the weeping prophet. It was not easy to speak God’s truth and to stand for what is right. We read his cry to God as he is humiliated. We read his despair as the words he speaks don’t land in the hearts of his listeners, but seem only to rain down blows on his own soul. Jeremiah seems worn down, his reserves gone, his motivation in tatters. Later in the lament, he is cursing the day he was born, even the man who came out and announced the news of his birth to his father. Sometimes the despair can be so vivid that you despise the fact that you were even born at all. And yet . . .
And yet, there is verse 9. If it is so hard to speak the truth and stand for what is right, serving God amidst the hostility of the enemy, and even of God’s own people, then maybe it is not worth it? Perhaps lying spent on the ground, his fuel tank emptied, his inner drive stalling, his motivation poured out in his tears, maybe he should stop speaking? And yet . . . “there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary of holding it in, and I cannot.”
The tears soak the ground. Tears of grief, of anger, of hurt. Tears not just at the evil of the enemy, but at the blindness and unwillingness to see among those who are supposedly on the same side. Tears of loss, tears filled with fear for the future, anger at injustice, weariness from the fight. The tears may soak the ground, and our energy may be all spent. And yet, is there not a burning fire still burning in our hearts and shut up in our bones? We cannot hold it in.
And so, like the weeping prophet of old, we rise to our knees, prayerfully resolute. We stand again. We take a breath. And we speak. We speak the truth, we serve God, we stand for what is right. Will those who should be with us change course and start to agree? Maybe. They can be won, one heart at a time. But perhaps they will continue to whisper and plot against us. Is it worth it? Can we, like Jeremiah, go again? We can if we remember who is with us. “The LORD is with me as a dread warrior.” (Jeremiah 20:11)
Are you wearied from the battle? That may be because of opposition from our spiritual enemy, or human forces arrayed against God’s truth, or even from “friendly fire” that sucks the motivation from you. Pour out all the angst that is built up inside. Pour it out until there is nothing left. And then ask yourself, is the fire still burning in my heart and shut up in my bones? “Alright then, Lord, if you will go with me, I will climb back onto my feet and go again. I will speak the truth. I will serve my God. I will stand for what is right. The LORD is with me as a dread warrior.”
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During a storm in life, people often look back to the calm moments before everything turned chaotic. It is strange to look back on a moment of tranquility when you had no idea what was about to take place. Psalm 27 reflects that experience. In the first half of the Psalm, David appears to be filled with faith and peace. Then, in the second half, there is more than a hint of fear in his words. Where other psalms begin with fear and end with faith, this psalm seems to reverse that pattern.
However, it may be helpful to see the psalm differently, not as part 1 followed by part 2, but as an outer layer and an inner layer. In the outer layer, David seems gripped by the reality of God’s greatness. He knows that God is greater than any enemy. He has seen it in the past, and he has confidence for the future. “The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?” (v 1)
He begins the psalm stating that God is the refuge of his heart (translated “life”), and his heart will not fear, even in the face of enemies, armies, and wars! (Psalm 27:1-3) Then at the conclusion of the psalm, he declares confidence in his future experience of the goodness of God and calls on others to strengthen their hearts by waiting for the LORD. (Psalm 27:13-14)
We live in tumultuous times. Whether we are in an active war zone or not, it seems that most of us are living in countries where tensions are running high. How can we have confidence in the Lord, strengthening our hearts as we wait for Him? Perhaps it is not enough to know that our God is bigger than our enemies, although that is undoubtedly true. Perhaps we should examine what happens in the inner layer of this psalm.
In verse 4, David describes his devotional determination to dwell in the house of the LORD and gaze upon the beauty of the LORD. It is in the security of God’s presence that he can get to know God for who He is. To be close to God is to be hidden in God’s shelter, concealed in His tent, lifted on a rock. The word translated as “shelter” carries the sense of a lion’s lair. Is there anywhere safer, presuming the Lion is good and is for you?
The secret to confidence in God is to meet God in the secret place. To gaze upon Him. To know Him. Jonathan Edwards wrote of Christ that He “has infinite loveliness to win and draw our love.” He went on to say that the angels in heaven, who can look on His face all the time, have never run out of reason to praise Him, even to this day. How lovely He must be! And so it is that we too can draw near to God in the person of Christ, and day after day, gaze upon the face of our God.
In fact, in troubled and tumultuous times, our people need us to do just that. If we are going to lead our families, our ministries, our churches, then we need to be spending time hiding in God’s presence, gazing on and getting to know the “light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (2 Corinthians 4:6)
Not only does David declare that he will seek God’s face, but God invites him to do so. It is a bit like playing hide and seek with a small child. Hide and seek is a classic children’s game. One person counts to 100, while the other players hide. Then the seeker goes hunting for the hidden. It can be frustrating if the players are too creative. But when you play the game with a toddler, it can be so much fun. They want to be found! All you need to do is say out loud what you are thinking, “I am thinking she might be behind the armchair?” And a little voice will giggle behind the curtain. “Is she behind the television?” And a little voice will say, “No!” It is all about the moment of discovery, the unbridled joy when two faces meet.
“Seek my face,” God says. And as leaders of God’s people, may the cry of our hearts be, “Your face, O LORD, do I seek.” We need to gaze on the beauty of His character to have confidence in His strength. The greatest one is for us, so let’s not hold back. Draw near, gaze, and grow in confidence. Fearful times will come, but faith-filled leaders will emerge from God’s presence confident and ready.
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When we preach a Bible passage, we need to preach the text. That may sound obvious, but many don’t do it. Some preachers use the text as a launching point – they read the text and then preach an associated thought from their own thinking or theology. Others bounce briefly off the text and then preach other passages with some perceived connection.
God is the best communicator, so as preachers, we want to reflect his communication as best we can. When you are preaching a passage, really try to preach it. That includes helping your listeners to see what is there, to understand what is there, and to feel the force of what is there. To really preach a passage is not simply to educate listeners in the meaning, although that is a good start. It is to get them into the text and get the text into them, and it is to introduce the God who is revealing himself through the text so that they experience the transformative power of a personal encounter. The preacher is not merely teaching, but introducing, match-making, and fanning the flames of the relationship between listeners and God.
If we commit to truly preaching a passage, then we will come up against the challenge of saying more than the text says. That is, if we are really committed to a high view of the biblical text, are we straying if we add any detail not overtly stated in the passage? If we have a biblical narrative, are we restricted in telling the story so that we cannot fully tell it, but instead end up preaching theological points connected to it? Are we trying to cram a 100-word reading into a 4000-word speech without really saying anything beyond the 100 words of the passage?
Here are five thoughts that may help when it comes to the subject of “adding to the text.”
1. Think about the “informing texts” – As well as the passage you are preaching, there will be other passages that inform the content of your preaching passage. Any passage quoted, or alluded to, or that provides the relevant history (think Acts for some of the epistles) should be considered as fair game for helpful content as you preach your passage.
2. Consider “related texts” – This is more subjective, but some passages are more related to your preaching text than others. The same author or the same time period will tend to be more related than a distant author and era (unless the era is earlier and may have informed your writer, but then we are back to number 1: informing texts). Related texts can be helpful, but don’t lean on them so much that your preaching passage is lost in the process.
3. Make plain “assumed knowledge” – When the Bible writers wrote, they were not thinking of readers in a different culture, language, location, and historical era. So there is a lot of background information that is assumed. The author might assume the reader knows who the Pharisees were, named individuals, cultural events, or societal norms. Geographic descriptions weren’t needed for the original readers, but they might be highly helpful for modern listeners to make sense of the setting of a passage. It is not going beyond the text to state overtly what is implicitly assumed within the text. Study the background, the culture, the geography, etc., and help people to understand, visualize, and feel the impact of the passage as you preach.
4. “Imagined” thoughts and feelings in a passage can be shared honestly – We don’t know what was going through a character’s mind, or even what was happening in their life around the events of a story. Where we use our imagination to help bring a passage to life, be sure to help listeners know that you are not asserting divine revelation. I was listening to a Haddon Robinson sermon recently, and he said something like, “I’m not sure he said this, but I know we do…” It was a helpful way to connect the real-life aspects of the story to the real-life experiences of Haddon’s listeners. “I can imagine how Peter may have felt…” is a perfectly legitimate statement because your listeners know you are using your imagination.
5. Only “assert what the text asserts” – While sanctified, humble, and informed imagination can be helpful, it should never be the substance of your preaching points. Let the thrust of your message, both at the level of the main idea and the main points, come from the passage. Do not make assertions based on assumptions, imagination, or guesswork. An example comes from Psalms where the historical setting is not stated but only guessed, and then the preacher makes a point that depends on a guessed historical setting. Let the text drive the points you are making. Use your imagination to help proclaim the passage.
Seasoned preachers know that the bigger challenge will always be what to leave out, rather than what to add to a message. But in some settings, people have an overly restricted view of what should be said in a sermon. They fear saying anything more than the passage itself states overtly. That can restrict effective preaching.
Let’s make it our goal to plumb the depths of our passage, to proclaim it as fully and engagingly as possible, and to make sure that it does its work in bringing listeners into an encounter with the God who reveals himself through the Word.
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Here is last week’s podcast episode on this subject:
Evangelical Focus just published an interview with me. Lots about preaching in here, so I hope you find it helpful!
“The solution is not less preaching, but better preaching”, Evangelical Focus
It does not surprise me when I find scholars who do not believe the Bible is God’s inspired Word and also have a problem with the Apostle Paul. But it still surprises me to find Bible-believing Christians who view Paul negatively. For some, this is a reaction to his argumentative persona and intellectual presentation of complex truths. For others, the antagonism comes from the feeling that he is misogynistic or overly self-referential.
Where there is a specific criticism based on a particular passage, it helps to study that passage in its context and take into account the rest of his writings as well. But where the criticism is more a general feeling (i.e. he is too argumentative or complex), I think what helps is to try to enter into his world and see Paul in action.
At the beginning of Galatians, we find an extended biographical section that, at first glance, may appear self-congratulatory. However, delving into Paul’s world is a worthwhile endeavour. Not only will we find a brilliant and articulate fighter for the truth of the gospel – perhaps even a hero of the faith – but we will also find a motivation we can emulate. Maybe most of us will never be as brilliant as Paul. But all of us could love Jesus and the truth of the Gospel as Paul did. And if we did, perhaps the global and eternal impact would be beyond anything we have dreamt.
Let me try to give you a taste of this. On Paul’s first missionary journey, as recorded in Acts 13-14, Paul and Barnabas arrived in the region of Galatia, preached the gospel, and saw churches established. They were understandably excited as they headed for home base to report what God had done. But when they arrived, they discovered that others had followed in their footsteps and sought to correct their ministry. The criticism? Paul was not a full apostle, and Paul did not preach a complete gospel message. Perhaps Paul was portrayed as well-intentioned, and his message was seen to serve as a good starting point. But these later teachers were promoting themselves as representatives of the Jerusalem apostles and their Law-based message as a more complete and committed version of what God expects.
Paul was livid! He wrote Galatians to ward off this falsehood and try to win back the hearts of the believers before they were pulled away by this destructive corruption of the good news he had preached.
Why did Paul write with an edge? (No pun intended) Why does he seem to be shouting? Why is Paul so sharp with them? (Ok, that was slightly deliberate for the context!) The answer is that Paul loved Jesus, the Gospel, and the believers in the Galatian churches. Like a parent shouting sharply at a child walking towards a busy road, Paul was desperate to get their attention.
In the latter verses of Chapter 1, he laid out his apostolic credentials. This was not about showing off but about exposing the lies being told about him. He did not derive his authority from Jerusalem. He had barely been there. His authority came from God himself. And in the opening verses of Chapter 2, he focused on his Gospel message. It was a message that he had laid before the Jerusalem apostles. Even under pressure from the same false teachers, Paul’s Gentile companion Titus had not been compelled to be circumcised. The highest council of apostles, the inner circle itself, had affirmed his calling with a hearty handshake and no doctrinal caveats.
When you ponder the world Paul inhabited, it becomes clear that he was driven not by a desire to win arguments or a passion for self-promotion like an early social media influencer. A deep love for Jesus drove Paul, and therefore, a passion for the gospel of God’s grace that truly transforms lives from the inside out. It was that deep love that drove Paul to travel, to preach, to be misunderstood, to be persecuted, to suffer, and eventually, to die for the Lord that he loved. In Galatians 2:11-14, it was that deep love that drove Paul to take a most uncomfortable step: he publicly called the great senior apostle Peter a hypocrite in front of his home crowd.
I’m not suggesting we should be looking for opportunities to poke others in the chest. I’ve seen far too much bombastic finger-wagging on social media. But I’ve also seen far too little courage in person when faced with character and behaviour that compromises the Gospel. Will we be willing to take uncomfortable steps in the face of compromise, or will we be willing to take uncomfortable steps in the calling of missionary need?
We cannot give ourselves a good talking-to and suddenly generate sacrificial motivation for ministry. Neither can we muster up Paul’s level of theological brilliance just because we start to find him inspiring. But we can gaze long and hard at Jesus. We can ponder the wonder of the gospel of God’s grace in Christ deeply. We can ask God to give us a heart-exploding glimpse into the wonder of who Jesus is and what Jesus has done. Because if we see Jesus for who he is, if we get a sense of the wonder of the gospel, then perhaps we will start to share in Paul’s motivation for the truth of the gospel.
Why did Paul contend for the truth of the gospel, even in the face of opposition? Two words from Galatians 2:5 – it was so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved “for you.” And by extension, from Galatia down through two millennia, it was for it to be preserved for us. May we be ever more captivated by the glorious good news of God’s great love for us so that we are motivated to preserve it for others.
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Biblical Preaching 