When called on to preach, whether you are a pastor or lay preacher, do you sometimes find yourself blocked? "Writer's block is a common complaint from many authors. They reach a point sometimes when they simply cannot produce anything worth reading. Preachers often encounter this same kind of roadblock when they attempt to prepare sermons."- William Powell Tuck With this opening sentence, Dr Tuck brings his many years of experience as professor and pastor and freely gives some "nuts and bolts" of sermon preparation and "pots and pans" essential for effective preaching. This book is not about the philosophy or theology of preaching but about preparing for, writing, and preaching a sermon. While the reader may quickly find a solution to this week's sermon, Dr. Tuck also gives ideas and plans for long-term preparation to open a new pathway, moving sermons from a burden to a blessing for the writer as well as the intended listener. Anyone called to preach can benefit from reading this book.

What is the foundation of good preaching? How should preachers prepare themselves to faithfully and effectively address the church? And, just as importantly, what ought congregants, who come to church to hear a word from God, hope for from their preachers? These are often asked — and often answered — questions. But Robert Farrar Capon tackles them with a freshness and a frankness that make both the questions and the answers new. In Part 1 of the book, "The Bedrock of Preaching," Capon discusses how essential it is to have "a passion for the Passion" (to believe passionately in the Good News of salvation in Christ), how to overcome the stumbling blocks to genuinely accepting grace, and how to relinquish a false sense of control over our salvation. This part of the book also has important things to say to those of us who listen to sermons and who look to the pulpit for words of grace and hope that are truly meaningful to our lives today. In Part 2, "The Practice of Preaching," Capon concentrates on the mechanics of preaching in anything but a mechanical way. He begins by discussing the ingredients of preaching, emphasizing the importance of not just reading but really hearing the Word in the original Greek and Hebrew, and offers some pointed comments on the Common Lectionary. He then goes on to illustrate how to preach effectively from notes, giving specific, day-by-day suggestions for preparation. He also shows, using the full text of one of his sermons as an example, how to preach from a more fully written manuscript and explains how to move from first notes to final notes for a sermon, again using some of his own notes as an example. In Capon's creative hands these instructions are not just a nuts-and-bolts exercise; they are lively, challenging lessons in preaching that, for all their practical advice, never lose touch with the center of preaching and belief — the astonishing grace of Jesus Christ.

I would like to have you open your Bible at the first epistle of John, fifth chapter, fourth and fifth verses: "Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?" When a battle is fought, all are anxious to know who are the victors. In these verses we are told who is to gain the victory in life. When I was converted I made this mistake: I thought the battle was already mine, the victory already won, the crown already in my grasp. I thought that old things had passed away, that all things had become new; that my old corrupt nature, the Adam life, was gone. But I found out, after serving Christ for a few months, that conversion was only like enlisting in the army, that there was a battle on hand, and that if I was to get a crown, I had to work for it and fight for it. Salvation is a gift, as free as the air we breathe. It is to be obtained, like any other gift, without money and without price: there are no other terms. "To him that worketh not, but believeth." But on the other hand, if we are to gain a crown, we must work for it. Let me quote a few verses in First Corinthians: "For other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. But if any man buildeth on the foundation gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, stubble; each man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it is revealed in fire: and the fire itself shall prove each man's work, of what sort it is. If any man's work shall abide, which he built thereon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as through fire." - Taken from "The Overcoming Life and Other Sermons" written by Dwight Lyman Moody

The Christian's Warfare I would like to have you open your Bible at the first epistle of John, fifth chapter, fourth and fifth verses: "Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?" When a battle is fought, all are anxious to know who are the victors. In these verses we are told who is to gain the victory in life. When I was converted I made this mistake: I thought the battle was already mine, the victory already won, the crown already in my grasp. I thought that old things had passed away, that all things had become new; that my old corrupt nature, the Adam life, was gone. But I found out, after serving Christ for a few months, that conversion was only like enlisting in the army, that there was a battle on hand, and that if I was to get a crown, I had to work for it and fight for it. Salvation is a gift, as free as the air we breathe. It is to be obtained, like any other gift, without money and without price: there are no other terms. "To him that worketh not, but believeth." But on the other hand, if we are to gain a crown, we must work for it. Let me quote a few verses in First Corinthians: "For other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. But if any man buildeth on the foundation gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, stubble; each man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it is revealed in fire: and the fire itself shall prove each man's work, of what sort it is. If any man's work shall abide, which he built thereon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as through fire." We see clearly from this that we may be saved, but all our works burned up. I may have a wretched, miserable voyage through life, with no victory, and no reward at the end; saved, yet so as by fire, or as Job puts it, "with the skin of my teeth." I believe that a great many men will barely get to heaven as Lot got out of Sodom, burned out, nothing left, works and everything else destroyed. It is like this: when a man enters the army, he is a member of the army the moment he enlists; he is just as much a member as a man who has been in the army ten or twenty years. But enlisting is one thing, and participating in a battle another. Young converts are like those just enlisted. It is folly for any man to attempt to fight in his own strength. The world, the flesh and the devil are too much for any man. But if we are linked to Christ by faith, and He is formed in us the hope of glory, then we shall get the victory over every enemy. It is believers who are the overcomers. "Thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ." Through Him we shall be more than conquerors.

I would like to have you open your Bible at the first epistle of John, fifth chapter, fourth and fifth verses: "Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?"When a battle is fought, all are anxious to know who are the victors. In these verses we are told who is to gain the victory in life. When I was converted I made this mistake: I thought the battle was already mine, the victory already won, the crown already in my grasp. I thought that old things had passed away, that all things had become new; that my old corrupt nature, the Adam life, was gone. But I found out, after serving Christ for a few months, that conversion was only like enlisting in the army, that there was a battle on hand, and that if I was to get a crown, I had to work for it and fight for it.

Prior to the publication of his well-known classic, The Normal Christian Life, Watchman Nee released a series of messages on the overcoming life. In many respects these messages are the basis for living the normal Christian life. Those who have read The Normal Christian Life will find that The Overcoming Life speaks with the same freshness, clarity, and surpassing originality. The Overcoming Life is not a call to attain an extraordinary measure of "spirituality." Rather, it is a call to normalcy, a call to pursue the life that is hidden with Christ in God. This call reverberates within seeking believers who, despite a keen awareness of their weakness, sense an inward call to overcome. In The Overcoming Life Watchman Nee exposes the problems besetting seeking Christians. Using God's Word, he examines the defeated state of believers. Then he opens up a revelation of the victorious, overcoming Christ, in order to guide the reader into an experience of Christ's victory. The Overcoming Life teems with truth, reverberates with hope, and brings the reader to renewed consecration.

Much in this life contends to master us--sin, the flesh, the devil, even mere distractions. But Christ promised and the apostles confirmed that believers would live lives characterized by overcoming. Yet many Christians miss out on the victorious life Christ won for them because they are trapped in guilt and shame, immobilized by fear, or stuck in old patterns of thinking. This classic work from legendary Bible teacher and evangelist Dwight L. Moody shows believers how they can have confidence in Christ's call on their lives, and thus experience the full joy of the Lord, both in this life and the next.