Proverbs 22:6 Children

Proverbs 22:6 Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.

Given what this proverb suggests every pastor must giive attention to children in his orbit. He can make quite an impact on them, if he is wise. He can bear them in mindwhen preaching to all, with a children's talk before the sermon and through arranging Sunday School and special meetings. He must not neglect the children. Spurgeon says

To a rational preacher and all are not rational it must seem essential to interest all his audience from the eldest to the youngest. We ought not to make even children inattentive. Make them inattentive say you who does that? I say that most preachers do and when children are not quiet in a meeting it is often as much our fault as theirs. Can you not put in a little story or parable on purpose for the little ones? Can you not catch the eye of the boy in the gallery and the little girl downstairs who have begun to fidget and smile them into order? I often talk with my eyes to the orphan boys at the foot of my pulpit. We want all eyes fixed upon us and all ears open to us. To me it is an annoyance if even a blind man does not look at me with his face. If I see anybody turning round whispering, nodding or looking at his watch, I judge that I am not up to the mark and must by some means win these minds. Very seldom have I to complain and when I do my general plan is to complain of myself and own that I have no right to attention unless I know how to command it.

Proverbs 24:27 Priorities

27 Put your outdoor work in order and get your fields ready; after that, build your house.

The proverb has a very agricultural turn but its underlying message is things need to be done in the right order. One has to have priorities. This is true in the monistrry as much as in any other sphere. At any given moment one can be doing one of several useful things - reading, praying, evangelising, visiting, sermon preparing, etc. If we lack a proper sense of priotrities we will not do well. Some years ago Brian Croft wrote a book called The Pastor’s Ministry: Biblical Priorities for Faithful Shepherds (Zondervan, 2015). There he says

“Many pastors, myself included, will go week after week until eventually that soft but necessary voice calling us to stop and pray just fades out. If enough time passes, the voice of conviction and desire will go away. When that happens, prayer gets squeezed out of our life. Ironically, a pastor can be so busy caring for his people that he never makes time to stop and pray for them. But this isn’t right. It reveals a lack of faith and a problem with misplaced priorities.”

Proverbs for Pastoring

I recently heard Phil Heaps speak on Proverbs for pastoring and he made these helpful points.

1. It lays out three basic issues

Be teachable, wisdom involves effort, bear in mind that there are competing voices

2. It encourages every day application

3. It models memorable language

One liners, portraits, etc

4. It employs multiple methods

Discursive, punchy one liners, different types of proverbs

5. It forces uus to teach creatively

Proverbs 18:13 Listening first

Proverbs 18

13 To answer before listening - that is folly and shame.

In most preaching situations there is no opportunity to listen to what others have to say first but it is good to do some research beforehand. If I assert that there is a God, how will people react? If I say Jesus can save you, how will they react? Although we will not want to argue over every statement we make, there is merit in taking time to argue the case, at least from time to time.

Proverbs 26:8 Honest and without Flattery

Proverb 26:8 A lying tongue hates those it hurts, and a flattering mouth works ruin.

When we preach we must preach the truth and we must not flatter people. If we focus on expounding the Word then we will be preaching the truth. When we want to use a story for illustration purposes it is important that we do all we can to get the details right and not to tells stories that are untrue. So take stories of thunderbolts hitting churches. That certainly happened but do not assume that the time it is said that it happened and what was being said are correct. Check it out carefully. We have all heard the story of the professor asking a class if they would recommend abortion for a woman with syphillis who already has eight children of whom three are deaf, two blind and one educationally subnormal. They are then told they just killed Beethoven but the details do not fit the facts. Beethoven was the third of eight children his older siblings dying in infancy.

As for flattering people in preaching, it is an important rule of rhetoric to identify with one's audience but we must not flatter them. In Romans 16:18 Paul warns against false teachers saying For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people. in 1 Thessalonians 2:5 he reminds them how he never used flattery, nor did we put on a mask to cover up greed - God is our witness. 

Calvin says

The preachers of the gospel have .. their courtesy and their pleasing manner, but joined with honesty, so that they neither soothe men with vain praises, nor flatter their vices: but impostors allure men by flattery, and spare and indulge their vices, that they may keep them attached to themselves.

Proverbs 15:1, 2, 7, 23, 28 Gentle, apt, right arguments

15:1 A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. 

15:2 The tongue of the wise adorns knowledge, but the mouth of the fool gushes folly. 

15:7 The lips of the wise spread knowledge, but the hearts of fools are not upright. 

15:23 A person finds joy in giving an apt reply - and how good is a timely word! 

15:28 The heart of the righteous weighs its answers, but the mouth of the wicked gushes evil.

Part of the task of the preacher is to present good arguments for his case. A wise preacher will spread knowledge and adorn it by his arguments. He will not gush folly or speak from a heart that is not upright. His arguments will be characterised by gentleness, aptness and well weighed answers. He will not stir up anger by his harsh approach or disappointment by failing to give an untimely word or gush the evil the wicked speak.

The story is told of a preacher finding the sermon notes of the previous preacher in the pulpit adn noticing that at certain points in the margin of his manuscript this preacher had written the letter PWSL. The second preacher wondered what PWSL could stand for and so when he had the opportunity he asked. "Oh" said the first preacher, rather embarrassed, "It stands for point weak, shout leader!". Rather than running to such expedients we should rather be seeking to argue the case in an apt, well weighed and gentle way.

Proverbs 15:4 Tenderness not harshness

The soothing tongue is a tree of life, but a perverse tongue crushes the spirit.
It is easy to fall into scolding a congregation, using what this proverb calls a harsh, bitter, rough or grievous tongue. Much better to use soft and soothing words, ones that are wholesome and healing not to ingratiate oneself with a congregation but in order to win them over - in order to be a tree of life  This is the fourth and final time Proverbs uses the phrase tree of life (see 3:18, 11:30, 13:12). It is referred to wisdom and understanding, the fruit of righteousness and to a longing fulfilled.If we can speak of these things in a winning way, what good may result. Proverbs 12:18 and 16:24 are similar - The words of the reckless pierce like swords, but the tongue of the wise brings healing and Gracious words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones. In Matthew Henry's words a healing tongue is "healing to wounded consciences by comforting them, to sin-sick souls by convincing them" and, we may add, healing to despairing hearts by pointing them to the Saviour. Our preaching should not be harsh but we should speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15)

Preaching on Psalm 103:13, 14 Spurgeon once said

The drift of this lesson, is this - s your heavenly Father has pity on you, have pity on one another. He remembers that we are dust; remember this of others. You, who live in the same house, do not fall out with each other. You, who are members of the same church, do not criticise and judge each other so severely ... Preacher, mind you learn your own lesson - be as tender towards those who sin as the Master was.