The Supremacy Of God In Preaching by John Piper
There are five steps that I follow in seeking to preach not in my own strength but in the strength that God supplies. I sum them up with an acronym so that I can remember them when my mind is befogged by fear or distraction.
The acronym is APTAT
APTAT
I Admit to the Lord that without him I can do nothing. I affirm that John 15:5 is absolutely true of me at this moment: “Apart from me you can do nothing.”I admit to God: My heart would not beat wihtout you. My eyes could not see without you. My memory would fail without you. Wihout you I will be plagued with distraction and self-consciousness. Without you I will doubt your reality. Without you I will feel no awe at the truth I am about to speak. Without you the Word will fall on deaf ears. Who but you can raise the dead? Without you, O God, I can do nothing.
Therefore , Father, I pray for help. I beg for the insight and the power and the humility and the love and the memory and the freedom that I need to preach this message for the glory of your name and the gladness of your people and the ingathering of your elect. I accept your invitation,”Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me” Ps. 50:15
The next step is Trust – not merely in a general way in God’s goodness, but in a specific promise where I can bank my hope for that hour. I find this kind of specific trust in a particular Word of God utterly essential to fight off the assault of Satan in those moments. Recently I strengthened myself with Psalm 40:17:”As for me, I am poor and needy, but the Lord takes thought for me. You are my help and my deliverer, do not delay, O my God! I memorise the verse early in the morning, recite it to myself in that moment, believe it, resist the devil with it, and
I Act in the confidence that God will fulfill his Word. And I can testify that, though the fullness of blessing that I long to see has been delayed, God has met me and my people again and again in the display of his glory and the glad submission of his people. This leads to the final step.
I Thank God at the end of the message that I was sustained and that the truth of his Word and the purchase of his cross have been preached in some measure in the power of his Spirit to the glory of his name.
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