Hard Hitting Preaching

/ Expository Preaching, Preaching Helps / By
I preach passionately and I often preach very emotionally.  I think this is necessary, for emotions are gifts of God that reveal our personality and our disposition and often enhance a proper understanding of the Word of God as delivered during a sermon.  I have recently seen (click here for an example from Mark Driscoll, who is probably the poster child for angry preaching) and preached sermons filled with what I pray was righteous anger at the sin that is rampant even within our churches. 
 
This has prompted me to pray and think on emotionalism and specifically anger and passion in preaching and I would like to share with you a few questions that have helped me to determine when anger and other emotions are appropriate in preaching.
 
  1. Is the anger properly directed at sin and not at an offence that I have personally incurred?
  2. Will the sermon be better understood or will it be clouded because of my emotion?
  3. Does my tone point to or take away from God’s word in the sermon?
  4. Does my emotion elevate me or does it elevate God and his holiness?
  5. Am I saying anything for which I will need to repent to God or apologize to others later?
  6. Would I say it in front of my momma (Let’s be honest, if you can’t say it in front of her, it doesn’t need to be said in a sermon)?
  7. Is my emotion appropriate (A pastor shouldn’t be jovial when preaching the crucifixion, for example)?

D. Martyn Lloyd Jones has this to say about emotions in the pulpit:

The Apostle Paul was a giant intellect, one of the master minds of the centuries; bu the often wept as he spoke and preached.  He was moved to tears.  Where has this notion come from that if you are a great intellect you show no emotion?  How ridiculous and fatuous it is!  A man who is not moved by these things, I maintain, has never really understood them.

In agreement with Dr. Lloyd-Jones, I would wholeheartedly suggest that if you are not moved to sorrow, joy, pity, and even anger in preaching God’s word, you have not really understood it.  Preach with passion and preach with emotion.  Preach with all you have.  Give them hell, then show them heaven, but by all means, give them the cross with all of your emotion and all of your passion and then watch as the power of the gospel transforms sinners into saints before your eyes.