With another Lord’s Day on the horizon, I offer this quote by J. C. Ryle passed on to me by one of our deacons as a way for all of us to prepare for our encounter with God through the preaching of His word.

Let us beware of despising preaching. In every age of the Church, it has been God’s principal instrument for the awakening of sinners and the edifying of saints. The days when there has been little or no preaching have been days when there has been little or no good done in the Church. Let us hear sermons in a prayerful and reverent frame of mind, and remember that they are the principal engines which Christ Himself employed when He was upon earth. Not least, let us pray daily for a continual supply of faithful preachers of God’s Word. According to the state of the pulpit will always be the state of a congregation and of a Church (Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Luke volume 1, [Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1986], 128, 129).

That last line sobers me as a preacher as it should every church goer who listens to preachers.

Let us pray daily for a continual supply of faithful preachers of God’s Word.