Testimony of a Preacher (Part 2 of 2)
Truth For Life Daily Program
Alistair Begg
4.8 • 4.5K Ratings
🗓️ 20 September 2025
⏱️ 25 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What makes preaching powerful? Is it the speaker’s knowledge, eloquence, passion, or sense of humor? Find out what the apostle Paul relied upon as he proclaimed the Gospel to crowds that were often unwelcoming. Listen to Truth For Life with Alistair Begg.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | What is it that makes preaching truly powerful? |
| 0:28.1 | Is it the speaker's knowledge or his eloquence, his passion, his sense of humor? |
| 0:33.9 | Today on Truth for Life weekend, Alistair Begg draws from the Apostle Paul's letter to the Corinthians |
| 0:38.9 | to help us understand what Paul relied on as he took the gospel message to crowds that were often unwelcoming. |
| 0:51.4 | I did not come into Corinth, he said, and try and dance your tune. I didn't come in and play your game. |
| 0:58.3 | I didn't come in and set up my stall and stand on my box and go at it the way you like it. |
| 1:03.9 | I decided I wasn't doing it. And furthermore, he said, not only did I not use Logos, but I didn't use Sophos. I didn't use Sophia. I didn't use |
| 1:14.1 | the wisdom that they like. What did he carry with it? Well, you'll find that in verse three. What did |
| 1:20.5 | he check? He checked three things. Weakness, fear, and much trembling. Not exactly what you would call impressive, you think? When it says that he was |
| 1:31.7 | there in fear, do you think he was frightened to preach? No, he was preaching all the time. Do you think |
| 1:36.9 | he was frightened to get his head chopped off? No, he'd already decided he was going to get his head |
| 1:40.5 | chopped up. Do you think he was afraid of what people say? Get real. Everybody had said |
| 1:45.6 | everything. There was nothing more for them to say. What was he afraid of? I'll tell you what he was |
| 1:49.3 | afraid of. He was afraid of the fact that when he looked at himself and saw how impoverished he was, |
| 1:55.3 | when he looked at people and saw how great their need was, and when he looked at God and saw the |
| 1:59.7 | calling he'd been given, |
| 2:06.2 | he was afraid that he would intrude upon the proclamation in such a way that folks would be attached to him and would miss what God was saying. That's what he was afraid of. That's |
| 2:11.4 | what ought to make a preacher fearful. And that is why he dumped the bags, because he knew that if he gave them what they wanted |
| 2:21.0 | they may buy it at that price |
| 2:23.0 | and having bought it at that discounted level |
| 2:25.5 | it would be an irrelevancy to them as they face the future. |
| 2:30.5 | So here he is. He's run down. He's a sorry sight. He's not the kind of individual that you expect to put face to face with people who admired strength and creativity and oratory and philosophy. Can you imagine introducing him to a group of people at the prayer breakfast in Washington, D.C.? We bring the president and we bring all the powerful and the mighty. Well, |
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