Preaching as “Whetting Your Appetite for the Word of God”

Recently, my wife and I had the joy of bringing our second son, Nathan, into the world. Newborns cry (for those of you who are not parents yet). Nathan cries amazingly loud when he’s hungry. He desires, with unfettered passion, to be fed every 2-3 hours. God reminds us in 1 Peter 2:2 that we are to desire his Word as babies desire to be fed. I had to ask myself when was the last time I cried out for the Word of God. I think that may be a good question for our congregations as well.

I realize we live in a culture full of distractions. Unfortunately, our enemy is adept at using the distractions that surround us to keep us from desiring and ingesting God’s Word into our lives. Part of our responsibility as preachers and teachers is to whet our hearers’ appetites for the Word of God.

I first heard that expression from Dr. Kenneth Ridings, an excellent expositor and my first homiletics professor. His primary method of teaching homiletics, was preaching his best sermons to novice preachers in class.... Keep reading