Brings the Bold Assurance concept to the pulpit, giving preachers a practical tool to help them use their minds, mouths, and beings to communicate effectively.

Preachers are under the biblical mandate to preach with conviction, passion, and in a way that the Word of God engages the audience and grips their hearts. Hershael York and Bert Decker have written a book that will equip preachers to do just that. Preaching with Bold Assurance brings the Bold Assurance concept to the pulpit, giving preachers a practical tool to help them use their minds, mouths, and beings to communicate effectively. Preachers will learn the tools for powerful and effective communication based on biblical truth and proven concepts from the business world so they can preach boldly and skillfully by understanding how God uses us as communicators.

Whether preaching or witnessing, speaking is a critical communication tool in almost all facets of Christian life. This book brings the Bold Assurance concept to Christian leaders and laypeople, giving them a tool to help them use their minds, mouths, and beings to communicate effectively. Readers will learn the tools for powerful and effective communication based on two things: biblical truth and proven concepts from the business world. For the first time, Christian laypeople and leaders alike can reap the benefits of speaking boldly and skillfully by understanding how God uses us as communicators.

I was given this moment of time to allow me the way to go home or a split second of reaction time to stay. I knew I would only have that second to react, and my mind knew what it needed to do. We both were feeling as if we were paralyzed, as we could think but couldnt move. Remember, time was standing still for us, and we were in that moment of time. Just as time was very slowly starting to kick in for us both, I was able to begin lifting my arm to block the axe, (still in slow motion). The axe was coming right at me, and I knew if I missed, the axe was going to kill me in front of my son. I knew it would be lights out for me, but tragedy for Aubrey. Its funny how we both knew and both could see that my life was going to end. I believe that in life we have checkpointspoints in life we can choose to go home by or continue on in life if we want to continue. For me this was a checkpoint, but what would that mean for Aubrey? Could you imagine being with someone you love and watching an axe split them open, before your very eyes? That was not a moment I wanted Aubrey to bear. I knew I couldnt leave such a loving being with such tragedy to deal with. This was not going to happen. I was going to go on for yet another day.

In the homiletics field, a text has been needed that blends hermeneutics, sermon development, and sermon delivery. Engaging Exposition fills that gap with what its experienced authors call a "3-D approach" to preaching. Bill Curtis writes about the Discovery process—how to equip the student to discover the meaning of a biblical text by using sound principles of interpretation, and to move from biblical analysis to biblical interpretation. Danny Akin addresses the Development process—how to equip the student to develop expository sermons based upon results of the interpretive process, and to move from the Main Idea of the Text (MIT) to the completed sermon. Stephen Rummage explains the Delivery process—how to equip students to deliver expository messages using the completed sermon, and to move from an understanding of speech communication principles to persuasive delivery.

“If there were a Guinness Book of World Records entry for ‘amount of times having prayed the sinner’s prayer,’ I’m pretty sure I’d be a top contender,” says pastor and author J. D. Greear. He struggled for many years to gain an assurance of salvation and eventually learned he was not alone. “Lack of assurance” is epidemic among evangelical Christians. In Stop Asking Jesus Into Your Heart, J. D. shows that faulty ways of present- ing the gospel are a leading source of the confusion. Our presentations may not be heretical, but they are sometimes misleading. The idea of “asking Jesus into your heart” or “giving your life to Jesus” often gives false assurance to those who are not saved—and keeps those who genuinely are saved from fully embracing that reality. Greear unpacks the doctrine of assurance, showing that salvation is a posture we take to the promise of God in Christ, a posture that begins at a certain point and is maintained for the rest of our lives. He also answers the tough questions about assurance: What exactly is faith? What is repentance? Why are there so many warnings that seem to imply we can lose our salvation? Such issues are handled with respect to the theological rigors they require, but Greear never loses his pastoral sensitivity or a communication technique that makes this message teachable to a wide audience from teens to adults.

For those in local church ministry, it is often a pressing matter to find the time to take care of their own souls. More often than not, pastors tend to prioritize sermon preparation and delivery as their primary tasks, when actually their first task should be their own spiritual health. It is for this purpose that this book is written--to encourage pastors to soul care before sermon preparation. If pastors will prepare their own hearts, the sermon will fall in line and permeate the hearts of the listeners.