Book Review

The Supremacy of God In Preaching by John Piper

This is an excellent book about how the focus of preaching should be God, not story telling or entertaining, or anything else. God should not only be the focus of preaching, but He should be the focus of our life. Whatever you do, do for the glory of God.

The book is split into two parts. Part 1 is about the supremacy of God in preaching. Part 2 is about Jonathan Edwards as an example of the supremacy of God. Personally, I had no interest in the life of Jonathan Edwards as far as this book is concerned.

While I thought the first part of the book is excellent, I am surprised that a book like this even needs to be wrote. Everything Piper wrote should be intuitively obvious to any preacher. Unfortunately, many preachers don't make God the focus of their preaching or ministry.

One of the things that I found helpful and interesting was Piper's method of preaching with the strength of God. He uses the acronym APTAT to remember and explain his process.

Admit that without God you are powerless.
Pray for help, insight, power, love, humility, etc.
Trust in God's promises in His Word.
Act in confidence that God will fulfill His Word.
Thank God at the end of the message.

I would recommend at least the first part of this book to anyone wanting a refresher or reinforcement of what the focus of preaching should be.