With our skills article this week we are beginning a new skills theme that I am tremendously excited about: Preaching the Four Gospels with Confidence.

Preaching from Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John presents many challenges, including:

• How to explain and preach parallel Gospel accounts that seem to contradict one another, or use a different narrative sequence or chronology.
• How to preach about Jesus' interactions with Satan and demons given the naturalistic worldview of many people in the West.
• How to use background research from Judaism and Greco-Roman cultures correctly.
• How to preach the harsh, shocking sayings of Jesus.
• And much more.

Our first article in the theme helps you with a practical challenge: Right-sizing: How to determine the optimum length of sermon series and preaching units. How do you preach a long narrative text on a Sunday morning? How do you keep listeners interested if you intend to preach through much or all of a Gospel?

Your mentor in this series will be author and pastor, Dr. Steve Mathewson, a veteran of decades of preaching through the four Gospels himself. By the time this series is over, your abilities in preaching Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John will have grown enormously, and your skills learned in preaching this bedrock portion of Christian Scripture will rub off in your preaching of all genres in the Bible.

This week we also feature:

• Sermon: For the Glory of God, by John Ortberg. We can give God glory and share in God's glory because of Christ's redemptive work.
• Illustration: Sports Illustrated Explores Steroid Abuse in Pro Baseball
• Video: Free. A powerful reminder of the freedom we have in Christ.

Preaching Christ,

Brian Larson
Editor, PreachingToday.com
blarson@christianitytoday.com

Craig Brian Larson is the pastor of Lake Shore Church in Chicago and author and editor of numerous books, including The Art and Craft of Biblical Preaching (Zondervan). He blogs on Knowing God and His Ways at craigbrianlarson.com.