White sheets of the KKK! The Puritans were self-righteous hypocrites committing murder in the name of God against the Native Americans! Anyone that condones killing to steal land, in God's name is deceived and will be judged by God Himself!

Jonathan Edwards, oftentimes considered one of the greatest preachers of all time, who was used by God to have a pivotal role in the First Great Awakening, was known for reading in a monotone voice from his notes which he held right up to his face (due to poor vision). If it is the Word of God, it is best that the preacher would diminish that Christ would be exulted. As for being from the heart… well, the preacher here has written many books. If you want to see where his heart lies, search those. Alternatively, several of my friends are rather close to him and I have heard multiple sermons from his students. They also attest to his heart. The Lord bless you and keep you, my friend! I pray that He would use you in accomplishing His perfect will!

@@matthewsoules7193 I knew someone might use the example of Jonathan Edwards to justify the reading of sermons but I must strongly disagree on this. No professional speaker does this on stage or he would never be hired and few would want to listen to a man looking down and not at his audience. Edwards may be an exception rather than the rule don't you think? Edwards, as I perceive it, was more of a theologian than a preacher. Let's ask ourselves this question: Is reading a sermon preaching? If so, then by that rule we can have any good writer become a preacher simply by writing out a sermon and reading it. No, I don't think that was the divinely inspired way that the apostle Paul or John the Baptist preached. These men without a doubt spoke from the heart concerning the great gospel truths and proved they had their knowledge planted deep within just waiting to release it verbally and effectively as the Holy Spirit guided them. Matthew, I would rather use the example of George Whitefield as one of the greatest preachers who spoke extemporaneously much of the time. You see if a person reads too much from his notes presuming that he is preaching one wonders if that person knows his material. I had this experience the other day by listening to a guest preacher. He used the excuse by saying he had to get his notes and while he did look up quite a bit there was little to no power in the result from my perspective. I was not impressed. Years ago I had to judge speakers on their delivery having been chosen to do so because I competed with success intercollegiately placing second and third with but some experience I learned in college that the best communicators memorized their speeches or spoke extemporaneously and even impromptu with little to no preparation time. This impressed me and I wondered how these speakers did so with apparently no preparation. There's a winning technique I had to learn and I did. This is what Guy Davies wrote about Mr. Edwards. "Jonathan Edwards famously read his sermons with great effect. However, I believe that he determined to be less dependent on his notes after hearing George Whitefield's extemporaneous preaching. Whether we use no notes, few notes, or lots of notes, Christ-exalting, Spirit enpowered preaching must be our aim, even if we often (or always) fall short of that goal." Can I get an amen brother?

No preacher cares about whether or not he’s reading notes. He just cares about getting the information right. This isn’t a competition.

​@@KnightFelwe should imitate Jesus. Did he need notes? Ofcourse not. Did Paul and the other apostles read from their notes? I don't think so because they spoke the truth in their heart with love. Those who read their sermons usually don't know their material as well as they should or else they would not use them.

I’m trying to find the correlation? Stop it with this