What's Wrong with Preaching Today? (A.N. Martin)

Two quotes from A.N. Martin's What's Wrong with Preaching Today?:

"How could men ever teach some of the things they teach in the name of orthodoxy if they were on their knees poring over the Scriptures? No, they are not on their knees poring over the Scriptures, and hence they are simply parroting what their peers have said. How can we who say we believe the biblical doctrines speak of them in such a perfunctory way if we are receiving those truths from God in the context of living communion with Him? We shall speak of them with the glow and fire of heaven upon our souls if we are receiving them in the glow of His presence. Hence, the problem of preaching today lies in the man who preaches, first of all in the area of personal devotional life."

and

"One of the elements of powerful preaching is preaching as a man that has been liberated. Liberated from what? From the ensnaring effects of the fear of men. You are never free to be an instrument of blessing to your people unless you are free from the effects of their smiles and their frowns. People know when you can be bought by their smiles and beaten by their frowns. It will not take them long to discern whether or not you are a man who is not affected either by their smiles or by their frowns. Such a man is a free man in Christ. [...] if your eye is to men, you will be unable to give utterance to that which you know you ought to."