Learning how to preach a sermon Part 2 | Dr. Conrad Vine

Uh, I just want to encourage you again, if you’re asked to share or speak anywhere, don’t run from it, but embrace
it because it’s an opportunity for everybody to grow when you’re invited to share and speak about something. So, um,
as we begin, let’s bow our heads and invite the presence of the Holy Spirit.
Our dear heavenly father, we pray for showers of blessing. Lord, the rain is falling around us. We thank you that you water the earth in season. We thank you
that your promise to Noah, that there’ll be sunshine and rain and harvest and heat and cold. We see that faithfulness
being fulfilled all around us today. And Lord, we pray now for showers of blessing within this tent. I pray Lord for the outpouring of your Holy Spirit
to guide us, to equip us, to prepare us, and to shape us for what’s coming tomorrow. I ask you, Lord, you speak through me and for me. This is my prayer
in Jesus’ name. Amen. All right. So, uh, some of you weren’t here this morning.
1:So, we we spoke this morning about three basic kinds of sermon. Does anybody remember what those three basic times of sermon are?
1:All right. So, that there’s topical, there’s expository. Now, some people call it exeet exeetical.
1:We’ll just put this up here. and then narrative.
1:You know, I was once speaking in Papu Nag Guina and they the church had bought this touch this this this TV about this
1:size that was touch sensitive. You know, you touch it and you move it and and things appear. And what they hadn’t counced on the fact was that there was
1:no electricity in town except for this screen. So, Papa Nagina is rich in bugs.
1:If you ever been there, it has every bug known to humanity out there. And I would be standing there and my screen would be
2:up there and I’d look around and there’s hundreds of bugs crawling across the screen, leaving the old trails everywhere. And there was some bugs that kept landing down here on the screen
2:where the controls were. And so they’d be changing my my screen resolution.
2:They’d be changing the colors. Uh it it was it was a horrific night because these little bugs kept changing the screen all around me. So thankfully here
2:we only have a regular oldfashioned whiteboard here. So we have we have three basic kinds of sermons here and um
2:just by way of kind of recap um the most common type of sermon in America is which of those three?
2:Topical. Yeah. So this is the most common kind here. We’ll put number one here. And the least common in America um
2:is actually this one here. You don’t find many of those. Um but topical sermons um can you give me some some
2:examples? What would a topical sermon uh um cover? What kind of topic would a topical sermon cover?
3:Okay. The Sabbath. Okay. So a topical sermon could be a sermon about let’s say um our fundamental beliefs, the doctrine of the Sabbath, the doctrine of
3:stewardship, the doctrine of creation, the fundamental belief on creation and so forth. So a topical sermon may address um some doctrines of scripture.
3:It may also address common life experiences like dealing with depression, dealing with grief, dealing with anxiety, dealing with fear, or
3:maybe dealing with pain. So, um most of the sermons in America tend to be topical these days. And um uh what was
3:the the most common sermon structure for a topical sermon? It’s known as a triple triple decka. You have an intro,
3:you have ABC, and then you have your conclusion.
3:That’s the most common structure to a topical sermon. And um it can either be inductive or dedactic. Inductic.
3:Inductive means you’re starting with a question and then imagine that this is a river here and those are the the rocks in the river and you’ve got to jump from
4:A to B to C to safely get to your conclusions. So you ask a question here and you maybe give a partial answer in A
4:and a partial answer in B and then the the partial answer in C. But when you all when you add them all together, you’ve got your conclusion and it’s
4:solid biblical conclusion. So that’s the most common sermon in America. Uh exegetical, let’s call it exoggetical for now. What does an exegetical sermon
4:uh what kind what is an exegetical sermon? Yes.
4:Yeah. Yeah. So, it’s asking some questions such as who wrote this,
4:to whom was it written, why was it written,
4:what was actually written, how would they have understood it, and by by implication,
5:how would we understand it today? So you’re working your way through those kind of questions. And so if you buy for instance a study Bible like the Andrew
5:study Bible, you can answer at least uh the first three questions always answered in the instruction to each book of the Bible. It’s already done for you
5:there. So it gives you a head start on the process. And exeetical preaching tends to go verse by verse through the
5:through the through the through the the passage. Um and so um that that lends itself, for instance, to preaching through the Psalms or preaching through Romans, you take a verse at a time.
5:Sometimes you’ll take literally a word at a time and work your way through it.
5:Um but when when when you’re when you’re putting that together, you’re asking those basic questions. Now, those basic questions not hard to ask, are they?
5:Somebody say no. No. Okay. And if you have a study Bible, the first three of them already written for you. And oftent
6:times the what they’ll also give you that. So um the study Bible will give you the structure of the book that you’re about to study. So if you’re
6:going to look at say James, the book of James, it will give you the structure of the book of James so you understand how this thing is structured in your mind.
6:Um so uh for instance uh let me give an example. Um Mark’s gospel is I think about things in terms of structure. It’s
6:just easy to put it together. Okay. So Mark’s gospel, you’ve got Mark 1,
6:that’s the arrival of Jesus, his baptism, and John the Baptist.
6:Then you’ve got Mark 2 all the way through to 9, and that’s Jesus’ ministry in Galilee.
6:And then you’ve got 9 and 10 is the journey from Galilee down to Jerusalem.
6:And then um 11 is the triumphal entry and it goes through to his death in chapter 15, resurrection and heaven in
7:chapter 16. So we’re going to call this the passion week.
7:So when you look at the the structure of the gospel of Mark, you know that if half the gospel is in the last week of the life of Christ, what’s the most
7:important thing for Mark in terms of the gospel? If half the gospel is devoted to the triumphal entry to Calvary, what
7:does that tell you about Mark’s emphasis?
7:That’s the most important thing we need to know about. Yes. Where say Matthew?
7:Matthew I won’t do it all here. Matthew is basically five long sermons.
7:Now what’s the most famous sermon in Matthew?
7:The sermon on the mount. Matthews 56 and 7. The other very famous sermon in Matthew is Matthew 23 and 24, the mini
7:apocalypse at the end. And he has three other sermons in the gospel. So Matthew gives you five sermons. One, two, three,
8:four, five. Five long sermons. Maybe you can go home tonight and find the five sermons in Matthew. And then
8:interspersed between those sermons like here and here and here and here, he gives you the occasional miracle or healing story. But basically, Matthew is
8:a series of sermons. So, uh what what you see is that each of the each of the gospel writers structures their writings
8:in a different way. So, when you ask the question like what are they writing? Um a good Bible um study Bible will kind of tell you these things. So, it kind of
8:helps you get a head start on the process. And then we saw um a narrative sermon. What does a narrative sermon do?
8:Sorry. was my journey. Yes.
8:Yeah. So, this follows somebody through a story in the Bible. It could be the story of the life of Abraham or it could
8:be a simple, you know, Mary at the grave of Lazarus in John 11. And you could follow Mary through seeing her brother
9:die, seeing him buried, waiting for Jesus, then Jesus coming late. And then he asks her, “Do you believe that I am the resurrection and the life?” And she
9:says, “I do. I see. I I believe that that is true. Um but she doesn’t believe it’s going to happen right now. And then she sees the sun raised from the dead.
9:So a narrative sermon follows somebody they it follows them through a story in the Bible and invites this the preacher
9:follows that person through the story asking what lessons did that person get during that that stage of the story. So
9:um for instance you could say follow Joseph. Um, Joseph goes um he goes uh
9:his first journey would be down to Egypt into slavery.
9:His second journey would be to prison um as a criminal
and his third journey would be to the palace as a prime minister. Like you could break down the story of Joseph that way.
10:Okay? And you could ask you could follow him at each stage of that journey and ask yourself what was his spiritual experience? How was God working in his
10:life in that moment? And by implication, if you find yourself on a similar journey like that today, what is God doing in your life as well? So that’s
10:the kind of thing you talk about in a narrative sermon. So with all that being said, that’s kind of a brief catch up on what we’re covering this morning. Um,
10:we’re going to talk about um [clears throat] I’m going to talk about the topical sermon for a bit now because that’s what most sermons are. I want to
10:talk about the introduction at the very beginning here. So, the last thing you want to hear as an audience is I was standing in the shower this morning
10:asking myself, what am I going to preach about today?
10:That’s about the last thing you want to hear as an audience. All right?
10:Because what does that tell you? It tells you that you’re at the very best you’re going to get survival bread for your sermon for the week. No disrespect
11:to survival bread, but you want a proper loaf of bread. Okay, we had some survival bread say it was really delicious, but if I if push came to if I
11:had a choice, I’d rather have a freshly baked loaf than survival bread. That’s why it’s called survival bread. So, if somebody says to you, I was wondering
11:what to preach about this morning in the shower, you know that this is not going to be a great sermon, and you’ve already
11:switched off. And so, the introduction has really got to grab people’s attention because you lose people in the
11:first 30 seconds or you manage to keep them for the rest of the sermon. So if you don’t capture their attention, if you don’t make them see that this sermon
11:is relevant to what they’re about, to what they’re going through in life, then it doesn’t matter what else you say here, then they’re just not going to listen. So they may be physically
11:present, but their minds are at somewhere else. So the introduction is really important for narrative or any kind of sermon actually. So there’s
11:certain things you can put into a good introduction. You could have um a current news item. You know, there’s
12:been uh let’s say today there was a ba major earthquake in in Venezuela. Yes.
12:And I was just showing Andy, somebody put on X today a video of two massive skyscrapers coming together and then
12:falling forward and collapsing to the ground. These like 20s story skyscrapers just collapsing and it’s all caught on video. And you know, you can talk you
12:can say something like um is this uh does does your world seem secure or might this happen to you tomorrow? you know, and you show the the picture of
12:those those buildings coming down. Um, you could talk about um you could for an introduction, you could ask a
12:provocative question such as um oh, I don’t know. Um I better not ask a provoc
12:provocative question here, but uh anyway, um you could ask a provocative question such as can Jimmy become Jane?
13:That’s a question [clears throat] and people are going to be interested in what you have to say after that. Can Jimmy become Jane or is
13:Jimmy forever Jimmy? And so that that’s a provocative question. Alternatively um you may pose you may pose a moral
13:dilemma such as pastor David Shin did recently at the uh camp meeting. He said is it morally okay to li to lie in order
13:to save life and that poses like a moral dilemma. people are kind of interested in that. And so what you put in your
13:introduction is really important. And you don’t just kind of drift into your introduction. Your introduction needs to be thought through and prepared and
13:you’re ready to go out of the out of the the starters gate, you might say.
13:Because if you don’t get the introduction right, people ain’t going to listen to anything else that you say.
13:So things that you really shouldn’t do in an introduction is don’t apologize as you’re beginning. Just say, “Guys, I’ve
13:had a really tough week. I didn’t have any time this week, so we’re just going to have to trust the Holy Spirit to carry us through the next half hour.
14:You’ve lost your audience in that moment. Okay? So, whatever else happens, don’t apologize. Men, it’s a good it’s a good um advice for marriage. Don’t
14:apologize. Okay? Sorry. And um some ladies are disagreeing with that. Um maybe the better advice in marriage is
14:to always apologize. Whatever it was, I’m sorry. Can we just move on now? So, um, whatever it was, I’m guilty. Let’s
14:just move on. So, um, in your introduction, don’t apologize if you haven’t had time to prepare it. Um, if you’re going to tell a story, many
14:people start with stories. They talk about, you know, Sandy and San Diego and they’ll give you this 20 minute heart, you know, tearjerking story about Sandy
14:in San Diego. And, um, it really has nothing to do with the word of God.
14:and you’re transferring the authority for people’s lives from the word of God to people’s experiences. And these always experiences of people going
14:through the midst of brokenness. That’s not a good basis of authority for your life. Another thing that you should avoid doing in an introduction is don’t
15:wander aimlessly around. Now, um I tend to stick behind the pullpit for a couple of good reasons. One is, and I kind of joke about this, but it’s often true.
15:I’m often preaching with a broken little toe and it’s painful because I sleep in a different bed every Friday night and I
15:can’t tell you how many times I’ve got up to go to the toilet at in the morning and stubbed my toe and I’m standing in the pull pit with cellar
15:tape around my toes under my shoes and it’s physically painful to walk. So, you stand there like a like an ostrich, well, one leg half off the ground, you
15:ain’t moving. But if you move um with modern day cameras, like there’s a a phone here, but thankfully it’s not
15:directly on me. But with these modern cameras that churches are using, if you stand in exactly one position, the
15:camera will zoom in and in closer and closer and closer to you, and everybody sees every blemish on your skin, and it just looks awful.
16:However, if you if you like walk back and forth, you pace across the stage like this, what happens is that the
16:audience is okay, but the online audience literally gets seasick.
16:But I’m I’m not joking here. People get seasick if they’re watching just pace back and forth. They’re going back and forth on the screen like this. And the
16:camera generally that they’ll follow the preacher rather than going to the wide angle view. So what you want to do as a preacher recognizing that the cameras
16:are on you is just take a step to the left occasionally and take a step to the right occasionally. You do it when the cameraman doesn’t expect it and it
16:forces them to go to a wider angle view than just no narrowing in on your face.
16:Okay? So it’s like a little game you’re playing with the camera operators. So um don’t wander aimlessly around.
16:Sometimes you watch the pastor up there and he’s literally thinking about how this sermon’s going to go today and and and and and they they they go around in
16:circles. They ask this question, they ask that question. You think, “Oh, that’s a good question. Oh, he’s on to another question now. Oh, there’s another question. When are we going to get to the question? What are we dealing
17:with here today?” And for the first 10 minutes, everybody’s just wondering, lost in the midst. So, don’t do anything like that. Um, don’t state a problem
17:unless your sermon intends to answer the problem.
17:Don’t say, “I’m sure we’re all wondering today whether Johnny who committed suicide is going to is can be in the kingdom of
17:heaven or not.” And then discuss some other topic. Don’t raise a question that you ain’t going to touch.
17:So otherwise, you just you’re just creating rabbit holes in people’s minds.
17:And so when it comes to the main body of the text, uh we kind of briefly touched on it today. If you’re if you’re writing your sermon out, I would encourage you
17:to write out your sermons and have your text ready. Now, some people just have little flash cards, and that’s okay if you know the topic intimately and you’re
17:just using it for the occasional bit of for reference, for memory. Uh, but most people, I mean, it helps to have the text written out. Why? Because just
18:nerves take over when you’re at the front. And sometimes you get tongue tied and tongue twisted, and your brain is racing far ahead of your tongue.
18:Sometimes you you you actually misspeak.
18:And I never thought you could misspeak until I started preaching. Then I realized it happens quite a lot. Things just come out the wrong way.
18:There’s nothing you can do about it. And in the pre- internet era, it was okay.
18:But in the in the internet era, it’s brutal. There’s a guy in in the Mosamb beek made a an Instagram video of me had
18:a half million views within a week of me saying that um I think I’m a man, not a woman. And um he kind of cut and he cut
18:cut and paste a few things and it it was brutal and um thankfully people saw it as humor rather than as serious. Um but
18:anyway the these things happen. So uh when it comes to your when it comes to your um the flow of your sermon and you
write it out. Let’s say your introduction is going to be like you know you know one small paragraph and your conclusion is maybe you know a
19:quarter of a page. uh the these three sections here that there needs to be a logical flow for these things. They need to hang together logically. And so the
19:first thing you want is unity. So people need to have a sense that we’re going logically from A to B to C to the
19:conclusion. And um they need to have a sense that B logically follows A and A d addresses something you raised in the
19:introduction and C follows B logically and the conclusion makes sense to for all of it. What you don’t want
19:is to be preaching you’ve got um A B and then C is off
19:somewhere down here and then you’re going to come back to the conclusion people saying hang on hang on what happened there like what has C and all that time you spent on it got anything
19:to do with the instruction A B and then that massive kind of like wart over there and then you come back to see like the conclusion like how did that happen
20:and people are going to leave the sermon and mystified. They’re not going to follow what you’re saying. And if people can’t follow what you’re saying, they’re not going to listen to you. So, you
20:don’t want to have these kind of, you might say, red herrings or rabbit trails going on. It’s really tempting at
20:the front to go down a rabbit trail, believe me, cuz once you start talking, it just starts flowing out and you’re trying to just regulate the flow. And
20:sometimes it goes that direction or that direction, and you’re fighting hard to keep it going in this direction. So if you write A, B, and C, try and make sure
20:there’s a logical flow to it. And try and make sure that the parts are approximately the same size or same length. As we said this morning, if the
20:if the first part of your sermon here is 30 minutes, if it’s 30 minutes, everybody’s mentally
20:looking at their watches and thinking, “Ah, we got another hour and a half to go here.”
and they’re checking out and they’re wondering whether what their food’s going to burn in the crock pot and the hypoglycemics are worrying about are they going to crash before the
21:conclusion comes. I mean really. So if it’s 30 minutes this they’re expecting 30 minutes and 30 minutes but if you
21:give them 10 minutes here and 2 minutes here then people think that that that sun was
21:like walking along with a leg like this you know it just didn’t flow. So you have to when you when you put your sermon together, you’re trying to make
21:sure that these these things are approximately the same size and the same length. There’s a certain symmetry to
21:the to the to the con to the sermon. And then when it comes to your conclusion, you need to know what you’re asking
21:people, what kind of response you’re looking for. If you as the preacher don’t know what kind of response you’re looking for, this the audience will have
21:no idea what you’re asking of them. So when you put your conclusion together, um you’re you’re looking for a response
22:from people. You’re not just looking for intellectual edification. You’re looking for a change in their life. People to make a positive choice for Christ, to
22:follow Christ, one of his teachings, more closely in greater obedience. Um or to make a change in their life, maybe to go home and forgive somebody. Whatever
22:it is, you’re looking for people to make a commitment. If they’re not standing up and coming to the front, you’re asking them to make a commitment in their mind
22:is that I’m going to do this from this day forward. And if you don’t know what kind of response you’re looking for, the audience will have no idea what kind of
22:response that you’re looking for from them. And so when it comes to a conclusion, the worst thing you can do in a sermon when it comes to a
22:conclusion is to as you start B, you say, “And in conclusion,” and you still got 25 minutes to go.
22:Do you know how annoying that is? Are you all annoyed? Okay. And I’ve sat through sermons and it drives me crazy.
Like, okay, when they say in conclusion, I’m mentally wrapping up and my mind is moving on. Let’s get this over and done.
23:We’re moving on. I can smell the potluck whatever is downstairs. Uh we need to move on here and then after 10 minutes
23:they say and in conclusion you think no we just had a conclusion and then in conclusion and then they go A and C and suddenly this big D appears over here.
23:You think where did that come from? You think and actually people don’t want to listen to this no matter how great it is
23:because they’ve already listened to A B and C. They’ve already had their, you know, three course meal. They’re not interested in something bringing out a roast pig at this stage. Okay. Oh, that’s a bad bad example, isn’t it?
23:[clears throat]
23:But anyway, you know what I’m talking about. Yes. People don’t want this thing sprung on them just as they’re coming into land. And so, when people are
23:coming into land, by the time you get to see, they know the conclusion is coming.
23:Don’t start saying inconclusion and then just keep rambling on and on and on. and don’t spring another like bear trap on them and and go down a particular hobby
24:horse, leave that for another day if you have to preach it at all. So when you put your sermon um conclusion together,
24:it needs to be definite. You need to know what you’re asking of people. I want to encourage you on this one thing.
24:Don’t be afraid to ask people to make commitments because you’re not preaching that people might have knowledge. We’re preaching that people might have changed lives.
24:And that involves making a challenge and asking people to make a commitment, a change um a um to an affirmation of
24:faith, an acceptance of a biblical truth that’s going to change some aspect of their life. And so the the conclusion needs to be quite definite as you do
24:this. Okay. So um uh when it comes to before we start working on our own stuff, is this all
24:clear to everybody so far? Yes. All right. [clears throat] So, some thoughts about when you’re standing in the pulpit. All right. When you’re in the pulpit, you’re an ambassador for Christ.
25:Remember the first night we saw about our identity in Christ in 2 Corinthians 5. We are a new creation and we are sent
25:by God to be ambassadors of Christ with a ministry of reconciliation. That’s our identity.
25:Okay? Um, we’re American. Some of us are British. Some of us have other national identities here. I understand that. But our number one identity as Christians is
25:that we are new creations by the grace of God and we are sent to the world as Christ’s ambassadors with a ministry of reconciliation. That’s our identity once we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior.
25:So when you stand in the pulpit, you’re representing not the church, you’re representing Jesus Christ.
25:[snorts and clears throat]
25:Now what does that mean?
25:Um let’s [clears throat] talk about your appearance for a minute.
25:Um, if you if you’re if you’re appearing in in court and you’re you’re being charged with some crime
26:and you’ve got oh, I don’t know, love and hate tattooed across your neck here.
26:What’s your defense attorney going to tell you to do?
26:Cover it up. Cover it up. You see,
26:[clears throat]
26:people will people will vote against you or they won’t listen to you. Not because of it, what you said or did, but they
26:just don’t they don’t like something about your personal appearance.
26:So, you have to give you have to take away reasons that people have as an excuse not to listen to the message that you’re giving.
26:Okay? And so, what does this mean in practice? So, um, every time I speak, I speak about my mother-in-law. Is that
26:right? Well, I speak about mother’s law in general. I should correct that just in case she’s listening. I speak about mother’s law in general and I I every
26:time I do a sermon, I bring greetings from my wife and my family in Baron Springs. Now, why do I do that?
27:No, it lets everybody know that I’m married. Because I’m not wearing a wedding band.
27:And if I were to preach in England without a wedding band, I would be accused of looking for an affair because in England, everybody has a wedding band
27:who’s married. It’s only in America that wedding bands are an issue for Adventists.
27:But if I stand up, so when I if I go to England and preach, I’ll wear our wedding band. I go on my wedding day because that’s what how they you
27:indicate that you are married and you’re off the market. So when I stand and I preach a sermon, I always bring greetings from my wife and our kids.
27:that lets people know this guy is married, I’m sending a message.
27:The second thing is when you stand and preach, if you wear a tie that has like Mickey Mouse on it, all right, are
27:people going to take you seriously? No, they’re not. Um, if you stand and and you have a a tie that had, you know, Camala Harris or or Trump, President
28:Trump on it, are people going to like listen to your sermon? No, they’re not.
28:Um, if if you stand if you stand there and you have um like like like a light
28:beige jacket and and a and a deep blue shirt and like like a cream tie, um, are people going to listen to you? Probably
28:not, because they’re going to be debating in their minds, does that do those colors go together or not? That’s what they’re going to be doing.
28:So what you want is that when people leave church that day, nobody can remember what you were wearing or what you look like. You want the only thing
28:that people remember to be what you said. You want people to remember the purity of your speech or the nobility of a character or the the the the the power
28:of God in the preaching. And if you can stand and and present yourself in such a way that nobody can remember at all what
28:you wore, that’s a good thing because that means that nobody’s going to hold something against you. They don’t like the wedding band. They think your watch
29:is too fancy. That shirt costs way too much. You should wear something from Burlington rather than from Savo. You
29:know, people make these judgments and because they make a judgment on your appearance, they therefore discount
29:everything you say. So take away the reasons for them to make a judgment about you. Now ladies, it’s harder for you to manage this. And for guys,
29:it really is. For a guy, it’s very simple. A single tone black or gray or blue shirt, a single tone uh jacket, a
29:single tone shirt, white or light blue, and a single tone tie. That that nobody’s going to remember that. It’s
29:easy for guys. It’s harder for women to do this.
29:And so I’m not going to give advice to the ladies here, but dress in a way that nobody remembers what you look like. So wives, dress how you dress on a normal
29:basis cuz your husbands never know what you look like. My [clears throat] It’s true. It’s true. My daughter says
30:to me, she says, “Daddy,” she says, “What was mommy wearing last night when you went out for your wedding anniversary?” I have no idea.
30:I remember the conversation, but I have no idea what she was wearing. And that’s a good thing. I don’t, you know, it’s not really that important. What’s
30:important is is the personal connection there. So when you stand in the pull pit, your clothes need to be in good taste, inoffensive, clean, and well presented.
30:Um, ladies, dress judiciously and cautiously. Be careful of your skirt length.
30:Be careful of your skirt length. I’ll tell you why. I sat in front of Barbara O’Neal and her daughter three weeks ago in Zagreb. I they put me on the front
30:row and she sat on the platform right in front of me and um his her daughter’s skirt was just it was just halfway down
30:the thighs and I I was I spent my whole that whole hour kind of looking to the left, looking to right. I didn’t know where to look. It wasn’t that she did
31:anything bad, but it was just like really bad positioning and and if I looked up to look at them talking, looks like I’m looking up her skirt. So, I’m
31:just keeping my heads down like this because and and it’s exaggerated like, oh, like this and like this cuz I don’t want anybody think I’m looking up her skirt.
31:Now, this is kind of funny for me to say this and this isn’t the Sabbath. We can talk in this way, you might say. But this is deadly serious that you need to
31:dress in a way that that nobody can remember what you wore and there’s nothing showing to anybody to kind of gap.
31:So ladies, um it’s uh it’s important you pay attention to this when it comes to grooming. Um if you decide to grow a beard, don’t do it that morning.
31:[clears throat] Um if you’re going to grow a beard, um you take a two week summer vacation, see what happens.
31:And uh if it looks good, keep it on when you get home. But if you’re going to do an evangelistic series, don’t start by not shaving that morning. People just
32:think it looks scruffy. I know there’s like a designer stubble, but even designer stubble takes a while to get in place and just to groom so it looks
32:nice. Um, so don’t decide decide to grow a beard that you’re about to to to preach. Um, your teeth should be
32:cleaned. Particularly important in an era of highdefinition cameras.
32:It is really important that when you speak like I I came back from lunch and every time I speak I go to my room and I brush my teeth because I know that once
32:there’s a little black spot there that’s going to be appearing on Instagram and Facebook shorts and YouTube shorts for years to come and I
32:don’t want that. So make sure your grooming is proper uh proper. Make sure your nails are of a decent length.
32:They’re clean and cared for and avoid garlic 24 hours before a preaching appointment.
32:Why do I say that? Because when when when you kneel down at the front with the other pastors and you speak, they don’t want to recoil in horror what they’re smelling. Okay? And when you
33:greet people at the end of the service and you’re standing at the door and and and you say, “Happy Sabbath, sister.” And she goes, “Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.”
33:And she’s desperate to move on. So, avoid garlic. Keep your nails clean.
33:Keep your hair clean. Wash your hair preferably the Sabbath morning. And your shoes need to be polished. Now, we think this is kind of funny and so forth, but
33:bad breath, tooth decay, body odor, smelly clothes, greasy hair, dirty collars, dirty fingernails, all become a
33:stumbling block for the congregation and give people reason not to listen to your message. So, take care of your bodies when you’re up there. Uh the the next
33:thing about deliverance of a sermon is um uh when you look at people in the eyes, it makes a a personal connection.
33:And if I and you look at somebody as a preacher and you nod, you expect them to nod back at you. Like, isn’t that true, sister? There you are. There you are.
33:So, but [clears throat] sometimes you’re very nervous and you don’t want to look people in the eyes, particularly if it’s a difficult subject. So, a handy thing
34:to do is when you look at somebody full in the face, don’t look in their eyes. Look at the bridge of their noses.
34:And that means you’re looking, they think you’re looking them straight in the face, but you I’m looking at your sis now and I’m looking at the bridge of your nose, but I’m not looking into your
34:eyes. And that protects me from that emotional connect into personal connection that could be kind of scary,
34:particularly if it’s a difficult topic we’re discussing. So if you want to kind of keep if you’re talking about a tricky topic, a potentially problematic topic,
34:and you don’t look people straight in the eyes, look at the bridge of the bridge of the nose. And it means you never see anybody for the entire sermon.
34:If you focus on just looking at people at the bridge of their nose. And if you and if that’s too problematic for you, look on the back row. If they’ve got
34:bricks in the church, choose two or three bricks to focus on. One over there, one over there, one over there.
34:And you talk to those bricks. And you look at those bricks and choose one on that side, one on that side. And people
35:think you’re making a personal connection. You’re not. You’re just looking at the bricks. And that protects you from what might be not just an an
35:interpersonal connection, a meeting of eyes, but it protects you from a hostile interpersonal connection, which can be very off-putting when you’re delivering
35:your service, your your sermon. And so, uh, the the other thing about preaching is um, if you have the chance, video
35:yourself delivering the sermon at home and then watch it and maybe watch it with a trusted
35:friend. You know, the Bible says, it’s a paraphrase here of Proverbs, um, the wounds of a friend are to be trusted more than the kisses of an enemy.
35:So, watch it with a friend who’s going to give you some brutal feedback. And you, what you’re asking for is um um I’m
35:going to give you um in a minute is what are your fillers?
35:Everybody has fillers like um I use it um again. Okay. Uh some people in America, they they like to use the word
36:like. and he was like this and I was like this and she was like and we were like and it’s confusing. There must be a
36:verb in here somewhere. Um so everybody has filler filler words that they just keep coming out with and you need to
36:understand what your fillers are and understand that like when I was a boy at the age of 10 I would sit down with my twin brother we’d figure out in five
36:minute what were the filler statements for this preacher and we keep track of it on a piece of paper. Like how many times does this preacher use um in this
36:sermon? And it’s amazing the number and little boys, this kind of thing we do. We weren’t listening to the content.
36:We’re just listening to the fillers. Oh, there’s one there. And and so that was how we amused ourselves during sermons as we were growing up as little boys.
36:So, um look at a video of your sermon and ask yourself, do you have certain quirks? Like, are you always pushing
36:your glasses up? Are you scratching your ears? Are you cleaning your glasses? Are you doing these little mannerisms are
37:going to drive people crazy? Why can’t he or she stop doing this thing? And uh be when you see yourself on a video, you see very quickly what your mannerisms are, what your filler statements are.
37:Once you’re conscious of them, you may want to have a little like postit at the top of the pullpit that says, “Don’t scratch your nose, don’t blink twice,
37:and don’t clean your glasses.” I mean, little little reminder up there because that’s what’s going to drive people crazy. And rather than listening to some, they’re going to be watching for
37:those mannerisms. Okay. So, a few other things about um about just preaching to tips here. Um all men are not equal.
37:What I mean by this is spiritual things are spiritually discerned. And not everybody in the pews is there by conviction.
37:In fact, many of the people in the pews don’t actually want to be there. Some people are there out of conviction, some out of convenience, and some out of compulsion.
38:And spiritual things are spiritually discerned. It’s a gift of the Holy Spirit. So for some people listening to the sermon, their hearts and minds are
38:literally closed to everything you have to say. And don’t be upset about it.
38:That just goes with the normal mix of of an average congregation or or audience out there. And so just [clears throat] because somebody is present in the
38:church doesn’t mean that they’re actually a Christian.
38:They may be a seeker. They may be driven by despair. They may be sitting there because they hope to get a $50 Walmart card for food at the end of the service
38:from the pastor. People sit in church for many different reasons. So, you can’t assume that people have any interest in what you have to say.
38:They’re just enduring this cuz mommy told them they have to do it. And dad said, “If you sit through church today, then I’ll take you to a ball game
38:tomorrow.” And that’s why that teenage boy is sitting there and he has no interest in what you’re saying as a preacher. And so don’t assume that people actually want to hear what you
38:have to say or they’re actually open to the workings of the Holy Spirit upon their hearts. Um it is always good
39:though um to seek common ground to seek common ground. So as an example of this um if you I we talked about this
39:with some missionaries uh some missionaries in I won’t drive put on the board in Papa New Guina and they’re working with animists and animists
39:worship evil spirits. So, if you’re going to start a sermon to animists who worship evil spirits, what’s the common starting ground for us all?
39:Is there a common starting ground between Adventists and animists? We worship Jesus. They worship demons.
39:Well, there’s actually a lot of common ground here. Okay. Um, one common ground is this. We all believe that spirits exist. Number one. Number two, we
39:believe that there are bad spirits and good spirits.
39:And number three, we believe that the evil spirits are trying to hurt us.
39:And number four, we believe that a sacrifice has to be made to get the evil spirits off our backs. And in Cambodia, that means killing cutting the throats
40:of a buffalo or a chicken or a goat or a lamb. And from the Christian perspective, it’s the death of Christ on Calvary once and for all that buys us
40:back from slavery to sin. So we have a lot of common ground with with with animists. We believe there are spirits.
40:We believe spirits are good or evil. We believe the evil spirits harass us. And we believe that we need deliverance from the attacks of the evil spirits. That’s
40:a lot of common starting ground with an animist. So if you’re going to start a sermon speaking with animists who are spirit worshippers, um you may want to
40:cover some of that territory in your conclusion in your introduction because the animists understand that they’re they keep killing their prize animals to
40:get the the spirits off their back. But as a Christian, you’re saying that there was a once and for all sacrifice that frees us from the power of demons and it happened on Calvary. And which is a
40:better sacrifice? A once and for all sacrifice or a daily sacrifice? One that cost the son of God his life or one that’s going to cost you the life of a
41:chicken every single day, you know. So, you know, you you there is a common starting point. If you look at, let’s say, um the LGBTQ movement in America,
41:we actually have some things in common there as Adventists. One of those things is that the LGBTQ movement is is the
41:sexual revolution comes out of postmodernism which is a philosophy of despair which says that life has no purpose and life has no meaning and
41:therefore people are seeking to find purpose and meaning by creating these identities for themselves. So we agree with the LGBTQ movement that life
41:without God has no purpose and life is meaningless.
41:So you can either follow try and find meaning by walking in pride parades or you can try and find meaning by accepting the son of god as your savior.
41:You have two options here. And if and if what and if walking in pride parades year after year still leaves you with the same old heartache and empty inner feeling, why not try Jesus Christ today?
41:And we’re we’re meet we’re starting from a common meeting ground. So when when you’re giving a sermon to a group that is maybe of a different faith background
42:or different worldview of your own, start thinking about what do we have in common because that’s that’s a launching place for the sermon that you’re going
42:to give. Okay? Uh use your s use your uh use um triple think. What do I mean by
42:that? Uh preachers should think about what they say. They should think about what people think about what they say.
42:Then they should learn to answer those questions in the sermon wherever possible. So, um, a really helpful thing to do in sermons is to anticipate the
42:objections to what you’re preaching. And somewhere in your sermon, like near the end, put in a series of questions and answers. So, if you know that your
42:sermon is going to raise people’s hackles a bit, you want to put near the end of your sermon, you say, “Well, um, well, there are some people may have
42:some some questions about what we’re saying today, and maybe you have this question.” Then you ask the question that you know people are going to object to use as an objection. Then you give
43:the answer. So in your Sherman, you’re giving the questions and the answers.
43:The questions and the answers. Or in other words, you’re you’re listing out their possible rejections or objections to what you’re saying. Then you’re giving them the biblical response each
43:time. So you’re you’re thinking in advance, what are the objections to this sermon? And I’m going to put the answers to those objections into the sermon near
43:the end. But that’s going to be it’s often a Q&A. you put on the queen on the screen question then the answer question
43:answer question answer. So you’re anticipating and heading off people’s objections because you want those objections to be dealt with before you
43:get to this the conclusion and the appeal. And if people get to the conclusion and your appeal but they’ve still got all these objections in their mind, they’re not going to respond to
43:the appeal. So you need to deal with the objections somewhere near the latter third of the sermon. uh and a putting up cute questions and answers on the screen
43:is is a great way to do that. And uh finally, before we go into our own uh you know, our own preparation here for a
sermon, be careful how you use illustrations.
44:You know, um you can use a simile or a metaphor to great effect.
44:You don’t need to tell a 15minute heartjerking story about a drug addict in Boston.
44:You don’t need to do that.
44:Um, learn to use illust you make a point and and a sermon illustration. It illustrates the point, but the
44:illustration should not become the sermon itself because the the illustration illustrates the biblical point. But if you’ve only got
44:illustration and no biblical point, you’ve got no scripture left in your sermon. And you want the word of God to be the authority in people’s lives, not
44:human experience or not what the preacher says. You’re wanting people to accept the word of God as the foundation for their lives. And so the the the the
44:illustrations must illustrate and point to and explain something in scripture.
44:But don’t allow those illustrations to become these long drawn out tearjerking stories about some junkie somewhere and how they found redemption. Uh
45:interesting as that story may be, um uh that really detracts from the whole purpose of the sermon in the first place. I just want to encourage you.
45:Don’t run away from if you’ve been invited to preach, don’t run away from that opportunity.
45:And um embrace it as an opportunity to go deeper into the word of God and for you to personally meet God aresh for yourself and for you to be filled with
45:the joy of discovery. And when you’re filled with the joy of discovery, then you can preach to other people the good
45:news of a coming savior and who Jesus is and what he means. So, um, the Gospels are a great place if you’re going to
45:start preaching. The Gospels are the best place to start because the whole of the Bible re Jesus, the Old Testament points to the Messiah. The New Testament
45:explains the Messiah, but the Gospels tell the story of the Messiah. So, don’t be afraid of being invited to preach. If you are invited to preach, um, take it
46:as a great opportunity to grow in Christ, to grow in knowledge, to grow in your abilities, to use to maybe develop new gifts you never thought you had. I
46:first preached when I was 13. I was asked to step in at some big big event celebrating the British church in northern in the north of England. And
46:I’d never spoken before really in public in my life. And I stood up there in front of hundreds of people and thought, I really like this.