Learning how to preach a sermon Part 1| Dr. Conrad Vine

Today, uh, we’re going to talk about, um, preaching and and more public speaking, but mostly focusing on preaching. And, uh, so you may want to take some notes as we go through this. 0:1616 seconds And most of the stuff I’m going to write stuff that I need, I’ll put up on the board there. Um, I don’t have a PowerPoint for this, but I will show something on the screen as we go through 0:2424 seconds this. um one of the resources that I use. But um I I I uh uh let’s open with a word of prayer and then we will get underway. 0:3535 seconds I have dear heavenly father, we thank you for the privilege we have of gathering here today. Well, thank you for the freedom we have to worship you 0:4242 seconds according to our conscience. Thank you Lord that we can preach and teach without restriction. I thank you Lord for the protections of the first 0:5050 seconds amendment that have made America a beacon of freedom uh freedom of conscience, freedom of religion, freedom of speech all around the world. And I 0:5858 seconds pray Lord that while we have these freedoms, we will use them to the best of our abilities. In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen. [snorts] All right. So, 1: um, [clears throat] when when people come to church, I’ve I’ve noticed this, and you may disagree with me on this, but I’ve noticed this, that when people 1: go to church, they will put up with a cold sanctuary and singing that sounds like somebody’s just died and um and potlucks that are absolutely disgusting. 1: They’ll put up with all manner of things as long as they get a good sermon. 1: And when people can go to a beautiful sanctuary where the air conditioning is just right and there’s plenty of parking and the toilets are like Buckyy’s 1: toilets are just fantastic. And uh but the sermon is terrible. People don’t want to come back. And so when people 1: come for comfort to worship God, there are two things that are very meaningful. 1: One is um the singing. I I grew up in Jamaican churches in Britain and the praise and testimony time was for many members a major part of the worship 2:002 minutesservice and it would go on for a complete hour at times and people kept standing up and giving their testimonies and answers to prayer and requests for 2: prayer and favorite hymns and and people would just sit and let the music wash over them and they get lost in the music and it was a very powerful part of the 2: worship um service. But the preaching um uh in in in the British church in in in the Jamaican churches in Britain, you 2: not called the pastor, you were called the preacher. Like they boiled your job not down to hospital visitations or anything like that. Your job was to be a 2: preacher. And woe beside somebody who wasn’t a good preacher if they were a pastor. So anyway, um in in the 2: Adventist church, um preaching is not about filling a vacant preaching slot. 2: You’re not preaching because there’s a vacant slot and they can’t find anybody else. Um, preaching is not an opportunity for you to ride your 2: favorite spiritual hobby horse. It’s not your opportunity to set a few members right if they disagreed with you on the board. It’s not your opportunity to kind 3: of get even with them. Preaching is about drawing people to Jesus Christ. 3: And uh, tragically, all too often these days, we don’t make appeals for people to follow Jesus Christ. Often times our 3: preaching is about sharing information without inviting people to make a choice for Jesus. And you never know how many 3: times somebody’s going to sit in a church again. Sometimes it may be their only opportunity to sit in a church. And if you’re going to prepare and present a sermon, I want you to remember this. 3: Assume that there’s somebody in that church who’s never heard the gospel before, who will never hear the gospel again. And you need to make that appeal that day for them to follow Jesus 3: Christ. And so preaching is about um drawing people to Jesus uh not to the not to the preacher themselves. So um 3: what are some of the challenges that face modern day preachers? Well uh the first thing that everybody talks about is time. Time. Nobody has time these 3: days. And so um one of the greatest challenges people find if you’re asked to present a sermon is setting time 4: aside for preaching and uh to for to do your study and to prepare the sermon. 4: Another challenge that lay preachers have is a lack of resources um for studying. And so people are people um 4: they they uh dictionaries cost money. Um the SDA Bible commentary is fantastic. 4: I’d encourage you all to have it in your homes. Um but it can be quite pricey to get. And incidentally, if you want to 4: build up your library, every time somebody dies in your congregation, go go to the family and say, “Would you 4: like me to take away some of the books for you?” Because children these days don’t want books. 4: And they’ll say, “Take a look at those shelves. Take whatever you want.” And you look for the commentaries. You look for the resource books. Like there 4: there’s two big blue books by all the comments by Sister White on Daniel and Revelation verse by verse. They’re about $3,000 5: used on Amazon, but you find them in people’s bookshelves and and you you say, “Do you mind if I take these books?” Absolutely. We don’t want those 5: books. So if somebody dies, visit the family and take a look at the bookshelf and say, “Would you like me to help you take some of these books away?” Most 5: people will say yes. Take a few boxes and fill up when you go there. Another Sorry. the original Daniel Revelation. 5: Yes. Yes. 5: Yes. Yeah. Yeah. There’s the old blue books, the old blue volumes. Yeah. I have them at home and I had no idea how much they were worth until my brother said to me, “Hey, could I get one of 5: those for Christmas?” I said, “Sure.” And I looked on Amazon and thought, “Oh, no. We ain’t getting that this year.” It was thousands of dollars. All right. 5: Another challenge that preachers have these days is is a is physical restrictions at home. Like, where do you actually sit and prepare a sermon? I 5: have a study at home that most pastors have a study, you might say. And that study is like my it’s like my den. I don’t have a den in the basement, but I 5: have a study and it’s lined with books and papers. And I have a shipping container behind my house. Literally a shipping container and that is 6: significantly filled with books. My wife objects to this, but anyway, um she wants me to get rid of the shipping container later this summer. I probably 6: will because it’s kind of unsightly. But um space is a challenge. You know, if if if you’ve got a family um every room in 6: the house is busy. Um and so one of the challenges that lay preachers have is where do you find the time and the space and the quiet, the solitude to actually 6: think through and prayer through what you’re going to put together for a sermon. Um, another challenge we have as preachers is that we live in the video 6: age these days and people are used to dopamine hits every 30 seconds and people’s attention spans are shorten 6: shortening and if people don’t get like constant dopamine hits within 5 minutes they’re pulling out their phones and you see it from the preacher and it’s really 6: disconcerting when people on their phones checking whatever hits they’ve got on social media because they’ve got short attention spans. So we we we have 7: a society that’s kind of like collectively ADD and people are their attention span is dropping. I I looked 7: at some research the other day that was indicating that IQ levels are dropping significantly from um the greatest 7: generation to now. And I don’t know how valid this research was was that IQ levels are dropping because in my age when I grew up we had to memorize stuff 7: at school. literally wrote memorization and everybody said that’s bad but at least you knew something. Nowadays, if you ask you ask some teenagers, “What 7: about this, what about that?” They they pull out their phone and they say, “Hey, Google, what about this?” And Google tells them what they need to know or 7: what they think they should know. And uh um so now with AI, um people are losing the ability to engage in in critical 7: thinking, reflective thinking to analyze things logically. And so we’re living in a society where people’s attention span 7: getting shorter and shorter. We’re also living in a society where when you stand up and you preach, I mentioned this other day, some people are theological 8: giraffes and some some people are theological slugs. Like some people are the very very very bare basics and some 8: people are worried about the nuances of what u wrote 2,000 years ago. All right? 8: And and how that relates to Lutheran’s uh Lu uh Martin Luther and what and what John Wesley thought about it. So you’ve got people at all opposite ends of the 8: spectrum. And when you preach, you’ve got to be able to speak to both ends of the spectrum, the whole flock. Because when you’re when you’re a shepherd, you 8: can only go as fast as the slowest lamb in your flock. And if you go too fast, th the sheep the flock gets strung out. 8: And when the flock gets strung out, Satan picks them off one by one. And Satan attacks members who kind of been left behind in some way. People on the 8: fringes of the church. That’s who Satan attacks. and he he whittleles down your congregation one person at a time. Um 8: but despite this preaching deserves our very best efforts um because it has such potential as an instrument of God’s 9: kingdom. It has such potential. Uh the message is a message from God not from the preacher. Desire of Ages says this. 9: There’s no limit to the usefulness of one who putting self aside makes room for the working of the Holy Spirit upon his heart and lives a life wholly 9: consecrated to God. And that applies to preaching as much as to anything else. 9: So what are some of the the things uh we do in order to be effective preachers. 9: Um the first thing is this. We’re in a beautiful part of the world here and we’re talking about gardening. Yes. So we looked at the garden and um I learned 9: for the first time what to solarize means and to kill all the bug all the plants and the weeds and so forth. It’s fascinating. But if you’re going to be a 9: preacher, you have to grow a spiritual garden as well. That means you have to have a very intentional devotional life because if you don’t keep feeding 9: yourself spiritually, the well runs dry and it runs dry approximately every six days if you don’t feed it. Because from Sabbath to Sabbath, if you’re not 10: feeding and putting water into that well, um it’s going to run dry. And so if you’re going to be a preacher, I’d encourage you to um be very intentional 10: about your devotional life because if you’re a gardener, um now my wife’s a gardener and she she grows um flowers 10: and things like that. Um if you’re a gardener, you’re looking for harvest of beauty in every season of the year. Um in in in the spring, you’re looking for 10: these little yellow and red flowers. I have no idea what they’re called, so please forgive me. And by the summer, you’re looking for the harvest of beauty 10: of honeysuckle, the smell of honeysuckle. And later in the year in in um September, October, you’re looking for harvest of beauty of corn and 10: potatoes. And then in the winter, you’re looking for a harvest of beauty, maybe with the evergreen trees around your house. And inside the house, you’ve got 10: um these flowers that kind of grow everywhere. My my my mother was a gardener and my father hated it because she put aloe vera plants all around the 11:0011 minutes bath. And my dad would complain incessantly about getting scratched every time we got into the bath and by these aloe vera plants. And so um if if 11: you’re a physical gardener with a garden like here, you’re looking for harvests of beauty not just in the summer but through the entire year. And when you’re 11: a preacher, you’re looking for a spiritual harvest throughout the year in every season, good seasons or in bad seasons. And so this means that you’re 11: not looking for a quick cash crop from scripture. You’re looking for a steady flow of of spiritual truth and insights. 11: And so if you’re going to be a preacher, the first thing is you need to know your Bible. And uh the best thing I can encou 11: I can say on that is um uh many people memorize where things are in the Bible by where it is on the page. 11: So if you found a version or translation that you really like, buy two or three copies of it because that that Bible it 11: will wear out every three or four years unless it’s handstitched. And so uh you’re going to buy if you find a Bible that you really like, buy three or four 12: versions of it, the same copy, the same edition, the same layout, because when one wears out, you can have it rebound while you’re using another one and you 12: don’t you don’t lose um when you move from one translation to another. So sometimes sometimes you go to a church and they say, “Would you please use this 12: Bible like the New England or the New Living Translation and then they give you a Bible and I’m sometimes lost with that because it’s not my Bible and it’s 12: completely different formatting.” And you know, um the the passage I’m looking for should be here on the page, but it’s 12: I can’t find it anywhere. And so, um, find if you find a Bible you really like, buy two or three copies of it and 12: then and just just keep going through those until the end of your life because you become very familiar with that way. 12: So, if you’re going to be become a preacher, I recommend that you read the Bible through a minimum of once every single year. Every single year, you going to read the Bible through. For me, 12: it’s four pages a day. And I’ve done it for many, many years now. Just keep reading, keep reading, keep reading, and it sticks. Bits stick every day. and God 13: speaks to you in that process. So your devotional life becomes very important. 13: Um when when it comes to um uh other books, um there’s a wide variety of books you can read from. Um I actually 13: find that um for my devotional life, Sister White is about as good as it gets. And um but when I’m prep preparing 13: for a sermon, um I’d always read what Sister White has to say on the topic. 13: But often times I won’t specifically quote during the sermon because there are many parts of the Adventist world that will reject your sermons because you quote from Ellen White. I’m just 13: telling you this is the reality. If you go to Europe, they don’t want to hear about Ellen White. Period. And so you may she may influence how you prepare 13: your sermon, but you have to be sensitive to the audience of where you’re going to be. All right. So, um, what are some of the resources that are 13: helpful? I just want to show this thing up on the screen. I was chatting about it with someone last night who has the same software as myself and I’m hoping is this TV on? 14: There it is. Okay. So um if you go to seminary um more and more students at seminary 14: use logos or accordance software and uh I just just want to say if you want to be a if you want to have tens of 14: thousands of dollars at your fingertips of books and resources it’s worth investing in software 14: um on if if you get something like Logos um you get libraries with with hundreds and hundreds of books 14: on and it cost you a fraction of buying it for yourself. And so, um, many many 14: pastors use this software now. I use it just for Bible study when I’m preparing a sermon. It costs about $900, but you can get tens of thousands of dollars 14: worth of book on that package. And so, when you’re traveling on the road and you can’t take books with you, this is a really useful tool to have with you. And 14: they it’s called Logos, Log OS. 15: There’s another one called Accordance, but Logos they have um there was a a pastor in the Mid American Union um who 15: who then started working for Logos and he made sure they put an SDA package in. 15: So, you can buy the SDA package on Logos and it comes pre-installed with the Bible commentary and a bunch of other stuff. So, um that that’s if if you want 15: to make like a if you want a really good investment for studying the Bible, we get thousands of dollars worth of many books um at your fingertips. That’s a 15: really good investment to have. Um so um what are the uh uh when it comes to the Bible um you’re you’re thinking as a 15: preacher, what kind of Bible do you want? So um the really practical concerns like I I this is um my my Bibles get kind of worn and I’ve got a 15: pastor friend in South Africa and he makes me these these hides out of um Zulu cattle, the Nui capital cattle. It 15: cost me $10 for each one. He’ll do it for you if you want. I’ll give you his details and he can send you whatever designs he has, but they last for many 16: years and you can put like notes in here and so forth. Um, so the Bible you have is important because some Bibles they 16: they won’t sit open and so if you’re in the pull pit, you want the Bible to just sit open so you’re not having to keep holding it 16: down with your hands. Some Bibles that they don’t fall open, they’re they’re just going to they’re going to you you you open them up and they just want to close up again. So, you make sure you 16: get a Bible that that’s that’s um that that that holds open. Um, if possible, get a Bible that’s stitched or handsewn 16: rather than glued. Now, a handsewn Bible is going to cost you $200 more than a than a regular glued Bible. But if it’s 16: if it’s um if it’s handstitched, it’s not going to fall apart. Whereas um if you if you have a glue a glued Bible and 16: you go to Thailand for 3 months, it’s going to start falling apart in the humidity. the glue is going to deteriorate on you. And so most Bibles 17:0017 minutesthat people carry are actually um so glued. So you want to try and find a Bible that’s handsewn. And you also want 17: to find a Bible. You want take take look at the paper. You want to know if I mark the paper on this side, is it going to show through on the other? So the best 17: paper to get for a Bible is called India paper. And um this stuff you can kind of mark on one side and it doesn’t show through on the other. India paper is 17: like a very very fine slice of a truffle. It’s very very fine. Um but it it’s worth it’s worth investing in the 17: Bible like that. Another thing to think about with your Bible is um most people 17: every Bible has a preface in it. Says to the reader or a preface and you want to read that before you buy the Bible. You 17: want to know who translated this? What principles of translation did they use? 17: So, for instance, I use the New Revised Standard when I’m preaching and I use the King James and New King James with it when I’m preparing sermons. But in 18:0018 minutesthe New Testament, when when John says, “I write I write this to you, dear brothers,” this version will say, “Brothers and sisters,” because it 18: recognizes that the brothers in John is a collective, male and female, not just female. And so uh they they will explain 18: to you in the preface the principles they use for translation such as how they use the word the name for God Yahweh or Jehovah the these and the 18: thouss and the masculine m only male or male and female when it’s clearly what the author intended. The other thing to 18: think about with Bibles is that um what’s the average um reader age of your audience? 18: What does anybody know what’s the average grade reader age of the average American citizen today? The average. 18: It’s between fifth and sixth. 18: What what reader is the King James? What grade is that? 18: It’s an 11th grade book. Theoretically, it’s 11th grade reader. So, your average American is a fifth or a sixth grade 19: reader, and the King James is an 11th grade reader. The King James is one of the best translations you’re going to find, but nobody knows unless you’re a 19: theologian what a sacrifice of propitiation is in all honesty. And so the la the Bible was written in the 19: language that the people spoke. It was it’s called coin Greek. The New Testament is called common is the it was the Greek of the streets. It wasn’t the 19: Greek of the of the It wasn’t the classical Greek of Socrates or Plato or Pho. the the language of the New Testament is written in um coin Greek, which was the Greek of the common man. 19: And in the Old Testament, it was written in Hebrew, but because most people couldn’t speak Hebrew, particularly after the after the exile in Babylon, 19: every time somebody read from the scriptures, somebody next to them would give a paraphrase in Aramaic. And those are known as the the the Targam. And we 19: have those to this day. So, we know how they were translating the Hebrew all the way through to the time of Christ into Aramaic. So, your choice of Bible is 20: really important. And there’s about three kinds of Bibles you can use. 20: There’s a formal translation, there’s a dynamic equivalent, and there’s a then there’s a paraphrase. 20: And um some examples here would be the King James, the New King James, 20: the New American Standard, the the Revised, the New Revised Standard Version. Over here, the 20: most famous would be the New International uh you have the Good News Bible. 20: And over here, the most famous paraphrase is the Clear Word. 20: at these for Adventists. So, what’s the difference between these? 21: Yeah. Well, we’ll come to that in a in a second, brother. All right. So, you basically have a choice between three Bibles. And first thing I’d say is 21: paraphrases ignore them like the plague. 21: If you actually read the preface to the clear word, it actually says this is not the Bible. And it says this should not be used for Bible study. It actually 21: says that. And it also says it should not be used for public lit liturggical reading. That is the writer of the clear word, Jack Mlanka was it said don’t use 21: this in church. And I see people bringing the clear word to church and they haven’t read the preface. And the writer says it’s not for Bible study. 21: It’s not for use in church. It’s not for public reading. This is a private devotional reading of scripture and nothing more. It’s like a private commentary. So when people bring the 21: clear word to church, I kind of cringe because I think just read the preface and the author had no intent for it to be used in this way and once you start 21: using the clear word, we’re open to charges of being a cult because we have our own sacred scriptures. So it’s something to avoid. 22: A dynamic equivalent um the the principle of translation here is that um if you imagine a diamond, a diamond has many facets on it. Yes. 22: And um a dynamic equivalent it doesn’t just do a translation it does an interpretation as well. And so it it 22: will give you one of the facets of the diamond to make it clear that this is what the interpret is the main intent of that word. And so uh the new new 22: international the good news are are dynamics and they are they’re generally easier to understand. The formal 22: translations what they do is they say um a verse in the scriptures is like a diamond with many facets and they will 22: do a direct translation of it and if it if if the if the original word is ambiguous then the translation in English will maintain the ambiguity of 22: the text. They’re going to leave it to you to figure out because the mean the translation will allow for all possible meanings. So if if my son were to come 23: home 10 years ago and say dad he said I had a game of basketball with my friends. It was a wicked game. 23: And my Russian mother-in-law would say to me, “What did he just say?” Like, “What translation principle am I going to choose?” If I’m going to say to my 23: mother-in-law, “He says it was an evil game.” She said, “Well, why is he doing it?” That’s a for that’s a King James translation. If I were to say to her, 23: “He said it was an amazing game.” She says, “Wicked means amazing.” Well, no, that I’m I’m interpreting what he said here. That’s what he really meant. This 23: is what he said. And that’s the essential difference between the two different approaches to translations. 23: So, um you you uh when you’re doing your Bible study prep, my strong recommendation is use two or three formal translations. 23: And if you’re going to use a dynamic, I wouldn’t use that in a pullpit like the New International Good News. However, there is a pastoral place for this 23: because when people are high on morphine and dying of cancer, they need to hear what they can understand. 24: And um if you go to somebody who’s dying of cancer, ask for their Bible, whatever it 24: is, you’re not going to argue what version is and look for the bits that are underlined. 24: And that’s the stuff that speaks to their soul. And when people are dying, often the last sense to go is the hearing. So reading out from their 24: personal Bible the bits that are underlined is a beautiful way to kind of help someone transition from this world to to the sleep before Jesus comes 24: again. So some people have the good news, some people have the new international. Um some people’s minds are blasted by drugs. Some people are 24: just um some people have other kinds of problems. So I’m not opposed to using this in a pastoral sense. But when 24: you’re preparing your bite, your sermons, I’d strongly recommend you have two or three formal translations open before you and you know what the various 25:0025 minutes how the various translators have translated it. Now, um I don’t want to get into today the discussion of are all the Bible versions corrupt other than 25: the King James because I don’t think that’s the case. What I think is we have we have um different manuscript traditions. 25: We have different manuscript traditions and those manuscript traditions have different contents. 25: And when you read the preface of your Bible, it will tell you which manuscript tradition they’re basing the translation 25: on. And so you have the majority text 25: empty and you have the Alexandrian text and you have the eclectic text. 25: There’s a textual criticism and the majority text that’s the majority of the manuscripts but they’re mostly from the 25: sixth to the 8th centuries and the Alexandrian text is mostly from the 2nd to the fourth century. 26: There’s fewer of those, but they’re closer to the original documents. 26: And the King James comes from this. And most modern versions actually come from this because the eclectic text, it says, 26: um, for every verse in the Bible, which has the strongest manuscript evidence, this or this? And then then they they 26: make their pick. And so for the eclectic text, there are five sources for the New Testament. In particular, there are 26: unseals. Those are the manuscripts where everything is in capital letters. And you get to minuscules. 26: Those are the manuscripts where everything is lowerase in the Greek. 26: They don’t have any word differentiation. There’s no separation of words, just a stream of words. Then you have the papyrie. 26: So in the second century if somebody died and they put they put a will together in Egypt they’re a Christian and we found their their will in archaeology they may have a quote from scripture in it. So you have that there. 27: Uh then you have the church fathers and the early church fathers in the second to the fourth centuries they 27: would quote entire chapters at a time in their letters. So you can see what they were how what text they were using. And then you have the trans the the the 27: other translations and the three translations that are 27: closest to the early text. There’s Aramaic, there’s Armenian, and there’s Coptic from Ethiopia. 27: All of those are within about a century of the Apostle Paul writing. And so you can translate back from this back to see 27: if you have the Aramaic, the Armenian, the Coptic, which we have, you can translate back to see which manuscripts they were using. So the eclectic text, 28:0028 minutes which is what most modern versions are based on, it looks at all the unseals, the minuscules, the papyrie, the what the church fathers were quoting and the 28: these three translations, and then it comes to a, you know, conclusion verse by verse. So if you’re going to use a 28: Bible, you want to buy one with a critical apparatus at the bottom. 28: So um a critical apparatus doesn’t just have cross references, but at the bottom of the page it will say it 28: will give you the eclectic text. If this is new revised, then at the bottom it will say other manuscripts read. Then it will have what the majority text says. 28: So nothing is hidden from you. So even if you buy even if you buy let’s say a New American Standard Bible as an 28: example um they will publish those with a critical apparatus. So you can see this is using the eclectic text but if the majority text says something 28: different here then then um they’re going to tell you what it is. So they’re not hiding anything from you. So the idea in my mind that this is a 29: conspiracy falls apart because they publish the Bibles with the alternate readings in them. So anyway, so that’s 29: just a side issue there on on on Bibles that you may use. So the bottom line is if you’re going to prepare a sermon, do it with two or three formal translations. 29: The um I like the King James. I think it’s probably the single best translation there is. But when the pilgrim fathers came to America, they 29: banned the Bible, the the King James. It wasn’t allowed on the Mayflower. Why wasn’t it allowed on the Mayflower? 29: because it was published by King James and they viewed it as a political translation to support the divine right of kings. So they use the Geneva Bible 29: and the Bishop’s Bible, but not the King James version. But so um I I like the King James. I use it often. I use it for 29: sermon prep, but when I’m preaching a sermon, I don’t use it because most people don’t understand the that level of English. Their level their reader 29: level isn’t high enough. And the purpose of sharing the gospel is not to baffle people, but it’s to lead people to Jesus. they have to understand what 30: they’re hearing. Okay. So, um factors to consider when you’re thinking about your your sermon. The first thing you want to 30: ask is who’s the audience? 30: Like who am I speaking to? When somebody says, “Can you come and preach somewhere?” I said, “Sure, I’ll come and preach.” But could you let me know like who’s the audience here? Are they 30: Adventists? Are they non-adventists? Is it academics? Is it not academics? Um are are they people uh who what’s their 30: um background? What’s their journey of life? Is it a linguistically mixed congregation? That’s important. Um do I 30: need a translator um simultaneous or or parallel translation? Um because that slows you down. I’m speaking in Sweden next week. They’ve given me an hour and 30: 20 minutes per talk, but that’s because they have a translator who I have to stop between every sentence. 30: And um I ran through three translators in Svenia recently. they just got burnt out because you start out nice and slow 31: and then you keep speeding up and then you you throw in check test words to see whether they’re following. So you just throw in like Nebuchadnezzar at random 31: and you listen carefully are they translating this or not. So you kind of test your translator as you go along. So using a translators like go using a pair 31: of running shoes you kind of wear through them in a series and they kind of get burnt out on you. But anyway, who who is your audience? Some factors to 31: consider. Um what’s their educational background? How many is it going to be? 31: Let me ask you a question. Is it easier to preach to 30 or to 300? What do you think? 300. 31: 300. Absolutely. The bigger the crowd, the easier for the preacher. Because if you’ve got 10 people, there’s two of 31: them asleep and there’s two of them staring off into space and one’s worrying about whether the food’s going to burn in the crockpot. 31: and there’s two of them on their phones and there’s one person looking at you and occasionally nodding a word of understanding. It’s so off-putting. 32: But when you stand in front of 300 people that there’s this energy that comes off the crowd and even if 10% of them are doing those things that the 32: energy of the crowd just carries you through. And when it’s a a group that’s 10, you see everybody’s face. You can’t hide as a speaker. But when it’s 300, 32: you just see a mass. And last night, somebody very helpfully put a spotlight right in my face. I couldn’t see anything for half the talk like that. 32: Every time I lift my my eyes up, it’s like it’s like a search light coming into my face. And and sometimes like at the LCI convention in Hot Springs last 32: two September ago, they had a row of like search lights over the platform on you. So wherever you looked, you just saw blinding white light. You couldn’t 32: see anything about the audience. You could just hear them out there. There was a rustle, but you couldn’t see anything because of this bright white light. So, um, you’re asking questions 32: about who is the audience. How many children are are there going to be? How many nursing mothers are there going to be? Um, you may want to put stuff on 32: PowerPoints because some people learn through hearing, some people learn through seeing. But you’ve also got nursing mothers whose hands are full and 33: they can’t turn a Bible because they’ve got a child. If you’re speaking to a group of people in a nursing home, many of them have got arthritic fingers. 33: they’re not going to be able to keep up with you with the Bible in their hand because their hands can’t move that fast anymore. And so you you’re you also got 33: people if who have non no Christian backgrounds and you say, “Let’s look in Genesis chapter 1.” And they’re going to look in the they’re going to look in the index to see where Genesis is in their 33: Bibles because they don’t know. And if they’re embarrassed about it, they’re not going to even pick up a Bible. So that’s why it’s better to put stuff on a screen, just the texts, because there’s 33: so many people who aren’t going to follow you otherwise. Um, does the congregation is it comprised of church leaders who should know their Bibles or 33: is it filled with the skeptical and disenchanted? And uh um what are the cultural factors like are they expecting white preaching or black preaching? 34:0034 minutes Black preaching is a thing. It’s literally called black preaching. It’s antipal. It goes back and forth and you 34: go on a journey with the audience. And sometimes in my black congregation, I’ll do black preaching. It just it just happens because they they’re kind of like like encouraging you and they start 34: talking back at you then you start talking back at them and and sometimes someone stands up and yells at you and you kind of move gracefully on in those moments. But um [clears throat] so you 34: need to ask yourself what what kind of audience am I dealing with? Uh the second it’s a really mundane question is what about the location? 34: Like there’s some practical questions about location. So, um, if you’re going to be putting anything up on PowerPoint, 34: you ask them, “Do they have a HDMI adapter or VGA?” Older churches are still running um, VGA. 34: And so, you want to carry an adapter with you in your bag for your laptop because you don’t know whether it’s HDMI or VGA. Um, uh, what’s the PA system 34: like? Sometimes they will put this on you, then they’ll put this on you, then they may have another microphone on you, and somebody else is doing a recording. 35: You got like four devices up here all going down to your pockets. Okay. And you got to be careful because you move your hand around. You’re going to tear 35: the cables away. So, I just put all the cables down underneath my shirt now because that’s the easiest way to get them out of the way. Um, is uh how what are the acoustics like in the building? 35: Some buildings will soak up your voice. 35: Nobody hears anything. And some some places have got incredible acoustics. 35: You want to know something about where you’re going to be speaking. And um you’re also going to ask um is there going to be a pullpit to preach from? 35: And um these days people like minimalistic pullpits, really minimal things. But if you have your Bible and your notes and laptop, there’s just not 35: enough room for it. And and some pullpits are This is a nice pullpit. 35: It’s kind of like at a waist level. And some pullpits are kind of up here like the old Church of England ones. And they’re very very narrow and you can only get your Bible and nothing else up 36: there. And so often times I will put my laptop on a on a chair just down here and I’ll run the slides with a clicker 36: even though the chair is down there just so I’ve got room for my sermon notes and the and the Bible upon upon the platform with me. And uh is there going to be any 36: audio visual? I always ask that question. Do you have audio visual? Do you have opportunity for power points or not? Uh the next question you’re going to be asking is time. 36: Um, and [clears throat] that’s not what time are you speaking necessarily, but how much time do you have and is there a hard cut off point? So, I stood up to 36: speak in Dr. Isaac Tundry Stateline Church a couple of years ago and it was and somebody texted me as I was about to stand up and they say this was 36: deliberate. Uh, they filled up the whole service with other stuff so you’ve got 10 minutes to preach. That would be true in a white church. 36: And I asked Dr. I said how much time do I have? He said, “Brother Vine,” he said, “the next service is at this afternoon. You need to be done by 10 to 37: 4.” I thought, “Praise the Lord. I’ve got you 2 and a half hours to speak because generally black congregations are thoroughly immunized against the 37: effects of long sermons.” All right? But if you are going to ask about time, there are certain considerations. These are practical. So, there’s a there’s a 37: chance these days you’ve got hypoglycemics or diabetics in your congregation and they’re expecting to get to food by. you know, latest on a Sabbath morning. 37: And so, you need to think about that. 37: And um I’ve suggested to some pastors, you should have little like ball boys at the ball game walking around the pews with sachets of applesauce 37: because you literally see people like, oh, zoning out on you. And it’s not cuz they’re tired, it’s cuz they’re hypoglycemic and they’re crashing. And 37: so, you need to need to figure out, you know, when do I start preaching? How long do I have? When is lunch coming? 37: Because you got to be careful. You’ve got people with medical conditions in your congregation. I used to preach in Haiti and in Haiti you wouldn’t stand up 38: to preach for in a full church service. And those little kids have had no breakfast and it’s hot. And when you stand up to preach, all the kids are out 38: at the front fast asleep and they’re not waking up for your sermon because they’re hungry. They’re hungry kids and they’re just waiting for the meal. They’re not they don’t really care 38: what you have to say. So um you you need to think about the timing and then it comes to the topic uh the topic of the 38: sermon and for many preachers this is the hardest thing to the hardest part about writing 38: a sermon is choosing the topic and it’s it’s hard because um if you’re a visiting speaker you don’t know that 38: congregation from Adam or Eve you know nothing about that congregation generally speaking and yet you have to say something that that is relevant to 38: them, but you don’t know anything about them. And so, choosing the right topic is is a real challenge if you’re a lay preacher. So, um, what I would do when I 38: was a pastor, um, I would gather the elders, let’s say, in in say September, and we’d we’ we’d say, “What are the 39: spiritual needs of our church?” And then for the next year, um, for the first six months, we would put together a sermon calendar. So I’d say I’m preaching the 39: first and second Sabbath of the month and the elders will take the sec the sec second and fourth and I’d take first and third let’s say and so everybody knows 39: at the outset when they’re preaching. We divide up the dates among ourselves six months out and then we’d say um what are the spiritual needs of our congregation 39: and we’re going we’re going to do a mix of sermons. So, in January, we’re going to do a series of sermons on, let’s say, Jesus and money. And we’re going to do 39: five stories from Jesus, five parables about money. And that’s what we’re going to do. And those are topical sermons. 39: And then in February, we’re going to do a series of exogetical sermons. We’ll come to that in a minute. And there are four chapters in Ruth. And there are four Sabbaths in February. So, we’re 39: going to do one one chapter a week each in in February from the book of Ruth. 39: And then in March, there are five Sabbaths in March. We’re going to drop we’re going to go to the Psalms or Proverbs and we’re going to do five topical sermons on stuff that our 40: congregation is dealing with. So, if there’s been a split in the church, we’re going to talk about bitterness, forgiveness, reconciliation, 40: uh joy, and and peace in the go in the Psalms. And so, those are the topics. 40: Those are going to be topical sermons based on certain psalms. And then in May, five sermons, we’re going to go to 40: um go to the writings of the Apostle Paul. uh let’s say the book of acts the early church we’re going to do um what 40: happened at Pentecost acts 1-5 from Pentecost to Ananas and safara that’s what we’re going to do for five weeks those five chapters the bottom line is 40: you’re preparing a spiritual menu for your church and most many homemakers you have a menu for your family yes when you 40: go shopping you don’t buy random food you know what you’re going to prepare for your family and and you know that there’s going to be fruit and veg at certain times and and so forth. And so 40: when you’re preparing a sermon calendar, if you’re in a church that doesn’t do it, maybe ask your pastor if you can start doing it, but plan out for the 41: next six months, month by month, who’s preaching on what week. And you’re going to have a mixture of topical, exoggetical, narrative, and uh narrative 41: sermons. And you’re going to be going from the Old Testament to the New Testament to make sure that your congregation has a balanced spiritual 41: diet. And all the elders know or lay preachers know months in advance what they’re preaching on. And when you know months in advance what you’re preaching 41: on, it really helps you with sermon prep because then you start looking for resources on that topic. And so um the 41: the the uh knowing what topic to preach on is really helpful. Sometimes in Sweden next week they asked me to speak on Gustavis Adulus. 41: Uh I know about Gustavis Dulus. He was a great general and that was literally it. 41: But they asked me to speak to Swedes on one of their own kings. So I had to do some research on who is this guy Gustavos Adulus and why do they want me 42:0042 minutes to preach about him and so I wrote a sermon about it. But it was a learning experience for me. But it’s actually kind of nice when people tell you we need you to preach on these three or 42: four topics. It really helps you as a preacher because then you know okay that’s what they want me to focus on. 42: That’s what I’m going to be studying. If they just say, “Could you come and preach to our church for a Friday and a Sabbath?” And they don’t give you any indication of what to preach for, and 42: you have no idea about who that churches, what they’ve gone through, it’s kind of disconcerting as a preacher. You end up preaching really generic stuff because you don’t know 42: anything about that congregation. But if it’s going to be meaningful for the congregation, if if you’re asked to preach, maybe ask those who are asking 42: you to preach, well, what kind of topics would you like me to cover? just give me an idea here because I don’t know anything about this congregation here. 42: So, um when you’re preparing your topic, some some things to avoid. Um as a general rule, avoid obscure texts. 42: They’re fascinating for you in Bible study, but they’re a snare for the preacher. Um avoid novel interpretations of scripture. 43: The chances are you’re going to rub the audience up the wrong way and you’re going to be up the wrong tree anyway. Avoid your personal hobby horses. 43: Um, don’t take a text out of context. 43: That’s a very common thing that people do. Um, don’t preach opinions, preach convictions. And there’s a difference. 43: What God has convicted you of is what you’re going to preach, not what you think about the text. So, there are different kinds of sermons that people 43: preach today. And um the the the basic three types of sermon 43: are maybe rub this off the board here. There’s three basic types of sermon. 43: There’s topical, there’s expository, 44: and there’s narrative. 44: So, what’s the difference between these kinds of sermons? So, um, a topical sermon by its very name just focuses on a topic in the Bible. 44: And um a topical sermon asks the question, what does the Bible say about a certain topic such as faith or 44: forgiveness or hope or love or charity or what happens when people die? And so a topical sermon is often a sermon that 44: you prepare because something’s happened in your congregation and people are responding to that. So you a child has died in a road accident as an example. 44: And so you’re going to preach a topical sermon on what happens when people die. 44: So topical sermons are often viewed as as doctrinal sermons. They can be because you’re going to talk about a doctrine of scripture, the teaching of 44: scripture on a certain topic. And um uh topical sermons um they tend to be 45: triple deckers. Um they tend to be triple deckers. And what I mean by that is um most sermons have an intro. 45: They have a conclusion and then you have a B and C. That’s a 45: triple decka. That’s how most talks end up being if they’re a topical sermon. 45: Now it’s called triple decka. If if if you do a sermon that’s just got A and B, people feel shortchanged. 45: They think he ran out of things to say possibly. 45: If you ran out of things to say, divide B into C, B, and C. All right. [snorts] Um, so you have A, B, and C. Now, people 45: are listening to you and they’re they’re timing you as you go through your sermon. 45: So, if your introduction is 15 minutes, people already groaning, but they know it’s going to be a long 45: hall. And if a is 30 minutes, then people are sitting in despair in the pews. 46: All right. Now, last night I warned you it was going to be long. I told you. 46: Yeah. There’s three parts and you are encouraging to keep going. But other than that, if A is 30 minutes, they’re projecting forward another 30 here, 46: another 30 here, five or 10 here. So, this is going to be an hour and a half. 46: This is going to be an hour and 45 minutes this sermon. And by this stage, you’ve lost the audience because they’ve they’re just timing you out. They think, I can’t cope with this. 46: So, if you do something like 30 minutes for A and 5 minutes for B and 46: 2 minutes for C, then they’re going to think this is unbalanced. It’s like walking with one leg longer than the other. And they’re going to feel very dissatisfied that you didn’t give enough 46: thought to this. So when you’re putting when you’re writing your sermon, I I write out my text word for word. 46: Everything gets written out. You going to write it out and you make sure that each section is approximately the same 47: amount of text. So this could be 15 15 that’s going to be five. This is going 47: to be five down there. That’s a 50-minute sermon or so. That’s going to work well in most congregations. So when when you when you’re putting your sermon 47: together as a topical sermon, you’re you’re going to you’re you’re mostly structuring like this and it’s either inductive or didactic. So inductive 47: means you you ask a question in the introduction like little Johnny died on Friday in a road accident. Where is Johnny today? It’s a good question. 47: Where’s Johnny today? 47: And so the first question is you know um is he in heaven? 47: The answer is no. 47: Next question is um is he is he with Jesus 47: or is he in hell? They say he was a you know a little monster. 48: Is he in hell? No. Is he in the grave? Yes. 48: And so an inductive an inductive at topical sermon asks a question then it systematically works through the answers till you get to the right answer and and 48: you’re leading people through a dedactic sermon um from the word didasco to teach means you start with a statement 48: a statement of truth and then you explain it. you point.1 48: point 2.3 why this is true and then you come to the conclusion is a is a reiteration of the original statements 48: of truth. So um this this is more like a doctrinal sermon this kind of structure but uh this is asking questions and it’s 48: like jumping from spot to spot across the river the blocks and the stones across the river to get to the other side. This one here, you’re going to 49: tell people what you’re going to tell them. Then you’re going to tell them what you told you tell them when you’re going to tell them what you told them you’re going to tell them. And in the summary is where you remind them what 49: you just told them. And and this this this is good for like teaching doctrinal sermons. 49: This is good for asking kind of open-ended questions at the beginning and coming down to a biblical conclusion at the end, a biblical answer. So um 49: where little Jimmy died in a road accident, where is he today? Is he in heaven? Well, what does the Bible say about that? Is he in hell? Does hell exist? No. So, that that option is off 49: the table. Is he in the grave? Yes. And he’s in a cemetery. And what does the word cemetery mean? 49: The se word Greek word cemetery literally means a place where people sleep. 49: It’s like a dormatory. We when we say he’s in the cemetery, we’re affirming the state of the dead doctrine because it literally means a place where people 49: sleep. So, um then you come to your conclusion. So, this is a a topical sermon, and you don’t hear much of this these days. 50: Um, when you’re putting your sermon together, a topical sermon, and most sermons in America these days tend to be topical. 50: Most sermons tend to be topical. Um, there is a temptation. 50: There’s a temptation to have Sandy in San Diego 50: and that’s a 15minute heart tearjerking story. And then you have um 50: Mickey Miami, a story about Mickey Miami. That’s 15 minutes. 50: And then you have um um Oh, I don’t know. 50: Uh uh David in Detroit 51:0051 minutes and that’s 15 minutes. And so the tendency of many modern American preachers is to tell you a heart a tearjerking story about Sandy in San 51: Diego for 15 minutes and then they throw in a scripture reference and if you blink you miss it. So I’ll put a little 51: star here. But if you blink you’ve missed it. Then they tell you about Mickey Miami, his testimony. And at the end of that story, they may have a 51: scripture reference or a reference to scripture, but if you blink, you’ve missed it. Then you’ve got David in Detroit. 51: At the end of that tearjerkering story, you got little little reference to scripture. And then you’ve got your conclusions down here. And this kind of 51: sermon becomes quite popular in America these days, but there’s almost no scripture in it. And you’re transferring the authority in people’s lives from the word of God to human experience. 51: And that’s the problem with it because human experience is not a moral source of authority. The word of God is. 51: So if you’re going to use illustrations, the illustrations need to illustrate the biblical points you’re making rather than having the Bible provide like a 52: little pat of approval on a human interest story. So avoid this kind of thing if at all possible. It happens all 52: too often. Um, and so, um, anyway, so that’s a topical sermon. And when you’re 52: doing a topical sermon, um, what what what you’ll do is you’ve got A, B, and C. It’s your triple decka. That’s the standard sermon that gets put together. 52: Um, what’s just as important as the A, B, and the C, is at the end of A, you’re going to have a little mini conclusion. 52: See, say conchk. 52: You’re going to have a little mini conclusion and then you’re going to have s you have to have a linking statement that takes you from this down to B. So 52: in the earlier example you say okay so conclusion is little Jimmy is not in heaven. 52: Then then the linking question is but maybe he’s in hell. And that leads you into the next section there. At the end of B, you’re going to have a mini 53: conclusion, one sentence, and then you’re going to have a linking statement or question linking 53: statement that that takes you from here down to here again. So, you you’re you’re linking like like somebody who’s weaving the basket or or doing um 53: crochet, you’re linking the three major points with a mini conclusion and then a linking statement or question that leads you down to here. and getting those 53: linking statements right. You got to think about those. They they don’t always come by chance and they don’t come to you on the cuff when you were up 53: there speaking very easily as well. So that’s something to be thinking of for there. Okay. Expository preach. So but 53: topical sermons, this is the vast majority of sermons in our churches today. Um end time events, um doctrinal 53: preaching. Um uh you’ve had a there’s a there’s been a disaster. you going to talk about the impact of the disaster, 53: whatever it may be. Um, most sermons these days are topical and these are the easiest sermons to produce. Why? Because 54: you can use all of scripture to come to bring to bear on that topic. So, if you have a concordance like Strong’s concordance, let’s say you want to do a 54: sermon on forgiveness hypothetically, if you have a Strong’s concordance, the get if you’re going to buy a concordance, buy the exhaustive concordance. 54: Just look through it and it has every word in the Bible listed one by one alphabetically and everywhere where it’s found in the Bible. So go to the word 54: forgive and forgiveness and read through every text that it shows in concordance. 54: By the time you’ve read through all those 70 or 80 or 90 texts, you’ve got a good understanding of what the Bible says about forgiveness. So in as part of 54: your sermon prep, doing that kind of research and Bible study really helps you um if you’re doing a topical sermon. 54: Now expository preaching is kind of different and you don’t get so much of this these days 54: but when you’re doing an uh to an expository uh sermon means that you’re expounding the meaning of the word of God and generally it’s on a passage. 55: So uh when when you’re doing your preparation for this you’re asking yourself certain questions. First of all who wrote this? 55: oftentimes that’s obvious. If if you get the the um Andrew study Bible, at the start of every book, there’s two pages 55: that describes who wrote it, when it was written, to whom it was written, that kind of stuff. It’s worth reading that stuff. So, who wrote it, 55: when did they write it, um what did they write, um to whom did they write it? 55: Um how How would the original audience 56:0056 minuteshave understood this? 56: And therefore, how should we understand it today? 56: So when you’re doing expository preaching, you can kind of systematically look at a text and you can say, “Well, who wrote this?” 56: And if you don’t know, most study Bibles will give you the answer to that. When did they write it? 56: That’s an important question to ask, but understanding the context. Um, what did they write? Let’s look at the actual text itself. 56: To whom was it written? Who was the intended target audience of this passage? 56: Um, how would the original audience have understood this? And how should how should we therefore understand it today? 56: That’s the key question. You’re trying to get to this thing here. And to get to this, you need to ask these earlier questions so that your conclusions are valid. So, let me just give you an 57: example. If you have your Bibles with you, our time is up here. We need to need to bring this to a close. 57: If you have your Bibles with you, um, just go to First Timothy. 57: So, if we do, if we were to say to you, um, who wrote the book of First Timothy? 57: Paul. All right. Who did you write it to? Timothy. Who was Timothy? 57: Yeah. He’s like his young protetéé. Yeah. He’s like his his like sidekick. 57: He’s like a he’s training him to be a pastor. So this is Paul writing to a young man who’s stepping into the pastoral role. And um if you take a look 57: at verse 15 of chapter 2 um let’s read verses 13 and 14. Let’s read 57: this. It says for Adam was formed first then Eve and Adam was not deceived but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. Yet she that is woman will 58: be saved through childbearing provided they continue in faith and love and holiness and mod with modesty. 58: All right. So if I read this it says that a woman is saved through childbearing. Is that what the Bible says? 58: Yes. That’s what it says. 1 Timothy chapter 2 verses 13 and 14. 58: Does anybody’s version not say that a woman is saved through childbearing in there? in childbearing. Yes. 58: So, does this will does this link salvation to having children for women? Yes or no? 58: That’s what it says. Yeah. Yeah. So, if you’re going to do an expository sermon on 1 Timothy 2, you got to grapple with 58: this and you need to understand, well, what’s Paul saying here? What about all the ladies that don’t have children? Are they lost? 59: Good question. 59: So, let’s take a look at this. Um, Paul, he wrote this to Timothy. Yes. 59: And he writes it to Timothy when he’s a a local church pastor. 59: And you need to ask the other question is why? 59: Why did he write it? Why did Paul write this book to Timothy? 59: We’ll look at 1 Timothy chapter 4 and give you the answer. 59: It says 1 Timothy 4:1, “Now the spirit expressly says that in later times some will renounce the faith by paying 59: attentions to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons through the hypocrisy of liars whose consciences are seared with a hot iron.” Verse three is the key verse. They forbid what? 59: Marriage and demand abstinence from foods. So these are the two false teachings in the church that Paul is 1:00: writing to. So Paul is writing to give Timothy guidance in how to respond to these false teachers giving the 1:00: teachings of demons. And these false teaching false teachers are forbidding marriage. 1:00: Now [clears throat] in those days if a woman got married what was the almost inevitable consequence? 1:00: Sorry. 1:00: Yeah. Okay. But beyond that, they have ch children. Yeah. So in those days, 1:00: marriage, unless he or she was infertile, led to children. 1:00: But the false teachers are saying they’re forbidding marriage. That’s the problem that Paul is addressing here. 1:00: So when Paul says in 1 Timothy 2, a woman shall be saved in childbirth, what he’s saying is that the the the 1:01: false doctrine that forbids marriage, you can just ignore that. That a woman can get married and still have children, which is the natural consequence of 1:01: being married in those days and she can still be saved even when she’s having children. You following this? 1:01: So he’s not saying that every woman has to have children in order to be saved. 1:01: He’s writing to deal with a heresy in the church. And he’s saying that these teachers are forbidding marriage. And so for the women who get married and have 1:01: children, they can still they can still be saved. What about the men who get married? Men who are married. 1:01: Well, he goes on to discuss that in 1 Timothy 3 verse two. He says, “Now an elder must 1:01: be above reproach.” Then what does it say? husband of one wife. 1:01: So Paul is saying that the church leaders, they need to be married. Why? 1:02: Because that’s a they are refuting the heresy that forbids marriage. That your life, the way you live your life must 1:02: refute the heresy that’s out there. So the men, if they’re going to be a leader in the church, your life has to refute that particular heresy that forbids 1:02: marriage. Therefore, the elders must be married. and the women, you can still get married and you can be and you can you can be married, you can have 1:02: children and you can still be saved and you don’t need to listen to these false teachings. 1:02: You follow me on this? So, an exogetical sermon is going to ask the question as you work your way through Timothy, 1:02: you’re going to you’re going to ask these kind of questions like why did Paul write it? He’s writing to a church with false teachings. So he’s he’s 1:02: telling the Timothy, this is how you correct those false teachings, not just in in in your teaching, but in how you live your lives. And when these false 1:02: teachings are forbidding marriage, women can get married and have children and still be saved. And the men who are leaders in the church, they need to be married to refute the false teachings. 1:03: And so how do we understand this today? 1:03: Well, the the practical interpretation says nobody’s forbidding marriage as being, you know, you can’t it’s not if you’re married, you’re going to be lost. 1:03: But the the application today would be where Satan is attacking the church, the men and women of the church need to live lives that refute those false teachings. 1:03: If Satan is attacking the church by saying samesex marriage is okay, then the church leaders, men and women need to uphold heterosexual marriage. 1:03: Okay? So you you’re going to live lives that’s the principle here is that the life of the leaders of the church must refute and and show that false the 1:03: attacks of Satan upon the church. That’s why relatively few sermons these days are expository. 1:03: You don’t uh when when um who was the guy in the reformer in Switzerland? Zwingley. 1:03: So he was um he was preaching there and he was working his way through Romans like like a word one word a week 1:04: and he went away for four or five years and the congregation had a breather from Romans and he came back and picked up exactly where he left off before. So uh 1:04: but we don’t have that these days. These days most sermons are topical because it’s easier to prepare expository or exeetical sermons where 1:04: you expound on the what does it what’s the text what does it mean then? What does it mean for us today? This is harder to do because you’re drilling down into the text. And if you’re going 1:04: to talk about 1 Timothy 23 and 14, it’s only a small book. You should read the entire book of Timothy a couple times in different translations to understand 1:04: what’s Paul talking about here and asking yourself questions like who wrote this? When was it written? What was written? Why was this written? To whom 1:04: was it written? Why? How would they have understood it back then? How then may we understand it today? Those simple flow of questions is a really good way of 1:04: getting at the meaning of the text. And once you’ve done that process word by word or verse by verse, you’re then in a position to do an expository or an 1:04: exgetical sermon on that passage. So this this is the joy of being a preacher. You get to do this study for yourself. 1:05: And so but this kind of preaching is is rarely heard in the Adventist church these days. Rarely heard. But it’s in my 1:05: opinion it’s the most powerful preaching because it allows the word of God to speak to people’s hearts directly. And our time is up here and I need to I’ll 1:05: finish in two minutes this first section here. 1:05: Uh narrative sermons. 1:05: A narrative sermon is basically where you follow somebody’s spiritual experience through a journey. 1:05: And let me give an example of that. Um this will be a narrative sermon. 1:05: Um Mary, she had three journeys. She went from 1:05: Nazareth to Bethlehem. Is that right? 1:06: Her second journey was Bethlehem to Egypt. 1:06: And her third journey was Egypt back to Nazareth. 1:06: Is that correct from the scriptures? 1:06: So, if you do a narrative sermon, you’re going to follow somebody through a story and you’re asking yourselves what did 1:06: what was their spiritual experience at each stage of that journey. Now, Mary, this is an obvious narrative sermon here. Nazareth to Bethlehem, she’s an 1:06: expectant mother. She’s worried about what does every teenage first mother with the first child think about? Does she think about the weather? She think 1:06: what’s what’s coming my way? Yes. She’s think what’s it going to be like? She’s worried where am I going to have this baby, you know, etc., etc. Then she goes 1:06: from Bethlehem to E to Egypt. At this stage, she’s worried about whether her baby’s going to be killed by Herod. And she’s worried about I’m going to a 1:07: foreign land. Am I going to fit in? How are we going to survive? Economic insecurity. She’s a re kind of like a migrant/refugee. 1:07: And then she’s going from Egypt back to Nazareth. 1:07: And she she’s she’s not going to Judea because Archelaus is the king of Judea. 1:07: He’s he’s brutal. They’re going back to Galilee of Nazareth in Galilee. And Galilee was Galilee of the Gentiles. So 1:07: she wants to raise her boy as a god-fearing boy, but she’s going to live surrounded by Gentiles. She’s moving back to a place she probably doesn’t 1:07: want to raise a kid as a devout Jewish girl. And so she makes three journeys. 1:07: And this kind of sermon will follow Mary at each. So there’s a triple decker right here. It will follow her on this 1:07: stage. And you’re asking the questions, what was she thinking? 1:07: What text would have guided her? What promises could she have claimed on this kind of journey? And here you’re asking what was she going through? What was her emotional state here? She’s a brand new 1:08: mother with all the physical and emotional side effects of that. And she’s afraid for her life. And she’s terrified for her baby’s life. And the 1:08: slaughter of the babies of Bethlehem is just a reminder that she’s now a target. 1:08: And here she’s going back to Galilee of the Gentiles, which is Nazareth. And she wants to raise her boy in the fear of the Lord, but she’s surrounded by pagans. 1:08: And so if you’re speaking a narrative sermon, this will speak to like many mother’s hearts, a sermon like this, exploring 1:08: these three things. So a narrative sermon follows somebody through a story. It could be physical journeys like this. 1:08: It could be the woman caught in adultery. Won’t mark it up on the board. 1:08: Um, what does a woman caught in adultery hear first? She hears seductive words, nice words, sweet nothings, we say. Yes. 1:08: And then she hears angry words and accusing words. And then she’s dragged out into public and she’s like standing there in the middle of the temple and 1:09: everybody’s looking at her and she’s dying of shame and all she hears is like, “Stone her, stone her. She’s an adulteress. And those the voices that 1:09: were previously warm and friendly and seductive have just disappeared or now they’re now harsh. And then she hears silence and she looks down. There’s a strange man there writing in the dust. 1:09: And then she hears the sound of the crowd walking away. 1:09: And then she hears one voice and it says, “Where are they that condemn thee?” Says, “Well, neither do I condemn thee. So go in peace and sin no more.” 1:09: And just the relief in her voice in her heart that she’s not going to be stoned that day. And that does the message of that as you follow her is in a world of 1:09: accusing voices Jesus has the final say and he doesn’t accuse or condemn us. So a narrative sermon that follows some you 1:09: came cut to that. So a narrative sermon will follow somebody through a story and follow their spiritual experience. 1:09: So um uh kind of a crossover between exetical narratives. is if you do a series of sermons on, let’s say, David, the life of David, and you go through 1:10: one chapter at a time, you’re kind of following his spiritual experience every week, but it’s going to be an exogetical sermon. Each sermon will be exeetical, 1:10: but the overall theme structure is going to be narrative because you’re following David through through the the experiences of his life. So, those are the three basic kinds of sermons. 1:10: Topical, exegetical or expository, and narrative sermon preaching. You can learn how to do this. There is an art to 1:10: it. there there are components. It’s like cooking a good meal. You just learn how to do it and and and God will bless you as you do it. So my prayer is that 1:10: if if as and when you asked to speak at a mentor to women’s retreat for Pathfinders um for a Bible study uh or for a Wednesday night prayer meeting or 1:10: for a vespers or for a Sabbath serum, whatever it is, don’t be afraid of it because it’s your chance to grow. It’s 1:10: an invitation for God to walk with you through a Bible study process for you to grow. And when you stand joy filled with the joy of discovery and saying this is 1:11: what the Lord has shown me this