Preaching as a Part of Worship

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Tonight, we are continuing our series entitled Decently and in Order.
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So far, we have looked at the importance of Lord's Day worship and we have looked at the atrocities which are now being becoming more and more regular in modern worship.
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That was last week when we looked at those atrocities.
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Tonight, we're going to begin looking at the liturgy of the church and we're going to begin looking at the elements of our liturgy and the value of those elements.
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Remember what we said about liturgy? I don't know if I just to be sure, because I know not all of you have been here for every lesson.
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Allow me to to just remind you about the meaning of that word.
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We say the word liturgy, the word liturgy means the order of worship.
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But even more specifically, it refers to the elements which go into worship.
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So it's not just that we pray before we sing or we sing before we preach, because you could say that's the order of things.
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But it's what are we doing? The elements that are included in the activity of worship.
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We have stated that our liturgy should begin and end with the Bible.
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What do we call the principle of biblical worship? What principle do we use for biblical worship? The regulative principle, the regulative principle, the regulative principle says that the Bible regulates worship.
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It tells us how God wants to be worshiped.
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It tells us how to worship him.
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So we regulate our worship in accordance with the word of God over and against the normative principle, which basically says that all things are allowed so as so much as they are not forbidden.
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So the regulative principle says we do what is commanded and the normative principle says we don't do what isn't forbidden, what is forbidden, but everything else is on the table.
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And you can see how that could become a very dangerous principle.
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We have noted in our studies that the Bible gives clear directives for which elements should be included in worship.
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Prayers should be included in worship.
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Acts 242.
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Singing should be included in worship.
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Colossians 316, Ephesians 519.
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And of course, the whole Psalms, all of the Psalms are songs.
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That's what the word Psalms is.
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It's the songs of Israel.
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Reading of Scripture.
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First Timothy 413 tells us to give ourselves the reading, public reading of the word of God.
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Giving is a part of worship.
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First Corinthians 16 to baptism is an act of worship where in the whole community of faith comes together and bears witness to the symbol of the entrance into the new covenant.
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Communion is an act of worship.
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First Corinthians 11, 23 to 26, which I read every Sunday as our introduction to the communion table.
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All of these are worship elements and the element, the element of worship, which requires the most time, both in preparation and in execution, is the preaching.
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Let me say that again.
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The element of worship that is devoted the most time, both in preparation and in execution is preaching.
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You ever realize that our service is what? Two thirds preaching, at least if you were to take the time of the of the service, it's at least two thirds of the service is spent exhorting the word of God, preaching the word of God, teaching the word of God.
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And it's the vast majority of time that we spend in worship.
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And it's the vast majority of time during the week that we spend preparing for.
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We don't spend as much time choosing songs for worship as we do preparing a sermon.
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Aaron knows Aaron.
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Aaron does the songs for us.
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And he also preaches on time.
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And I ask you the question, which one takes the most time? Obviously.
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Right.
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Sitting down to prepare a sermon much longer than even a Sunday school lesson or something like that, because a sermon is where it's dedicated a lot of time.
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We'll talk about later how much time.
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But let's look at our introduction on your seat.
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When the Bible is read, God's word is being being spoken.
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When the Bible is preached, God's word is being explained.
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So let me say that again, when when the Bible is read, God's word is being spoken.
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When God when the word is preached, it's being explained.
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There is no higher authority in the church than God's word.
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And its proclamation is to take precedence on the Lord's day.
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Martin Lloyd-Jones, one of the great preachers of the past, said this, the primary task of the church and the Christian minister is the preaching of the word of God.
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Some people may say that's out of balance.
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It is not out of balance.
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The primary task of the church and the minister is the preaching of the word of God.
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As John MacArthur has said, the meaning of Scripture is the Scripture.
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So when the person stands up to give you the meaning to explain to you what this is saying to you, that is God's word being spoken to you and explained to you.
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It has great value in the life of the believer.
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I want to read from the second Helvetic confession.
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This is from 1566.
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So this is the heart of the Reformation.
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You remember, the Reformation really begun to catch fire in 1517 when Martin Luther published his 95 thesis.
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So this is still in the same century, 1566.
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The Helvetic confession is written and this is what it says about preaching.
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The preaching of the word of God is the word of God.
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Wherefore, when this word of God is now preached in the church by preachers lawfully called, we believe that the very word of God is proclaimed and received by the faithful and that neither any other word of God is to be invented nor is to be expected from heaven, and that now the word itself which is preached is to be regarded, not the minister that preaches, for even if he be evil and a sinner, nevertheless, the word of God remains still true.
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And good, the word is the truth.
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The word proclaimed is the truth.
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And it's not me.
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It's the word.
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If you are moved on Sunday by my gifts or elocution, that's not what I think.
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My seeking is that you be moved by the word of God and what it means.
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And that's the point of what that confession is stating.
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It's not the man.
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It's the message.
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It's not the person.
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It's the word of God.
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So tonight we're going to look at three things regarding preaching.
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We're first going to look at preaching and the preacher.
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We're then going to look at preaching and the hearer.
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And then we're going to look at preaching and the Holy Spirit preaching.
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And the preacher will be first.
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We're going to look at five distinct elements of preaching and the preacher now talking about preaching.
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This is, again, my primary task in ministry, so I'm quite passionate about it.
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And you'll notice that there's more points on this than any of the other two.
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The other two only have three points, but I've given five points to preaching in the preacher because I want you to understand what it is that is put into the ministry of preaching.
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Number one or letter A on your sheet is the preacher's calling, the preacher's calling.
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Pastoral ministry is not a profession.
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Now, for some people, it is.
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For some people, they simply go to school, they get a degree and then they go find a church to preach in.
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And then when they get another church that offers them more money or more extravagance or more opportunity, they might go to that church and they may just simply walk up the corporate preaching ladder until they find some place wherein they can have a cushy job.
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And it's all about position and profession.
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But true Christian ministry is not a profession.
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In fact, John Piper wrote a book called Brothers, We Are Not Professionals.
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That was the title of the book, and it was written to pastors to remind us, yes, you went to school.
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Yes, you have a degree.
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Yes, you spent time devoted and study like any other professional, but you are not a professional.
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You are called of God, it is different, it is not a profession, it is a calling.
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James chapter three and verse one tells us that it is a calling in somewhat of a sideways way, because James chapter three, verse one says this.
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Let not all assume to be teachers, for the teachers will be held to a higher standard.
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Now, what does that tell us in that verse that there are there are those who would assume the position who shouldn't be in the position? There are those who would presume to be in that position, but shouldn't be there, which means that the person who goes into that position is called by God into that position.
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It's not simply something that on a whim I woke up one day and yesterday I was a, I don't know, a schoolteacher.
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And today I think I'll be a preacher.
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You know, that is not to say that a man cannot receive a calling later in life, he might be very successful in his in his in his life like Aaron was, but yet feel the call to ministry and leave that profession and go into ministry.
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That's different.
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But it's not as if preaching.
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And I've heard people say this, well, it's just another job.
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All you do is give a 30 minute book report every week.
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That's not too hard.
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You know, that's a joke.
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But I mean, the reality is that it's not a profession.
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A man who believes he is called.
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Must meet the scriptural qualifications right down this first Timothy three, one through seven, and I'll just read this for you.
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I do not have time tonight to exegete all of these qualifications, but just to hear them is enough for us to understand the seriousness of the calling.
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First Timothy chapter three, the saying is trustworthy.
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If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, see, there will be an aspiration.
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There will be a heart's desire to do this.
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And if anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task.
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Therefore, an overseer must be above reproach.
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The husband of one wife, that literally means a one woman, man.
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Sober minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money.
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He must manage his own household well with all dignity, keeping his children submissive.
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For someone does not know how to manage his own household.
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How will he care for God's church? He must not be a recent convert or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall in the condemnation of the devil.
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Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil.
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Right there.
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Very clear qualifications for someone who believes he's called beloved.
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I've had people who say, you know what? I think I might be called the ministry.
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We had a guy come to this church one time and he said he believed he was called the ministry.
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I don't know if you remember this, Jack, but you were a part of this guy said, I believe I was called the ministry.
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And the elders sat down with him and said, well, why do you want to be a minister? He said, because I like the idea of being able to set my own hours.
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That is the wrong answer.
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But that was it's ridiculous.
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First of all, I haven't set my own hours in years.
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But the concept of ministry is simply being a cushy profession.
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It's right in the qualifications, you're managing God's church.
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You're a steward of God's church.
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This is a this is a calling.
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It's not simply something that is open for just everyone.
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It's something that God calls men to do.
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A man who believes that he is called to the ministry must be examined.
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He must be ordained and he must be commissioned by the church.
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The examination happens among the elders.
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The ordination happens among the church and the commissioning happens among the church that receives him.
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So like again, using Aaron as an example, because he's in seminary when he is ready to be or he's already been examined to know that we would confidently send him to seminary.
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Once he finishes seminary, the church will ordain him to ministry and then he will look for a church that will commission him to preach.
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Or perhaps this church, if we were at the growth size that we were able to bring on another person, could commission him to work here.
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But that's the commissioning is the is the vocational aspect of it, actually positioning him in somewhere where he would work in the ministry there.
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It's not a profession.
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It's not a profession, but it is a vocation, meaning that the Bible does say that ministers are allowed to earn a salary for this job.
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The Bible clearly says that ministers who give themselves wholly to preaching and teaching the word of God are to make their living on preaching and teaching the word of God, not to extort or fleece the flock.
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But they are to earn a living and it is to be a reasonable living, not to be cheated by the church.
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So that's part of the commissioning aspect.
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First, Timothy, the same book, chapter four and verse 14, do not neglect the gift you have.
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This is Paul speaking to Timothy, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you.
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That's the commissioning.
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The elders are ordaining and commissioning him to the task of being a preacher.
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So that's the calling aspect.
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And I've got to I've got to hurry because I've got four more just on this one point.
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But but you understand how important this is and that's why I'm focusing on it tonight.
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The second thing is the preacher's training.
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So the preacher has a calling.
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I want to ask a question.
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It's an opinion question.
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And because of time, I simply want hands.
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We don't have to discuss it.
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I simply want a show of hands by show of hands.
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Does a pastor? Yes or no.
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Does a pastor have to have seminary training? Raise your hand if the answer is yes.
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OK.
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All right.
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I didn't say should.
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I said, does he have to? The answer to that question is obviously no.
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The have to is where we get the issue.
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It's not that a person has to.
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Now, I'm going to ask you a question.
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Should a minister of the gospel receive training? Yes, that is always yes.
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The answer is always yes to that, because the Bible is clear that this is something that we are to be workmen who need not to be ashamed, who can rightly divide the word of truth.
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And that does require that we are not off in a cave somewhere learning on our own without any bearing of the last two thousand years of history or any mentorship that's going on among other elders or without on the outside of the church.
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Let me give you two good examples.
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Charles Spurgeon did not have a university degree, but he is considered to be the prince of preachers.
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But here's something most people don't know about Charles Spurgeon.
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Charles Spurgeon, before he was 20 years old, preached 600 sermons and he read a average of six books per week and he had a photographic memory.
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He was able to recall whole sections of books years after he had read them.
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He was an anomaly.
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Here's another guy who doesn't have seminary training.
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Joel Osteen has no seminary training.
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Surprise.
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Yes, no man should preach untrained or unlearned.
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You would not go to a doctor and say to the doctor, do surgery on me if you were not confident that the man knew how to cut you open properly.
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You would not go to a mechanic and say, put new brakes on my car if you were not confident that that man knew how to install brakes properly.
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You would not go on an airplane if you did not have confidence that the guy behind the wheel or the stick or whatever you fly an airplane with had the proper training to be in the cockpit.
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And yet people say, oh, a minister doesn't need training.
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That's a lie.
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We need to be trained.
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We need to be mentored.
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We need to study.
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The Bible says in 2nd Timothy 2 and 15 that we do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who needs not to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth that proves that it cannot it can be handled wrongly.
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Yes, the apostle Paul is a specific account where he was called directly by Christ.
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But he spent three years in training before he went into ministry.
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Regulations chapter one.
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OK, yes, he spent three years learning before going into ministry.
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There is training which is necessary.
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The apostles spent three years training under Jesus for ministerial training.
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All right.
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Number letter C, the preacher's preparation, the preacher's preparation.
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How many hours? This is another opinion question.
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How many hours should a pastor take to prepare a sermon? This is a opinion question.
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As long as it takes as much as necessary.
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You're saying 10, 10 hours.
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OK.
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All right.
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There is no specific answer.
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How many hours should a pastor take to prepare a message? There is no specific answer.
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However, here is one text that is often misused when dealing with this question.
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Mark chapter 13 and verse 11.
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This is what it says, I'll just read it to you.
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And when they bring you to trial and deliver you over, do not be anxious beforehand what you are to say, but say whatever is given you in that hour, for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit.
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That's Mark 13, verse 11.
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Some preachers take that passage and they say, see, I don't have to study when I step into that pulpit, the Holy Spirit is going to take over and I don't have to worry.
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He's going to speak through me.
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That's a misapplication of that passage, because that passage is specifically talking about when we are drug into court over our faith, when we have gotten in trouble for preaching, we should not wring our hands together, worried about what we're going to say when we're taken before the magistrate.
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Because at that moment, when we are so weak in the knees, when we are so sweaty in the palms and we are so afraid that we're going to have to die for our faith, the Holy Spirit will at that moment take over and give us the the the unction to do what is necessary and proclaiming the word.
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And we ought not worry about those things.
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But this speaks nothing to the preparation of a sermon.
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And this is what I tell men who say, I don't have to prepare.
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The Holy Spirit talks to me when I'm in the pulpit.
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Here's my answer to them.
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I see the same Holy Spirit who is with you in the pulpit is with you in the study.
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The same Holy Spirit who is with you on the on the platform is with you when you are in your prayer closet.
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The same Holy Spirit who gives you words there can give you words when you are alone and meditating and communing with him.
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So the man who says, I don't need to prepare often brings very little food for his flock.
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And a lot of times his flock is is starving for the word because he comes with an unprepared message.
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So the priesthood preparation is hugely important.
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And the answer, if somebody asked me, how long do you usually spend? I would say the average time it takes me to write a message, if I had to average, it would be about 15 hours.
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That's just average because there are sometimes it takes longer, sometimes it takes shorter.
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Depends on what's that? Yeah, it depends on the book, how much how much time I've had, you know, precursory.
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Say this week is hard because this week I'm preaching on a text.
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You know, when I preach verse by verse, the context is already set up.
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We've spent weeks dealing with context.
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I don't have to spend time in the context work, doing the context work.
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But what I do have to do, what I do have to do in this week's sermon is I have to provide a context because we're going to be in 2nd Corinthians chapter five.
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We have been in 2nd Corinthians chapter five yet.
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We haven't done the background work.
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So I have to do that just to get ready to preach it.
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So there's an extra couple hours just of work that you won't ever see.
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But it's my preparatory work so that I can preach it properly.
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So the preparation is essential number letter.
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Sorry, I forgot how I did these letter D.
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The preacher's message, the preacher's message.
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There are three types of preaching.
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Well, you could break it down further than this, but there are essentially three types of sermons, if you will.
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Topical, textual, expository, topical, textual and expository.
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A topical sermon is a sermon driven by a particular subject.
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For instance, if I said how to be a better husband, right, we start with a question, how to be a better husband.
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And then I find all the relevant text to being a husband and we deal with those as a topic.
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Tonight's lesson could be considered somewhat topical, even though this is not a sermon.
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This is a lesson and there is a difference.
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And I'll explain that in a little while.
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But ultimately, the point is a topical sermon.
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You'll and people often say, well, you know, a lot of preachers are topical preachers.
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A lot of people are expository preachers.
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The reality is we all do it all.
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Anytime you've ever looked at MacArthur's, one of MacArthur's sermons, and he's a great expositor, but you'll see passages.
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It says various texts, the title of the sermon, various texts.
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It doesn't have one specific text.
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And that's what that is.
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He's looking at a topic and he's addressing the various texts that are in relation to that topic.
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It's not wrong to do topical sermons.
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And I'll talk about that more in a moment.
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But topical sermons are the least.
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I think they feed the least.
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And I'll explain why in a moment.
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But textual, a textual sermon is hard to define.
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It's sort of like nailing Jell-O to the wall.
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It's a little hard to do, but I'll define it as best I know how.
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A textual sermon is a non-exhaustive sermon based on the theme of a text.
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For instance, if I wanted to if I wanted to preach on the love of God from John 316, that's not necessarily an expository sermon.
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It's a non-exhaustive sermon on a theme of a text.
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The love of God is one of the themes that's found in John 316.
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And I could preach on that theme from the text, but I wouldn't necessarily have to expose or exposit the entire text to deal with the love of God.
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Sometimes you'll see these as springboards.
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They springboard you to talking about a theme.
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And there can be related to subject based preaching or topical preaching.
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The final is expository.
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Expository is an exhaustive study focused on the context of the passage.
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It is an exhaustive study focused on the context of the passage.
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People think the word exposit means to expose.
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It's actually the word exposit means to explain, explain.
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So when I'm reading John 316 and I only preach John 316 and I don't tell you that John 316 came after John 315 and before John 317.
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And I don't read those passages as well.
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And I don't spend time telling you that this happened in the midst of Jesus's visit by Nicodemus, the Pharisee, who came to him at night asking him questions about his faith.
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If I don't explain all of that in the midst of helping you understand John 316, it's not really an exposition.
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It's a textual sermon based on the theme of a text versus something that's meant to explain in context how this text fits into the overarching word of God and the meta narrative of Scripture.
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OK, now the goal, at least for me, is to preach expositionally or to preach expository sermons.
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There are times where I preach textual sermons.
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There are times when I preach topical sermons.
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But one of the ways that you can preach expository sermons, it's not the only way, but one of the ways that you preach expository sermons is preaching verse by verse.
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OK, you say verse by verse, because if I start at John 1 1 and I go all the way to the end of the book, I've maintained the context of the book through my preaching.
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Right now we're preaching through the Sermon on the Mount.
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As I told you, we're taking a break going to Second Corinthians this week, but I've been preaching from the Sermon on the Mount.
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I started at chapter five and now we're in chapter seven.
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And there's a very specific context that we've had to maintain so that we can explain every verse within its context.
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Now, I want to just tell you, you can write this down if you want to go there with me.
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You can ask chapter 20 and verse 26.
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Here is the verse which kind of points out expository preaching as a as a as a model, because it's what the Apostle Paul modeled Acts 20 and 26.
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He says, therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.
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I know some preachers and I don't say this disparagingly because I think some of these guys are really trying their best.
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But I know some preachers who really only preach about six or seven messages and they just rotate it through and they choose different texts.
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But they're pretty much the same messages because they teach these topical messages and then they go through the topics again and then they go through the topics again and they sort of rotate it through.
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But they never get around to giving the whole counsel of God.
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I know some preachers who would never attempt to try to preach through Romans chapter nine because of the issues of reformed theology, the issues of predestination, election, those things which are there.
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They don't want to deal with those things.
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So what do they do? They just don't preach it.
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Dr.
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James White was in a large Southern Baptist church and he was a Sunday school teacher in a large Southern Baptist church.
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While he was in that Southern Baptist church, they were doing Sunday school lessons and they would tell them this is what you have to teach on this week.
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You have to teach on the Sunday school lessons for this and this and this.
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They gave him one Sunday to teach through Romans 9, 10 and 11.
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How long we've been doing dads and dudes, four months.
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And we only meet twice a month and we've been going fast and we're only into Romans four.
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And we haven't been doing an exhaustive study either.
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We've just been looking at specific passages to help us understand Paul's systematic theology.
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But still, the idea of getting through Romans 9, 10, 11 in one sitting and one hour, that's not exposition.
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That's not even I don't know what it is.
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But that reading through, yes, reading through, you can read all three chapters in an hour and give any real insight into the passages or answer questions.
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So the key to solid preaching, I told you I'd spend most of the time on this because I think it's important.
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The key to solid preaching is what we call exegesis.
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And the opposite of this is eisegesis, exegesis and eisegesis.
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And I don't use these words just to be fancy.
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You need to understand the difference.
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Exegesis means to pull out of the text the meaning of the text.
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What was the authorial intent? Who is the author and what did he mean when he spoke to whom he spoke to? That's authorial intent.
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What did he mean? What did Paul mean when he said this to the Corinthians? What did John mean when he spoke to the church? How is this understood in context? That's exegesis.
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Here's how you don't do exegesis.
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You don't stand in front of a group of people and say, what do you think that means? Well, what do you think that means? Does it matter what we think it means? It matters what Paul meant when he wrote it.
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That's the key.
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And that's one of the worst ways to do Bible study.
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We don't sit around and ask everybody what we think it means.
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We go and study the original languages.
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We study what has been written on the subject.
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We spend time looking at the language and we learn what it means so that we can proclaim what it means.
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The modern preaching where the guy sits on the stool and have the conversation, that is not the biblical model of preaching.
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Biblical model of preaching is proclamation, not conversation.
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And it's exegesis, understanding the word.
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Eisegesis means to read into something, something that is not there.
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Exegesis, think about the word exit, to go out of, right? The A-E-X, exegesis, right? Exegesis, pull out of the text, the meaning.
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Eisegesis, read into.
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Here's a good one.
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I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
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Man, hasn't that one been eisegesis? Put everything in there.
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I can be the greatest skydiver ever because I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
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I can be whatever I want to be.
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I can do whatever I want to do.
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How many of you know the context of that passage? Very few of us, because we've never heard it in anything but a bumper sticker on the back of a T-shirt.
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We've never looked at the context of the all things and what's being referenced by the Apostle Paul in Philippians when that's read.
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Right, hugely important context matters, and that's where exegesis comes from.
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There are three rules to interpreting a text context, context and context.
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I'd be happy to add a fourth rule if you think it will help.
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It's always context.
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So all that being said, when we talk about the preacher's message, it must be from God's word.
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It must not be from the preacher.
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Here's what I've heard.
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And Aaron will laugh.
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A guy will say, man, I got a great preacher.
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I got a great sermon.
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I just got to find a text to go with it.
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And that happens, doesn't it? Man, I got a great message.
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I just got to find a Bible verse to go with it.
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That means he's not preaching the word.
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That means he has got an idea of something he wants to say.
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And he's just got to find a Bible verse that agrees with him.
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How do you what do you think is going to happen if he can't find one that agrees with him? He'll make one agree with him because it's a great message by his stripes.
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We are healed, man.
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That's been ripped out of its context and applied to everything.
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Heard a guy this week, Kenneth Copeland, was two weeks ago.
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He said he doesn't worry about Ebola because Ebola has been consumed by the blood of Jesus because by his stripes, we are healed.
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That's right.
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You get it.
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So all that being said, it's hugely important to deal with the message itself.
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It must be from God's word.
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It must be explaining God's word.
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It must not simply be the preacher's pet subject.
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I'll tell you this.
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I was talking to a guy today or last night about reformed theology.
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Obviously, one of the things about reformed theology is most, you know, issue comes up is about election.
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And I was sitting and talking last night to a guy and we were talking about that issue.
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And I said, you know, I remember the last time I talked about election from the pulpit.
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Because it hasn't come up in the text.
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Now, when it does come up in the text, I'm going to be all over it.
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But I don't just go around finding all the verses that deal with election and point them back and make my sermon about that, because there's more to the scripture than one doctrine.
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And that's why Paul commanded that we preach the whole counsel of God.
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I actually didn't command it.
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He modeled it.
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He modeled it.
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He said, I have not shrunk back from preaching to you the whole counsel of God.
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And by doing so, he became a model for all expositors to come, that our goal is to preach the whole counsel of God.
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OK, now, finally, the preacher's delivery, the preacher's delivery.
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All right.
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You can feel free to write this on the side.
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The least important factor.
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It actually is.
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The delivery is the least important factor.
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It is overemphasized by the culture.
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Many will listen to heresy as long as it sounds good.
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You know who the greatest delivery person as far as delivery goes in America today? That guy who didn't go to seminary earlier, and I'm talking about Charles Spurgeon, Joel Osteen.
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He's got the delivery of the least.
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He's got 40,000 people who want to hear his nice Southern draw, his nice ability to to elocute himself and to speak well.
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He's got all of these gifts of communication and he delivers up to them pig slop on a weekly basis.
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And yet he is loved.
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So I say delivery is the least important factor, but it's not unimportant.
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It's just the least.
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The greatest sermon in the history of America, at least.
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That's only the greatest sermon in the history of America, at least from what we see as resulting.
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Revival is a center centers in the hands of an angry God.
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Jonathan Edwards preach centers, people literally said in the stories that went along with it, that people were were were cutting into the pulpit or pews with their hands because they were holding on to the pews because they felt like the earth was going to open up and swallow them into hell.
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That's how powerful this message was.
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And he read it monotone.
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He didn't walk around like a I mean, I'm sort of like a ping pong ball.
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I go back and forth.
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I move a lot, but he wasn't like me.
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He stood in the pulpit and he read the words and the words of God struck the hearts of men and revival broke out.
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It's amazing.
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Now, I want to now that I've said all that, I want to add this thought, conviction and passion do show forth in the way we proclaim truth and often do have a persuasive element.
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So I'm not saying that it's wrong to do as I do, either.
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I'm saying that God will use all type of delivery and delivery is the least important.
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But I'm not saying that it's not important.
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How many of you have heard the name David Hume, Scottish philosopher, atheistic philosopher, a skeptic? Rather, he was once challenged because he was going to hear George Whitfield.
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George Whitfield was a great preacher.
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And the guy was asked, David Hume was asked, why are you going to hear George Whitfield? You do not believe the gospel.
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And David Hume said, I know, but he does.
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Whitfield's passion and his conviction showed forth in his preaching and it was persuasive.
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So there is value in that.
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If you didn't believe that, I believe what I'm saying, would that affect your willingness to listen? Oh, absolutely.
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And though I believe Jonathan Edwards preached monotone and though I believe he read his words, I don't believe he preached.
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I don't believe he did it without any conviction.
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I think everyone knew as he read those words, he believed every word that he read.
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Preaching is not a 30 minute book report.
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It is not simply a relaying of facts.
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Preaching is not information.
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Preaching is proclamation.
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It is exhortation.
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The Apostle Paul says in Acts chapter 20 and verse 31.
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Therefore, be alert.
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Remember that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish every one of you with tears.
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It is said that George Whitfield, I'm reading a biography on him right now.
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It is said that when he preached, he often preached with a face filled with tears because he was concerned for his hearers that they would know the gospel.
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So, beloved, the reality is delivery isn't the most important thing.
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But passion and conviction are important because when a preacher preaches, he ought to believe what he's saying.
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Have you ever heard a preacher preach who didn't seem like he believed it? I've seen him.
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It's a sad thing to watch.
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And again, for whatever reason, he's doing it.
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I've seen men who are not doing it for a passion for the gospel.
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All right.
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So we've looked a lot at the preacher and his message or the preacher preaching in the preacher.
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Now let's look at preaching in the here, because this is now going to deal with you guys.
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You've all you've heard about what I think about preaching and the preacher.
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And that's the part that I participate in.
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I prepare the message.
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I preach the message.
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I you know, all those things apply to me.
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I preach to myself.
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Studying this material is for preaching to myself.
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Now I get to preach to you.
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As you're the hearers, three things that I hear should bring to a sermon.
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Number one, a hearer should come with a prepared mind.
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A prepared mind.
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How do we have a prepared mind? A prepared mind is a mind that has spent time during the week in the word of God.
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A prepared mind is a mind that has that has devoted itself to meditating on God's word.
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I've often said, if all you get to eat from the word of God is what I feed you on Sundays, you are going to be spiritually starving.
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You're going to you are going to be malnourished if all you get is the little morsels I can feed you on Sunday morning.
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Joshua 1.8 says we are to meditate on God's word day and night, not just for an hour on Sunday.
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First Peter 2 verses 1 and 3, 1 through 3, rather, say we are to long for the pure milk of the word.
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So not only are prepared mind is spent studying the word throughout the week, but we come in hungry for the word of God.
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We want that milk.
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We want that meat.
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We want that bread.
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We want that truth.
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But another way to prepare your mind for Sunday is to pray for the man who will preach.
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I want to read Colossians chapter four.
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Go with me to Colossians four, chapters three and four.
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Now, this is Paul asking for the church.
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To pray for him, he says in verse three, at the same time, pray also for us that God may open to us a door for the word to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison, that I may make it clear which is how I ought to speak.
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Paul saying, pray that I will have the words to speak.
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Pray that my words will be truth.
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Pray that I will speak confidently and clearly the words of God.
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He's asking them to pray for his preaching.
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I ask that same thing of you.
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And I tell you one thing, that's the benefit of praying for your preacher.
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It's really hard to criticize when you're praying for someone.
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And I'm not saying that because I don't want you to criticize me, as we'll get to that in a moment.
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That's actually part of it.
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But here's the thing.
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If your heart is praying for your preacher, you'll be happy and excited to hear his word and hear the word of God come from him.
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You'll want him to do well.
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You'll want him to minister to you the word of God.
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And there'll be that reciprocal relationship.
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Some people pray against their pastor.
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That's that's sad.
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Some people speak against their pastor.
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That's tough.
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It makes it very hard.
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I've ministered.
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I've pastored.
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I had a lady just just had her arms folded and eyes like daggers looking at me with every word that I preach.
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She got madder and madder as I preached.
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That's not encouraging, by the way.
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It's very discouraging.
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It didn't stop me, but it certainly did not encourage me.
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And the preaching, the second thing here, here should come with a prepared mind.
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That's one.
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And here should come with an attentive ear and attentive ear.
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It takes discipline to listen to a sermon, folks.
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Why do you think sermons are getting shorter and shorter and shorter? Movies aren't the last Transformers movie topped out at over three hours.
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And it made millions of dollars.
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So don't tell me people can't stand to sit that long.
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Don't tell me people can't give attention that long.
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If they're undisciplined, I'm not exploding things on the chancel, so I lose the attention of the congregation.
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I don't have a Michael Bay pyrotechnic set underneath the chancel, but I just I love it because I can't sit more than 30 minutes in church.
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But they just went and saw the last long movie and sat all the way through it and have any problems.
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It's our it's it's it's I want to I want to just go to Nehemiah.
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There's a passage.
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There's a passage we don't place.
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We don't often go to Nehemiah chapter eight.
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I just want to hear I want you to hear what preaching was like at this time in history, Nehemiah eight, one through three.
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Now, remember, the people had not heard the word of God for years.
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This is a new thing.
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The people had been in exile.
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They're now getting to hear the word of God from God's man.
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They build him a platform to preach from.
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And he stands up to preach.
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And this is Nehemiah chapter eight.
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It says, And all the people gathered as one man into the square before the water gate.
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And they told Ezra, the scribe, to bring the book of the law of Moses that the Lord had commanded Israel.
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So Ezra, the priest, brought the law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could understand what they heard on the first day of the seventh month.
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And he read from it facing the square before the water gate from early morning until midday.
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And the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand and the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law.
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They stood for three hours and listened to the word of God.
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They stood.
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They didn't have air conditioning, they didn't have comfortable chairs, but they had an attentiveness to the word of God.
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They wanted to hear what God said to them.
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And they wanted it so badly that they were willing to stand and listen.
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The hearer must be disciplined in shutting out the world and focusing on the word during the sermon.
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It's hard to do.
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It's easy to think about the fishing trip next week or the hard day at work that we got tomorrow or the cracker barrel that we're going through after church, whatever.
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The pot roast that's in the crock pot at home, whatever.
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It's easy to allow our mind to wander.
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But part of the hearer's job in the sanctuary, part of the hearer's job under the preaching of the word is to give an attentive ear to the word.
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Number three or letter C, rather, a hearer should come with a discerning spirit, a discerning spirit.
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I have never asked anyone to take what I say at face value and I never will.
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Test everything I say by the word of God.
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I have made mistakes.
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I pray every Sunday.
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God, keep me from error.
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Protect the people from error.
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If I speak error, blot it from their mind because I know that it's possible.
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Acts 17, verse 11.
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The Bereans are mentioned, some of you probably seen Berean Baptist Church, a Berean Bible Church, a Berean community church, that term Bereans.
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You see, the Apostle Paul preached to the Bereans and it says they searched the scriptures to see if what the Apostle Paul had said was true.
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You see, the people who hear, you don't take my word at face value, look at the word with me and see if what I am saying is true.
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Study the word alongside me and see if what I'm saying is true.
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That's part of the hearer's job.
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I've had opportunities where I have had men come to me after a sermon and say, brother, I think that this is an area where you have erred.
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Thankfully, it does not happen often.
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But it has happened and I've been thankful for those times where I could be corrected, not above correction more than anyone else's.
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And that's part of the hearer.
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I know so many people who give their pastor carte blanche to tell them what the Bible says, never seeking to discern it, never seeking to test it or challenge it.
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And they become little micro popes in their own little Christian communities.
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And they're never questioned and they're never challenged.
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And the church suffers for it.
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So the reality is a discerning spirit is part of what you bring into the message.
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Now, you don't bring a critical spirit.
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And I want to I want to back up and clarify.
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I've had times where people come up to me and say, you know, I think I would have used this cross reference or I think I would have said this or I think I don't like that story you told.
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I don't care.
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Did I handle the word of God correctly? Did I mishandle the word of God? That's the point, not the not the periphery, not the story I told was in a was inappropriate.
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That'd be one thing.
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Hopefully that doesn't happen.
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But you understand, critical spirits are tough, guys, and we have to understand kind of what I preach on Sunday about judging those who are here.
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It's you have to make you got to be gracious in dealing with those types of things.
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And, you know, when you're you don't want to just be critical all the time.
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You don't want to be what the Bible calls a fault finder.
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Somebody who just is looking as just that tell you about the guy on Sunday who who told me he wanted to get he wanted to give up his job so that he could just go around telling people about their sins.
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Oh, it's in the next sermon.
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You're here.
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I know a guy once and he said, you know what, Pastor, I wish I didn't have a job so that I could just go around telling everybody about their sins so that I could just go around rebuking people of their sins.
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I think the way that he was talking about it, I think, was in the it was I think he justified it to himself in that he was seeking to inspire a spirit of holiness among the people.
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But again, when you're when you feel like your task in life is to go around pointing out everybody else's sin, that's very pharisaical.
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And that was my concern with him.
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I think, like I said, I think he justified it to himself.
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You can do that.
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That's your job.
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Well, yeah, he met within the church that he was talking about within the body of Christ.
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OK, I you know, I don't remember what I said.
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It was something I just remember his that comment and me going, wow, that's amazing.
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All right, let's get to the last thing.
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And I hate the fact that the Holy Spirit, the most important person in the worship service, is getting so little time.
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But I just want to make this clear.
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The Holy Spirit is the most important person in worship service.
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He is part of the preaching.
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He is the preaching.
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He is the one who makes it applicable.
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So let's look at this.
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The spirit has a unique role in preaching as he is the one who makes it.
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I'm going to say a different word, not apple efficacious, efficacious.
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You put applicable if you want efficacious means he makes it work.
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If I say something to you from the word of God, it will not work until the Holy Spirit makes it work in you.
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For it is God who works within us both to will and to do his good pleasure.
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The Bible tells us God is the one who causes us to want to obey him.
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He's the one who causes us to be able to obey him.
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I could preach to you until I was red in the face and until the Holy Spirit applies that to your heart, it will be useless to you.
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As the Apostle Paul said in first Corinthians three, six, he said, I planted Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.
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It's God who converts.
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It's God who convicts.
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It's God who changes.
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It's God who does all that.
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So the Holy Spirit is the one who is working during the preaching.
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Letter B, the spirit uses preaching to convict and convert sinners.
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This Sunday, when I'm preaching second Corinthians five, I'm going to be preaching specifically where it says we are ambassadors for Christ.
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God making his appeal through us.
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That's what's happening when I'm preaching.
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God is appealing to the heart through what I'm saying.
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He's making his appeal through us.
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When we go out and witness, he's making his appeal through us.
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God is using us as the means whereby he is convicting and converting the sinner.
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So the Holy Spirit works through us.
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Letter C, the spirit uses preaching to exhort and encourage sinners.
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I'm sorry, saints.
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That's that was wrong.
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The spirit uses preaching to exhort and encourage saints.
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And you can write next to that second Timothy three sixteen.
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All scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable for teaching and rebuke and training and righteousness.
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All those things.
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That's what's happening when I'm preaching to believers.
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Believers are being exhorted and encouraged to good works and they're being rebuked for things that they're not doing.
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But when I'm preaching to unbelievers, conviction and conversion is what is sought.
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And the spirit applies where he wills.
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The wind blows as it will.
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The spirit applies as he wills.
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Now, we've gone through all that.
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I'll ask for just another moment as we finalize by with these two quick questions.
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Why do you think preaching has been minimized in the modern church? And I want to speak to that issue.
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Why do you think preaching has been minimized in the modern church? People are in a hurry to get home.
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They want to do what they want to do.
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You had something like preaching is not a show.
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That's right.
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Want to be entertained.
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Culture of now.
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That's true.
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Give it to me now.
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Give it to me in 140 characters.
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Give it to me in a soundbite.
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Give it to me in a commercial.
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That's true.
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And I think I think also preaching has been minimized because we have become the apostle Paul said we would become.
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We become a people whose ears are itching to be scratched.
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They want to hear something good and positive.
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They don't want to hear the sin.
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They don't want to hear the doctrines of the Bible.
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They only want to hear that which is positive and uplifting and short.
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So preaching has been minimized.
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Number two, what is happening when the Bible is being preached and how does your answer affect your own understanding of this element of worship? What is happening when the Bible is being preached? I mean, we've answered it in the lesson tonight, but it's not what I mean in this question.
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I feel where you're going with that.
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What I meant was properly.
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Let me add that word.
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What is happening when the Bible is being preached properly? God is speaking.
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And how should that affect our worship? Yes.
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What are you saying? Reverence and awe.
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It should cause awe, reverence, humility, submission.
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All those things should come out in our in in that portion of worship.
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And that's why that portion of worship is given preeminence.
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That's why that portion of worship is given the most time.
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That's why that portion of worship is given the most attention and preparation, because that portion of worship is where God is speaking to his people through his word, through his man.
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He's choosing to speak his word, having explained.
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So when we talk about the liturgy of the church, preaching is an indispensable element within the liturgy of worship.
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Let's pray.
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Father, I thank you for your word.
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I thank you for its truth.
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I pray that it's been rightly handled this evening, though it was not a sermon.
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Father, I pray that the lesson was in accord with your will and that I that I haven't spoken there.
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And if I have prayer, Lord, that it would be blotted from the minds of your people and that they might be moved to draw closer to you in the listening to the preaching of the word of God.
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And it's in Jesus name we pray, Amen.