Preaching Tips by Mark Driscoll (Part 2)

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the apostle

Paul said, but we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you.

By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her king.

Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome back to No Compromise Radio ministry. What was that show that just played before us,

Steve? I think it was In Peace, Let Us Pray to the Lord. I don't even know anymore now that Tom Krause has gone from two to three.

Oh no, it's J. Seculo. Is it J. Seculo? Yeah. Okay. I think there's a new J. Seculo Halloween outfit.

It's kind of like Superman, but you just dress up like J. and you can go out and stand up for peace, justice in the

American way. Yeah, stand up in the Supreme Court and argue about Obamacare, right on. Well, you know what? I think there is a definite advantage to having a guy with J.

Seculo's intellect on our side. Don't you? I'm not disappointed that he's on our side.

I'll tell you that right now. So last time we looked at a different topic, an unusual topic, a unique topic, and that is 16 things

I look for in a preacher from Pastor Mark Driscoll. Now, I don't usually promote

Mark's ministry, but this isn't really a promotion. This is, we will say some things.

Yes, that was good. Some things we'll critique and we just look for different things in preaching and it makes for a spicy show.

That's spicy. But we're going to do it all in love. Yes. And to get your attention. Uh -huh, that's right.

That's the most important thing about preaching. Yes, it is. So Steve, read us just in bold.

He's got a list of 16 things. So in case the people missed it last week, read to us number one through six, please, because we've got 10 to do.

We can't do this. This cannot be a three -part show. Yeah, and then I've got a quick email I've got to share, but sure, yeah.

Okay, sure. All right, number one in bold. Tell me about Jesus.

I like that one. I like that one a lot because all scripture, as we said before, relates to Christ and we need to present him.

Number two, have one big idea. And we talked about that and I think that might be a little faulty because if there are several ideas in the scripture, then what are you going to do, ignore the other ones?

Number three, get my attention the first 30 seconds without being gimmicky. No pratfalls.

Well, it's interesting because it almost is gimmicky to try to always get somebody's attention in the first 30 seconds.

I mean, if that were my goal, I'd tell you what, I think I'd wind up sounding like an infomercial.

You know what I mean? That would be bad. You have to preach every week. What do you do if you preach

Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night? How do you figure out how to get their attention?

This morning I'm going to smash a watermelon with this mallet. Okay, keep going. Okay, number four, bring me along theologically and emotionally.

I want to be wooed. I want to be wowed. Yeah, I want to be, yeah, yeah.

Number five, better than I want to be woed, woe is me. Make me like you, trust you, respect you, hold me.

I mean, this is just, yeah, so that I can't dismiss you. We are family. I've got my sisters in me.

I respect that. Number six, avoid Christian jargon, Christian jargon, and explain your terms.

Okay. All right, so now we have caught ourselves up. You have a daughter named Kristen, so you want to avoid

Christian jargon, because sometimes she has a way with words. Oh, she very much has a way with words, yes.

I still have the picture of Kristen in Santa Clarita in your living room, kind of in like pajamas as a little tiny kid.

And you know, there's like the one piece pajama, you know, Kristen and Megan. And then now they're married and they're mothers and pretty amazing.

Yeah, it's really amazing because we have grandkids. We like that a lot. Okay, so number seven, okay,

I'll take over. All right. Thank you for getting me ready. Thank you for - And now back to the real news.

Now, thank you for bringing me along theologically and emotionally. Number seven, Mark Driscoll, 16 things

I look for in a preacher. Don't have points as much as direction and destination. Take me somewhere.

Take me to a place of conviction, compassion, conversion, et cetera. I want you to sit down, strap in, and just go with the flow.

Just go with me on this wonderful trip. We're just going to buckle in and then we're going to dive deep.

As Jim Stafford used to say, take a trip and never leave the farm. I remember that. Yeah, I know you did.

We hope people don't remember that. So here's a lot of me language. I just remember the song, not the experience.

Here's a lot of me language here. I don't really like points per se. Well, let me say it this way,

Steve, and not you know me and I know you, and so we're pretty much in agreement here. I know me. And you know you.

Yes. I don't like to say point every single time. Point one, point one, point two, point two.

I don't want to do that. It might be three methods, three truths, three lessons, but I like -

Three water towers. I like points to help the sermon have a little progression, especially if it's going to be a 45 -minute sermon, some things to hang your thoughts upon.

I like that part, but what's this whole destination and direction? I don't get that. I've actually,

Steve, I've got a master's of divinity degree where I took some preaching classes. I have a doctorate in preaching, and I've also taught preaching classes at a master's level, and I don't know how to take people to a destination.

Well, let me explain that a little bit. You go, okay, now just sit down, and I'm going to move you from Jerusalem to Jericho today.

Well, I don't know what the destination is. Now, maybe the destination was the gospel and how whether you're a

Christian or you're not a Christian, the destination is thinking again about the gospel of Christ Jesus and free grace and who

God is or what the text says about God or in light of who God is, what the text says you should do in response to that truth.

If maybe that's the destination to do something, I think preaching should be more than just, this is the truth.

I want to say, what's that one song, Let Me Take You There? If you're ready,

I'll take you there. Is that what it is? The Edwin Hawkins singers. Maybe, maybe that's it.

I'll take you there. I don't know. So I don't know about the direction thing, so we wouldn't probably agree with that too much.

Number eight. Number eight. What does number eight say? Don't show me how smart you are because it makes me feel dumb.

If we're all sitting in the congregation saying, hey, smarty pants, who made you king? That's not good.

Steve, I have to tell you. Somebody came up to me once after I preached a sermon and what people don't probably know on No Compromise Radio is we are in a small little town, 5 ,000, 6 ,000 people,

West Boylston, central Massachusetts. There's quite a few towns like this around, so what do you think the population is of this general area, if you include

Worcester? Literally millions. I don't know, maybe - Couple hundred thousand maybe. Well, Worcester's 250 by itself, so it's probably 350.

Okay, but we're out in the sticks. Is that fair to say? I think that's pretty fair to say, yeah. I think the only thing I see outside is probably streams, frogs, and there are a couple homes, a humble abodes.

And power lines. Lots of power lines. When I got done preaching a sermon, and it was just a regular sermon, and this particular person said,

I think you're the smartest person I've ever met. Yeah. Now, you know what

I said to them? I literally said it. I said, well, I'm not, ma 'am, I said, I'm not sure you get out very much.

Yeah, have you ever been outside of West Boylston? And the answer was no. So, I don't care how smart you are, don't show me how smart.

Well, that I agree with. We're not trying to show other people how smart we are. That's not the point, is it?

Ever to tell people, look at us. Is that ever the thing a preacher should do? Look at me. I certainly hope not.

And it shouldn't be something like, I am so erudite. I don't know if you people can really keep up with me.

You know, I mean, that would be not good. He says, if you quote dead guys to show you're a genius, that makes me feel dumb, which doesn't serve me well.

Don't come off like that kid in school that the rest of us wanted to give a blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

I can't even read the rest. I don't want to read the rest. Steve, I'd rather go to 1 Corinthians chapter two. And when

I came to you brothers, I did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom, for I decided, or determined, or I was resolved to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, even him the crucified one.

I think that's what we do. I - Well, the whole idea of not, you know, quoting a bunch of dead guys, look, how much intelligence does it take to do a little research and, you know, quote somebody?

That's not intelligence. That's just looking at, you know, for example, Ephesians four and understanding that Christ gifted the church long before Steve or Mike showed up, you know?

So if there are other gifts in the church and they say something insightful, I want to give it to the people.

I don't want to just kind of keep that for myself. Totally. Let's let the listeners to No Compromise Radio in on a little secret, inside secret, internal secret, agnostic secret.

Only those in the know would know this. Well, you have to lower your voice a little bit. But then if I do that,

I'll forget what I'm talking about. Here is why we quote people that are dead.

Matter of fact, old and dead people, old and dead and smart people. This is why we quote old dead guys, is if we quote

John Calvin or Thomas Watson or someone like that, it is either, you either quote to add credence to what you say as a preacher so people don't think, oh, that's a weird view.

And they say, oh, well, Calvin had that view too. Then it doesn't seem like you're new and novel in your interpretation.

Number two, we quote people because sometimes they say it better than we do. Exactly that.

So we quote people, not because we're trying to, I never quote someone to say, look how smart I am when

I quote G .K. Chesterton. Well, I don't quote him. Yeah, you probably wouldn't quote him. Why don't I quote him?

Because he's a Roman Catholic. I've said what he said before because sometimes he's very, very smart.

But when people quote G .K. Chesterton all the time, I kind of get nervous. Yeah, it's kind of like the ragamuffin gospel guy.

What's his name? He's got a new book out. Yeah, I saw that. He's got the ragamuffin gospel. All right, let me give you

G .K. Chesterton quote that I think is good for the local church, even good maybe for pastors and elders.

Don't let a quarrel end a good argument. And so we argue about points and we differ about issues, but we never make it a quarrel and personal ad hominem attacks.

Never let a quarrel end a good argument. Amen, G .K. You know what?

These days, I'm sure his theology is a lot better than it used to be. Well, one way or another. Yeah.

All right, today on No Compromise Radio, we're talking about Mark Driscoll's blog post, 16 Things I Look For in a

Preacher. Number nine, invite lost people to salvation. I think that's fine. I mean,

I like to do that. In fact, I find myself, because I'm preaching through John now, I almost can't get away from that.

I want people to be saved if there are unsaved people in the congregation, which I presume, you know, if we have 350, 390 people here, somebody's probably not saved.

It says here, Driscoll said, talk about sin, Jesus, and repentance. At some point in every sermon, just do that.

And so I'm not trying to disagree with him on every point, so I won't. I like this where you are,

I'd probably just rephrase it to say, call people to believe. Invite's not bad, we invite you to,

I think preachers offer more of a summons, but overall, I like the point, preach Christ Jesus to the people.

And he's right, sometimes there are unbelievers in the congregation, sometimes your people know, hey,

I know my pastor's gonna preach the gospel all the time, so I'll bring my unsaved friends. So I agree with Driscoll. Yeah, good.

Okay. Number 10. Number 10, whether it feels like a wedding or a funeral, be emotionally engaging and compelling.

Didn't we just do this one? Yeah, I mean, look, what are you supposed to do? Go, open your

Bibles to Matthew. I mean, come on, nobody wants anybody to drone, but I don't get this.

Be emotionally engaging and compelling. I think that was kind of like the same old don't be boring thing. Well, he says, pick an emotional path.

Have an emotional trajectory to the sermon, not just a theological point.

My emotional trajectory is revenge. Now, I do agree that if you're preaching lament psalms, that you should preach them in a manner that would represent the psalm.

In other words, your method should fall in line with the message. So you don't preach about hell with a happy peppy people kind of attitude.

Remember Spurgeon who said, if you're talking about the joys of heaven, let your face as a pastor shine with joy and radiance, like you see

Jesus face to face. And if you do a sermon about hell, your regular face will do. That's a good line.

So I don't know, I don't know trajectories in emotional things, do you? No. Did you do that on Sunday?

Not intentionally, no. Well, let's think about it this way, Steve. The fruit of the

Spirit is love. What's the second one? Joy. Joy, okay, good.

Love and joy. So doesn't the Spirit of God, doesn't He, like I said last show, attend to the preaching of the word to grant things like joy?

How can I do it? What I create, I actually think these days, I probably can create an emotional deal, but it's all my own creation, so why would

I want to do that? Well, and what are we supposed to do? You know, afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted.

And I think that's what God's word does. I don't think we have to have an emotional trajectory.

I don't even understand that. Number 11, look like someone who has it together from clothes to haircut to overall presentation.

You should see Steve's face. Steve's skinny face, by the way. Steve, you're looking quite skinny today.

Well, thank you very much. Are those skinny jeans you have on there? Steve has skinny jeans on. Now, to some, that might be a very happy thing, because Steve's losing weight and looking pretty good.

But to others who actually have to experience it in a workplace environment, I think there's a code of ethics regarding that.

Skinny jeans, I don't even know what skinny jeans are. Well, if you want to know what skinny jeans are, if you want to see skinny jeans, then watch the

Elephant Room 2 commercials. And you can see all the men in their wives' jeans, you know, frolicking with the football.

Well, I mean, again, I think number 11 just gets back to this. You know, what you wouldn't want is some guy who looks like he just rolled out of bed, has a crumpled pile of papers that he is sorting through before he gets ready to preach.

But, you know, short of that, you know, and this just goes back to don't give people a reason to discount your message before you even open your mouth.

I think that's right. And, you know, if I was Driscoll, I would forget that part in bold, the main point, because what he says afterwards is right.

You don't need to be a model, but you should look presentable. If you have bedhead, you're fly open, keep losing your place in your notes, your shoe's untied, your microphone battery dies, you say um a lot,

I'll feel sorry for you, and et cetera. So I like that part, because what we try to do as preachers is to not have some idiosyncratic behavior distract from the message.

And so when we train people to preach, we tell them, go in the bathroom before you get up to preach so you can check your hair, check your tie, check your fly.

I say things like that to guys. But can you just imagine, you know, you're preaching, you go, excuse me, I have to go to the restroom now.

I just have some weight, I just. Actually, there's a reformed

PCA pastor that if I said his name, many No Compromise listeners would know who that person would be, who had some kind of medical issue and had to drink a bunch of stuff for whatever reason, and in the middle of the sermon,

Steve, I kid you not, my brother Pat was just telling me about it over the weekend, in the middle of the sermon, just didn't say, let's sing a hymn.

That's what I would say, right? If you have to excuse yourself in the middle of a sermon, right now we're gonna sing the next two hymns that focused on the truth we've just learned and then just go walk out and.

Yeah, I mean, if you had to, but. If you had to, but this particular guy didn't say a word, he just walked out and went to the bathroom and the elders of the church came running after him.

And he said, when you gotta go, you gotta go. And if I told you who it was, it would not match if you gotta go, you gotta go kind of thing and then walk back to the pulpit and then finish the sermon.

Steve, I'll tell you off air. Yeah, that just sounds like a major distraction to me. So we do think you should look presentable and if you're in India and people preach in some

Indian clothes there, that's fine. So let's keep going.

Yeah, we're gonna have to hurry. Okay, number 12, tell the truth and don't be a coward. Don't compromise.

Hey, I should have a radio show called that. I like that. So we do want you to tell the truth, Driscoll is right, don't apologize for what the word says, just say it, say it like you mean it, say it's true.

I'm with him. Yeah, I agree. I think that's good. Am I being a hater right now? No, I think that's love.

Much love and respect. If you get lost, number 13, or mess up, make a joke about yourself and keep me interested.

Well, I'll tell you, that's the third time this week I've done that. Well, if you do get lost or mess up,

I guess some kind of comic relief would be okay, but hey, we're all human, so just, as far as I'm concerned, carry on.

Number 14, don't just preach repentance, but also practice it. I'm gonna tell you ahead of time, Steve, I don't like this one.

Yeah, I mean, is it a pulpit or a confessional booth? Ooh. Wow.

You like that? Have you ever been to a confessional booth? No. I've never talked to someone inside of it, but I have tried to peek in.

Sometimes if I go to a wedding at a Catholic church, I like to do a little peeking.

What, to see if there's any scrawling on the... Yeah, inside. Well, here's what he says.

Don't talk about everyone else's sin and never your own. Don't tell me all the victories you've had or that your sin was a long time ago.

Jesus is a hero, not you. I don't trust smug religious folks who preach how great they are and how

I can become like them. It's swarmy. So I don't think he thought through this one very well.

Yeah, I mean, that would get rid of my favorite sermon, which, of course, was how great I am. I love that.

I love that sermon. Of course we agree with Driscoll. Don't preach about yourself. That is swarmy.

That's sad. Only one person in those... Did you say shwarma? You know what?

After just drinking juice today, I could have a shwarma right now. Of course we're not to preach ourselves.

There's only one person who should preach himself, and that is Jesus himself. But what I don't like is a lot of pastors who get up and say, today's sermon's on contentment in light of who we are in Christ Jesus.

Let's talk about how to be content. And, you know, I really struggle with this in my own life. And it's just this big pastoral confession.

I don't think the courier, I don't think the runner who announced the victory celebration on the battlefield comes running back to proclaim the word as a trumpet, as a town crier, begins to talk about how he's not really excited over the victory, how he struggles with things.

I mean, can you imagine what a terrible series that would be? You know, confessions of your pastor. I really struggle with contentment.

Well, frankly, you guys don't pay me a lot, you know? And it's just week after week of, I really struggle with, you know, lust.

I really struggle with drinking. I really, after a while, you just go, who is this guy?

Yeah, I mean, I think I say it once in a while, kind of we preaching, but not very often.

Well, I mean, the main thing, you tell me if this is wrong. You study the passage all week long and it beats you down, okay?

You're just again and again reminded of what a sinner you are and, you know, the things that you, in your own life that you need to change and everything else.

And then you get up on Sunday morning and you're going to confess that to the, you challenge them. You want them to get beat down by the word, not in a kind of revenge mode, but you want it to have its impact on them too.

Absolutely, when you look at the text, I totally agree with Steve. It preaches to us throughout the week and then we proclaim, we tell, we trumpet forth.

John the Baptist, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Zechariah, Zephaniah, Jesus, Peter, Paul, James, John, the list goes on.

They were you preachers because they were preaching the message of another. It wasn't their own message. That's right.

All right, so we're almost done. Don't just preach repentance, but also practice it. Number 15,

I actually like this one. I think I completely agree with it. Yeah, that is good. Answer some objections.

So how does this flesh itself out? What do you mean objections? You know, there are great, you know, you could even just say this.

I know there are probably some of you here this morning listening to me and thinking, blah, blah, blah, you know,

X, Y, or Z. Well, let me just kind of address those. And you just go right to, I mean, it's easy because you know, because you've been studying, you've been like, you know, there was a time where I would have thought this, or there was a time where I would have thought that, and you can just knock those out of the park.

I think good preaching anticipates objections. And when you look at Paul and Mars Hill, he said ahead of time things that I'm sure some of the

Athenians were thinking. So I don't have any problem with this one. It's Athenians. It is?

Uh, one year ago today, I stood on Ieragapios. I can't say that either.

Areopagus, that's the way it goes. You know what? Areopagus is the way to say it. But since that's so hard to say,

I always just say Mars Hill. Well, true confessions. Oh, now

I am doing what I'm not supposed to do. Welcome to the Confession Booth on No Compromise Radio.

I always struggle when I have to pronounce big theological words. Acacia, Achaia, Zephaniah.

And so what I do is I just say they're onomatopoetic. I said onomatopoetic the other day, and some lady at the church said, that's not the way you pronounce onomatopoetic.

I said, really? They said, yeah, I clicked on the dictionary online, and it was pronounced a different way. Wow. So I said, send me the link, and if it's true,

I will submit. Sackcloth and Asher. Okay, finally, number 16. We love 15 so much.

Mark Driscoll's 16 Things About Preaching, or whatever it is, 16 somethings. It is the presence and power of the

Holy Spirit in you and through you. I'm looking to see if you have it. I can't explain it, but I know it when

I see it. It's what we like to call the X factor. I think that's a new movie,

It. Some people talk, to be fair, some people call this the anointing.

It, do you have it? This is just too subjective for me. It's too wild, it's too crazy, it's too wacky.

I don't go for it. Yeah, how about are you apt to teach? Can you teach the word? Can you, you know, and you know what?

If a guy is really boring or can't rightly divide the word of truth, then you've got problems, but otherwise, this is bogus.

What's the opposite of it? What if you don't do this? You ain't got it. You ain't got nothing. You ain't got nothing.

Well, on No Compromise Radio today, Pastor Steve and Pastor Mike. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life transforming power of God's word through verse by verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at six. We're right on route 110 in West Boylston.

You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE in staff or management.