“Faithful Preaching and the Power of the Spirit: The Delivery of the Sermon”

 

Half of Congregation Dies of Starvation As Sermon Goes 15 Minutes Overtime — Satire from the Babylon Bee

RUSSELLVILLE, AR—Roughly half of the churchgoers at First Baptist Church Russellville died of starvation Sunday after the pastor tragically went 15 minutes over his standard sermon time, local sources confirmed.

“We don’t know if the pastor simply lost track of time due to passion while preaching the word of God, or if something more nefarious was going on,” police chief Dwayne Carroll told reporters Monday.

“It’s hard to imagine that Pastor Frank did not notice the panicked glances at phones and watches, along with the thunderous stomach growls and moans of agony reverberating throughout the sanctuary within minutes after he began to breach his normal closing time,” the chief continued. “Whatever the case, he went well over his standard allotted time for delivering his message, and roughly 75 people in attendance simply could not hold out, succumbing to their hunger before the the end of the church service.”

Thankfully, the other half of the congregation was able to make a speedy exit as soon as they were dismissed, frantically rushing out the doors and flooding all local restaurants for emergency sustenance.

“Pastor Frank should have known the dire consequences of a church service going even a minute past its normal ending time,” one survivor noted to reporters. “I mean, people have to eat.”

Police Chief Carroll confirmed that the investigation is ongoing.

 

What’s So Amazing about Grace? — A Free Sermon Outline! (Conclusion)

This should be the last advertisement for my little booklet Ten Specific Steps You Can Take to Make Your Sermons and Preaching Better! (available on Amazon), but it’s not!  No preacher really wants to be told that his sermons and preaching can get better.  But they can. I know.  I know.  Your mother said you were special.  But even your mother would like some of the issues we discuss in this short preaching refresher.  She would.

Now that that appeal is over, we’ve been looking at one of my favorite sermon outlines.  I want to briefly summarize what we have seen (with a few homiletical notes included):

What’s So Amazing about Grace?
(a study of Titus 2:11-15).

Sermon titles are important.  They orient the listener to the topic and may, just may, help him or her remember your message after the service!  This title, of course, serves as Phil Yancey’s book title on grace.

I’m a big believer in a keyword, that is, a word that guides the preacher (and the listener) through the passage and helps deliver the specific points of the sermon.  The keyword for this sermon might well be truths.

The first truth we see in this text is from verse 11 and it is that God’s Grace Is a Salvation-Bringing Grace!  (I usually re-read the verse to show I’m not making up my point).   God’s grace — in the Person of the Lord Jesus — has appeared — and that’s great news!

Not only is God’s grace a salvation-bringing grace (I try to repeat my points throughout my message), it is also a Teaching Grace (v. 12).  Reading over verse 12 we see it divides nicely into negative and positive aspects.  (Elaborate on those.  Do a word study of “ungodliness,” “worldly passions,” “self-control,” “upright,” “godly” and, especially the phrase “in this present age.”)

But let’s notice also that God’s grace is not only a salvation-bringing grace and a teaching grace, it is also a Waiting Grace (v. 13).  (Give an illustration showing the difference between wasted waiting and worthwhile waiting).  (I will sometimes include a cartoon on waiting if I am preaching using PowerPoint or Keynote.  I’m a big believer in using the eye-gate as well as the ear-gate).  (Don’t forget to point out the strong evidence for the deity of the Lord Jesus in v. 13.  You gotta get some theology in there!)

I would then say something like:  We’ve seen that God’s grace is a salvation-bring grace, a teaching grace, and a waiting grace.  Please notice the fourth truth that God’s Grace Is a Purifying Grace (v. 14).  (I would read over verse 14.  Notice that more could be said from that verse than just God’s purifying grace, but you don’t want to give too much material to your audience.  Many preachers fail exactly here.  They think that if they have a few extra minutes or so they should pile on more biblical truth.  No!  Illustrate your main point!).

I would summarize your previous four points and then introduce the last point which is that God’s Grace is an Encouraging Grace (v. 15).  Read that verse.  Talk about encouragement and how we all need it.  (I’ve made reference to Chapman’s book The Five Love Languages in a previous post).

Review your five points briefly and close (perhaps) with a good illustration of grace.  You do have an illustration file, don’t you?  (If not, drop me a note and I’ll give you my almost 300 page Word file of illustrations).  Thanks for sticking with me in this study!

 

 

 

 

My Recent Sermon: “If You’re Saved and You Know It . . .”

Friends: I recently had an enjoyable time with the believers at Cedarcroft Bible Chapel in New Jersey.  I preached a two-part sermon on salvation.  Here is the first sermon:

 

My Recent Sermon: “If You’re Saved and You Know It . . .” — Part 2

Friends: I recently had an enjoyable time with the believers at Cedarcroft Bible Chapel in New Jersey.  I preached a two-part sermon on salvation.  Here is the second sermon:

 

My Sermon “Unlike Jesus: One Area Where Jesus-Followers Excel”

I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to Northgate Bible Chapel in Rochester, NY, a while back. And I preached on this topic of being a friend of sinners.  Jesus was a friend of sinners.  We must be as well.  Here’s my sermon, if you wish to listen to it.

 

STUCK! Ten Areas That Will Bury You as a Believer and How to Dig Your Way Out! (Area #8- SERMONS!) (con’t)

Is preaching passé?  Some would say that SERMONS are no longer needed by the saints.

Bible studies, discussion groups, casual conversations are all well and good — but we need the authoritative proclamation of God’s Word!  The saints should be committed to good SERMONS, but sometimes we get STUCK!

We get STUCK with poor preaching, with inadequate study, with irrelevant sermonizing.  [I’ve put together some suggestions for improving one’s preaching in my small booklet “Ten Specific Steps You Can Take To Make Your Sermons and Preaching Better!”  Just send me your email address and I will send you that pdf.]

Let’s think a bit more about our text from Acts 17:

¹⁰ As soon as it was night, the believers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. On arriving there, they went to the Jewish synagogue. ¹¹ Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. ¹² As a result, many of them believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men.

Paul and Silas preached in the synagogue!  They preached Jesus and gave evidence that He, indeed, was the promised Messiah.  We often confine our preaching to our churches, to our turf.  How about proclaiming the good news about Jesus in other forums?

There is one other point that this text is making that we dare not miss.  We don’t get even a hint that Paul objects to the Bereans’ examining the Scriptures to see if what he said was true!  He was not afraid of his message being biblically evaluated.  And we should not fear that either.  It is a noble act for others to compare what we say (even in the context of a sermon delivered from a podium at the front of the church) with the rest of the Word of God.  And that will keep us preachers from getting STUCK in our own opinions!

 

 

STUCK! Ten Areas That Will Bury You as a Believer and How to Dig Your Way Out! (Area #8- SERMONS!)

The American humorist Will Rogers (I think) once said, “I refuse to accept my religion from anyone who earns his living only by the sweat of his jaw!”

Jesus-followers sometimes get STUCK in the area of SERMONS!  How?  Well, we believe that one of the primary ways that God communicates His truth to His people is through preaching.  And sometimes that preaching is poor, or unorganized, or just ho-hum.

What is the believer’s responsibility when it comes to this area of SERMONS?  How can we get UN-STUCK in this major aspect of life among other Christians?

We want to think about a text from Acts 17 for our next two posts:

¹⁰ As soon as it was night, the believers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. On arriving there, they went to the Jewish synagogue. ¹¹ Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. ¹² As a result, many of them believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men.

There are a number of steps that a preacher can take to improve his preaching (drop me an email and ask for my short booklet “Ten Specific Steps You Can Take To Make Your Sermons and Preaching Better!”).  But we want to focus on the listener.  How can those of us who listen to sermons improve?  Here are some specific suggestions that might help:

1. Come to church prepared to hear from God!  The preacher may not be your favorite, but pray that the Lord will speak through him.
2.  Take notes on what you hear!  Don’t be afraid to ask him about his message.  The very fact that you are jotting things down will encourage him to work harder in preparing his messages!
3.  Prepare your heart to “receive the message with great eagerness”!  God’s Word is true — and we can be changed and encouraged IF our hearts are right and ready.
4.  Examine the Scriptures daily to see if what you are hearing is true to the rest of the Word of God!  I’ve sometimes fantasized about pastoring a small church and saying to the congregation:  “You all need to become Berean believers who examine what I teach with the rest of the Bible.  So once every month I’m going to preach a sermon that has some heresy in it.  I won’t tell you which one.  You’ll have to figure that out for yourselves!”  I could never do that, but you get the point.  (to be continued)

 

 

Ten Specific Steps You Can Take to Make Your Sermons and Preaching Better! (Part 10)

We will be offering this booklet, “Ten Specific Steps You Can Take to Make Your Sermons and Preaching Better!”, shortly as a downloadable pdf. We’ve covered a number of issues in preaching already:  serious study of the Word, developing clear outlines, the pros and cons of expository versus topical sermons, the need for a good introduction, the place and value of illustrations, why we need vocal variety in our preaching, the use of technology, how gestures help us communicate, and the challenge to listen to and watch good preachers.  Whew!  Here’s our last step:

“What do you mean — I ‘should do something with my hair’?!!”

STEP TEN: GET EVALUATED!
I know this is a touchy area. None of us like to be critiqued. To us our sermon is like a mother’s brand-new baby. No one would say to her, “Her nose is kind of big, isn’t it?” or “My, he doesn’t look like his daddy at all, does he?”

But evaluation is an important step to getting better as a preacher. I’ve heard too many stories of churches that were becoming increasingly dissatisfied with their pastor’s preaching. Months and maybe years went by, with the dissatisfaction growing. Suddenly, and without much of a warning, a congregational meeting from hell takes place, and the preacher is “let go.” No one stepped in months before to help the preacher improve his preaching. None of the elders suggested (or required) that he attend a preaching renewal seminar. Nobody loved him enough to assist him in seeing his weak areas and working on them. And now he is out of a job, discarded by the family of God who refused to work with him.

My wife Linda has been an enormous help to me in my preaching. She lets me know when I’ve tried to do too much, when I should have used better illustrations, where I could have employed better volume variety. But she loves me, and I greatly value her opinion.

We’re both converts of Chapman’s The Five Love Languages. Her love language (how she shows love) is giving. My love language (how I like to be shown love) is words of encouragement. After I’ve preached my heart out in a sermon, I’ll ask my wife after the service, “How did I do?” She’ll say “Fine.” That’s it. One word. But then the next day she’ll buy me a pair of socks.

Who is speaking words of encouragement to you? Who’s buying you socks? We need those who love us to tell us the truth about our preaching.

Apart from a loving spouse, be bold and give out a short sermon evaluation form (found at the end of this booklet) to several in the congregation whose opinion you value. Tell them you will love them even if they are brutally honest. And keep your word!

Evaluate yourself! Ah, technology! Unless we want to live in the land of denial, there is no excuse not to listen to or even watch our own sermons. You can record your own preaching with a small recorder, your iPhone, or your church’s sound system.

Where I am serving now as an interim teaching pastor, the church live streams their Sunday morning service, then archives the services on their website. It’s not a perfect system, but the next day I can watch my sermon. I can see how I moved, where my gestures might improve, what my PowerPoint slides (Keynote, actually. I’m a Mac snob) looked like, etc.

If you don’t want to listen to or watch your sermons, get over it. There’s a lot more at stake than your pride. Carefully critiquing yourself can be invaluable if you want to get better.

You might consider using one of the sermon evaluation forms on yourself. Ask yourself questions like:
Did I start well? How effective was my introduction?
Did I drive the congregation’s eyes to the biblical text?
Where did I punch with my voice? How could my vocal variety improve? Did I sound like a funeral director?
What illustrations did I use? Were any of them not about my family? (Be careful in using family illustrations. You have to live with those people).
Was my sermon easy to follow? Did my points logically follow one another?

Get over your pride. And evaluate yourself. Thank the Lord for the good elements of your preaching. And ask Him to help you in those weak areas.

There is one more decision you can make in having your sermon evaluated. Let me help you! Yes, I will listen to (or preferably watch) your sermon and give you my best feedback. No charge. Free.

Did you read those last two sentences? Pick the sermon you want evaluated and get it to me. You can either send me a dvd or upload your sermon to DropBox and send me the link to it.

The upside of my offer is that I won’t give my report to your elders or your church. This is between you and me. And God. The downside of my offer is I will be blatantly honest with you and provide my best feedback. Your mother cares about your feelings. Me? Not so much.

You can send your dvd to my home address: Dr. Larry Dixon 117 Norse Way Columbia, SC 29229. If you upload your sermon to DropBox, you can email me the link at: theoprof@bellsouth.net.

I would love to know if any of these steps have been helpful to you.  Please feel free to jot a comment below.  Blessings on you.  And your preaching!

 

Pastor Jeff Philpott and I on John 9 (the man born blind)

One of my all-time favorite miracles in the Bible is the story of the man born blind in John 9.

My friend, Pastor Jeff Philpott, and I talked our way through this text a couple of weeks ago.

Comments welcome!