Lesson One
I was a twenty five year old young man who thought he knew it all. Saved at age 21. Called to preach at age 23. Off to Bible College at 24. And finally pastoring my first church at age 25. My zeal far outweighed my wisdom! The town was selling the old school house. I was certain God wanted a Christian School there. The brick house next to the church was for rent or sale. Again, I was sure this was God’s will. Buy it for a parsonage and have a full time Pastor.
Over 25 years later Maggie Valley is far from being won to Jesus. The old school house became a dance hall and the house was never purchased for a parsonage. Now I can hear you thinking. What in the world does this have to do with Expository Preaching? Let me explain. I was already preaching expository sermons most of the time. Having been exposed to it for a year at Fruitland Baptist Bible Institute, I loved to take a portion of scripture and break it down and preach it. However, in that wonderful country church there was an elderly gentleman, who, every Sunday Morning at the close of my message would get up and walk to the front of the church and take a left to the educational building where the bathrooms where. One week I had the brilliant idea to preach a message and straighten him out. So, I thought of a subject,found a text to fit it, studied and prepared an outline and put it in my Black Genuine Leather King James Bible and headed out to that little country church to let him have it. This man whom I loved dearly and his wife were always at church. I mean always! You guessed it. That Sunday Morning he was sick. So behind the pulpit I went that morning with a message that would be of no help to anyone present! God whipped me good for that and taught me a lesson I never forgot.
He called me to preach His word. Not to straighten folks out!
That’s one of the beauties of expository preaching. I loved preaching thru books of the Bible. Nobody could (some still did) accuse me of preaching at them. Frankly, I love to preach. Illness prevents me from preaching for now and I so miss it. But, if I had spent almost 25 years trying to come up with a different subject for 3 services a week, I would have gone crazy.
Expository preaching will magnify our Savior and meet the needs of the saints.
We will talk more about this “felt need” preaching later. Just let me say God knows the needs of any congregation. It’s not a matter of feeling out what my people need. It’s a matter of living with and knowing my people and praying and seeking God’s message and the power of the Holy Ghost when I preach! Amen? You might call this the purpose of preaching.
Now lets look at the preparation for preaching. Preaching is hard work. Some have said that one hours preaching was the equivalent of eight hours in an executive office or twelve hours of hard labor.
Preparing to preach takes time. You must make time for studying . Please don’t misunderstand me. In my first pastorate I was in Bible College four days a week. Working five nights a week and getting home around midnight, and preaching three sermons a week. Many times on late Saturday night till sometimes four in the morning on Sunday, I would be on my knees crying and asking God to help me get the message together to preach. I wouldn’t trade those days for anything. It would kill me now to keep such a schedule.
First, let me say you need a Plan. Now this plan must include at least three things. Please permit me to put it in outline form as we will soon be doing a sermon.
Let’s title this lesson. “Divine Requirements for Powerful Preaching”
I- The Purpose of Preaching
A-to magnify the Savior
B-to meet the needs of the saint
II-The Preparation for preaching
A-a prepared heart
1-thru prayer
2-thru praise
3-thru petitions
a-the Man of God’s heart must be prepared thru much prayer!
b- have a quiet time just to seek God (you need your Bible and a notebook)****if more praying was done by Pastor and people in a quiet time spent with the Lord daily, we would have far less long prayers in church. Now being from the mtns I know what an altar of prayer is.
Many folks praying loudly and long doesn’t bother me. Prayer meetings lasting into the wee hours of the morning used to be the norm. That’s not what I refer to. What aggravates this preacher is when we come to church and pray as if we have to inform God of everything that’s happened during the week. We inform God who we are, where we are, what we are facing, what our nation faces, for everything from the white house to the out house, and finally some will even add, “and forgive us of our sins Lord, Amen.” Our confession concerning sin should be daily. Not when we arrive at church! Amen! Thank you! You’re welcome. If we spend time daily with God praying over these matters all week when we get to church we will be praying for God’s power to rest upon us and the service and ready to preach!
We are dealing with the divine requirements for powerful preaching.
Powerful preaching involves understanding first :
I- The purpose of preaching
A-to magnify the Savior
B-to meet the needs of the saint
Not only do we see that powerful preaching involves understanding the requirements for preaching,but we also notice powerful preaching requires:
II-The Preparation for preaching
A-a prepared heart
1-thru prayer
2-thru praise
3-thru petitions
a-the Man of God’s heart must be prepared thru much prayer!
b- have a quiet time just to seek God (you need your Bible and a notebook not for preparing sermons but for writing down what God speaks to your heart as you read His Word and pray.
B- a prepared mind
1-the man who stands and says “I am gonna open my mouth and Let God fill it is not spiritual. He is at the very least dumb! Hear me and here me well. There were the grand old Spirit -filled Men of God who rode horses and traveled these mtns with only a 5th grade education or less. But you know what they had in those days so lacking today? A close walk with God , a praying people , and the convicting power of the Holy Ghost gripping hearts. In that first mtn church I pastored and learned years later how precious it really was. They would talk of the ladies walking to church and then when service was over, walking back home in the dark singing amazing grace and swinging their lanterns.
Now most of our folks will stay home if the car won’t start or the heater stops working. God help us!
Please keep in mind as we prepare outlines and sermons that many if not most of the time you will preach and barely need your outline. But to just stand up with nothing on your heart or in your head is plain foolishness! Reminds me of some singers who when introduced cough, spit ,and sputter, and tell us how sick they are and to pray for them. I always want to say. Sit down and shut up. If you are sick don’t try to sing and spread your germs everywhere.
Dear Man of God. Dear Sunday School teacher or youth leader.
Never stand before your people and make excuses. If you have not had time to pray and study that week, don’t tell them. They will know it soon enough! One of the greatest lessons that stayed with me from Bible College was that if you make a mistake just keep on getting it! Most of the folks won’t catch it and those who do will quickly forget it you keep preaching. But , you stop and try to explain why you said what you just said and you might as well dismiss and head for the barn. Oh the slip ups this old tongue has made over the years. Some funny. Most not. I preached in a county wide revival once and the power of God was real. When I finished preaching I was exhausted physically, mentally, and every other way. A dear lady came up to me and told me how much she enjoyed the message. After thanking her and letting my head swell just a bit, she then said to me. “But you never did get Moses out of that ark!” Talk about deflating. Then I have made slips of the tongue when I wished there was an escape lever to pull and let me slide under the sanctuary and to the parking lot. But I kept on preaching. My worst slip was during my last pastorate. Mouths flew open when I mistakenly used the wrong word. Knowing I was turning three shades of red I just kept digging and no-on ever mentioned it to me.
So we must have a prepared heart as well as a prepared mind and then thirdly we must have a prepared body. Now you young folks will skip this section. Just let me simply encourage you to take care of the temple of God. And forget the statement many of us have made , “I had rather burn out for God than rust out.” We don’t have to do either! Age will take it’s own toil without speeding it along. I found myself at age 47 burned out, wore out, and sicker then even we knew at the time. What I wouldn’t give to stand and preach one more time like as in days of old. OK. Time to get down to the nitty gritty. Let’s turn this lesson into a sermon if you don’t mind.
First our title:
“Some Divine Requirements For Powerful Preaching”
Then would come the introduction which we shall deal with in great detail in another lesson.
Then our first main point which is:
I- The purpose of preaching
A-to magnify the Savior
B-to meet the needs of the saint
Not only do we see that powerful preaching involves understanding the requirements for preaching, but we also notice powerful preaching requires:
II-The Preparation for preaching (which are)
A-a prepared heart
1-thru prayer
2-thru praise
3-thru petitions
a-the Man of God’s heart must be prepared thrumuch prayer!
b- have a quiet time just to seek God (you need your Bible and a notebook not for preparing sermons but for writing down what God speaks to your heart as you read His Word and pray.
B- a prepared mind
C-a prepared body
******This is where my typing skills frustrate me. Please take a blank sheet of paper and write the outline down so far. Now. Please draw an arrow from the title to the first main point. Notice how easily we flow from our introduction to our first main point. More on this later but for now let me put it in words how we might say it. With those thoughts for a background, lets discover the divine requirements for powerful preaching. First notice with me please :
I-The Purpose Of Preaching (using capital letter will help with your main points)****
********draw that line or arrow from the title to the first main point.
Our main points must always point back to the title or theme of the message which is not always the title. That confused me. Sorry.
Then under our first main point we have a sub point:
A-to magnify the Savior (the sub point must always point us to the main point)*********draw an arrow please from A- to I- *they must agree **B-to meet the needs of the saints (draw an arrow from B- to I- )
II-The Preparation For Preaching (which are)
A-a prepared heart
1-thru prayer
2-thru praise
******* important!: you can have as many sub points as needed for your message.***we will make an outline in a minute………….
Please draw an arrow from II- to your title, and from A- to 1-, then A- to 2-**********still with me????
B-a prepared mind
C- a prepared body ***draw an arrow from B- to II-, and from C- to 11-
Now lets look at the third requirement for powerful preaching:
We have seen that powerful preaching involves:
I-The Purpose Of Preaching (and)
II-The Preparation For Preaching (but now notice powerful preaching also involves:
III-The Preliminaries In Preaching (how do we determine what God wants us to preach?)
A-we must settle on a text
-thru much prayer! (no substitute for prayer and Bible reading!)
2-never go to a commentary or an outline book first!
3-pray and find the mind of God
4-how about preaching thru a Book of the Bible?
a-you say: ”but preacher, can God tell me what to preach weeks ahead of time?????
b-well, yeah., He can cause he is God! (just because you decide to preach thru an entire book or a series of messages on the home, does not mean that you are bound to that
1
c-that’s where your quiet time comes in
1- ILLUSTRATION : Let’s say I am preaching thru the book of James on Sunday Morning and I already know that my message will be concerning thetongue. Now that’s a tough one to preach folks.
Let’s say during the week a precious saint of God dies or there is a terrible tragedy involving some faithful members. This is where the prepared heart comes in. God will give me guidance and sense enough to lay aside the message on the tongue and lead me to a scripture and message to comfort the hearts of the flock God has given me to Pastor. Now we are ready to build our first sermon. Hope the word build is OK because that’s what preacher’s do. At least Solomon said so!
First a quick review:
Elements of a sermon:
“THE TITLE”
Introduction:
I-Main Point
A-sub point
1-sub point
a-etc.
B-sub point
II-Second Mai
n Point
A-sub point
1-sub,sub point
a- “
1- and so forth and so on!
III-Third Main Point
A- sub point
B- sub point
C-sub point
Conclusion: we will spend more time on this later.
*Now please draw your arrows as before. Go ahead. No-one is watching! Before we start let me illustrate the proper outline form with just the sermon outline itself.
“Some Divine Methods For Dealing with Life’s Delay’s” - John 11:1-16...
Introduction:
I-Never Doubt God’s Wisdom
A-He knows our names (v.1)
B-He knows our natures (v.1-2)
C-He knows our needs (v.3)
a-*********ILLUSTRATE
II-Never Distrust God’s Will
A-the truth of His will (v.4)
1-“death”-termination of life upon this earth
a-God perceived
b-God permitted
c-God planned
2-(v.4); “for His glory!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
a-******ILLUSTRATE***I
B-the timing of His will (v.5-6)
III-Never Disrupt God’s Work
A-we are not to hurry (v.3,6)
1-can’t hurry God!****a design for our lives!……may look pretty
messy from this side; wait till you see it from God’s side!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
B-we are not to worry (v.7-8,16)
1-**********death************************************
Conclusion:
********hopefully by now you can see how that the 3 main points all point to the title, the sub points point to the main points, and so forth.
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