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10. She’s an awesome cook.
9. She irons my hankies (no, I don’t ask her to do it).
8. She laughs at my stupid jokes (most of the time).
7. She is so selfless and compassionate. (Example: Yesterday before they executed Saddam Hussein she was praying all day that he would get saved. I’m the preacher and it never once crossed my mind to pray that way).
6. She is beautiful.
5. She has a great family.
4. She is an awesome mother.
3. She loves good Italian food.
2. She is an asset to my ministry rather than a liability.
1. She takes her relationship with God and her devotional life very seriously.
I love you Jo!
Some in the pew may not know the difference in preaching styles. Let me give a concise description of each:
A topical sermon is one, which takes a subject like Grace, Sin, Love, etc. and discusses it from one or more passages of scripture.
A textual sermon normally takes a verse or portion of a verse as a base for a topic or to be explained more clearly.
Expository preaching is usually considered as taking several verses, a chapter or book of Scripture and teaching the meaning of that Scripture.
Why I Prefer Expository Preaching….
1. It avoids hobbyhorses and pet peeves.
Have you heard the old story about the preacher who was against a certain hair style called “topknots?” So he took Luke 17:31 as his text which reads, “In that day, he which shall be upon the housetop, and his stuff in the house, let him not come down to take it away: and he that is in the field, let him likewise not return back.” So he preached on “…top…(k)not come down.” (Oh brother!)
If something really bugs a preacher, he will see it in every passage and will bring it in every sermon. When a preacher hits his pet peeve it’s usually on the third point of his sermon. He spends more time on that point and gets louder. The other two points may have been good but you will be sure to remember number three! This can happen in expository preaching, but it is very rare since the passage will actually speak to the issue and it will not come up as often since you must follow the outline or tenor of the passage.
2. It makes it harder to read into the text.
I’ve heard it preached that David killing Goliath was a type of two works of grace. He first hit him with the stone and then he used his sword to cut his head off. See, two works right? Well…I believe in two works of grace, salvation and entire sanctification, but I think the above passage is just reading something there that’s just not there.
I’ve heard that the shepherd losing one of his sheep and leaving the 99 could be a “hidden parable” about how God created 99 worlds and our world was the only one that went astray and Jesus had to come rescue us. Absurd isn’t it?
Using expository preaching would solve another problem. Dr. Ronald Shultz called it “pulling Oreo cookies out of a Vanilla Wafer box. False advertising or packaging, if you please.” This happens when a man reads his text or passage and then preaches a message that might be very good in content but is not related to his text. You sit there confused trying to figure out why he used the text he did.
I remember hearing a preacher preach a sermon and after he was done I asked him why he used the text he did (seeing that it had nothing to do with what he said). He told me that he didn’t have enough scripture so he had to read something.
3. You can preach systematically.
Some people will never hear a message out of Obadiah, Habakkuk, Philemon or Hebrews (unless it is Hebrews 12:14). Yet, God inspired someone to write those books. I am sure He must want them read and taught. All of God’s Word has value and application for today.
Systematic preaching, which still needs the Spirit’s leading and anointing to be effective, will give new converts time to grow before you hit some sore spots. It also gives you more opportunity to meet more people’s needs more often. Repetition is good and God does repeat doctrines. Constant repetition of a dirty dozen of do’s (or don’ts) can lead to a false sense of security and self-righteousness while carnality is rampant in the pews. A member may attend faithfully, tithe, not smoke, drink, and be dressed “old fashioned” but, what about his/her pride, gossip, prayerlessness, etc?
4. It’s patterned after Christ and the early church preachers.
Mark, 4:34 tells us that Jesus “expounded all things to His disciples”. That word means to solve or explain. This is the goal of the expositor. He seeks to explain and solve the sometimes seemingly mysterious things of God’s Word to his congregation!
Luke 24:27 tells us that Jesus “expounded unto them all the scriptures the things concerning Himself”. The word expound here means to explain thoroughly. That is expository preaching! His audience later said that He “opened” the Scripture to them.
Christ scolded the religious leaders of His day for failing to do this very thing. Rather than expositing the Scriptures they quoted each other and explained away Scripture in order to meet their own desires. This kept the people ignorant and under their control. Unfortunately, Pharisees, Scribes, and Sadducees never die; they just change their names.
What did the early church do? They did not really use topics or texts. They read the entire epistle at one service. Try doing that in the 20-30 minutes allowed the preacher at most churches! The Scriptures were written in a continual, systematic and logical progression. Line upon line and precept upon precept was the rule.
5. It creates balance.
Hosea said God’s people perished for a lack of knowledge. Paul said the Jews had zeal without knowledge. Balance preserves all men. Accurate knowledge of the Word will produce more zeal than “Gospel one-liners.” We need to balance zeal and knowledge. A saint that is full of zeal with a lack of knowledge is as bad as one soaked in the facts that does not have the zeal to share the knowledge. Both situations are unbalanced and detrimental.
A flat miner!!!!!!!
Ok, they all can’t be winners.
1. I love to act crazy!
Think about it, I get paid to act crazy! I used to do it college for free! I’m always acting crazy with my teens and telling jokes. It’s a great life.
2. I love to eat!
You can’t have a youth get-together without food can you?
3. I love to learn!
I’m always reading something to keep up with the generation I work with. By the time I’ve got it figured out, it changes. So, I just keep reading.
4. I love to talk!
Well, not all the time (as my wife would tell you), but I enjoy talking shop with other preachers and I love to talk to my teens about issues. When they ask me a question it makes me feel good that they feel free to come and talk to me.
5. I love to try new things!
Young people aren’t stuck in the same old rut. They’re not afraid to venture out into uncharted waters. They like to keep things fresh, alive, and moving. Man, that works for me!
6. I love to work with people who are authentic!
Most of them are too young to know all the church “buzz” words that practically mean nothing. When they lie, they admit it; when they cheat, they tell you; when they struggle with sin and temptations, they let you know. They don’t know how to hide behind a false mask of hypocrisy that hides its weaknesses and justifies its wrong behavior. When you confront them about their behavior they don’t get mad and stop paying tithe and tell half the church how rotten the preacher is, they just confess it, pray, ask forgiveness, and go on five minutes later like it never happened. How refreshing!
I suppose it’s time I post something serious. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately on the subject of leadership; especially on the dangers or the pitfalls of leadership. Being a leader is challenging and at times can be quite lonely. As a leader I must recognize that I am vulnerable. My “position” doesn’t put me on some high spiritual mountain where the devil can’t get me. It’s a shame Ted Haggard didn’t recognize that, but hey, there goes I except for the grace of God.
Henry Blackaby’s book,
Spiritual Leadership
(I highly recommend it) has a whole section on the Pitfalls of Leadership.
Here is what he had to say:
Pride
Pride tempts others to take the credit from others
Pride makes leaders unteachable
Pride causes leaders to think they are self-sufficient
Pride leads to loss of compassion
Pride makes leaders vulnerable
Sexual Sin
Safeguard # 1: Leaders, make yourselves accountable
Safeguard # 2: Leaders, heed your own counsel
Safeguard # 3: Leaders, consider the consequences
Safeguard # 4: Leaders, develop healthy habits
Safeguard # 5: Leaders, pray & ask others to pray for you
Cynicism
Greed
Mental Laziness
Oversensitivity
Spiritual Lethargy
Domestic Neglect
Administrative Carelessness
Prolonged Position Holding
If I could be a bird, I’d be a Flying Purple People Eater because then people would sing about me and I could fly down and eat them because I hate that song.
I think a pillow should be the peace symbol, not the dove. The pillow has more feathers than the dove, and it doesn’t have a beak to peck you with.
Too bad Lassie didn’t know how to ice skate, because then if she was in Holland on vacation in winter and someone said “Lassie, go skate for help,” she could do it.
If you’re ever shipwrecked on a tropical island and you don’t know how to speak the natives’ language, just say “Poppy-oomy.” I bet it means something.
One thing vampire children are taught is, never run with a wooden stake.
If you work on a lobster boat, sneaking up behind people and pinching them is probably a joke that gets old real fast.
Sometimes life seems like a dream, especially when I look down and see that I forgot to put on my pants.
To me, it’s a good idea to always carry two sacks of something when you walk around. That way, if anybody says, “Hey, can you give me a hand?” you can say, “Sorry, got these sacks.”
Instead of trying to build newer and bigger weapons of destruction, we should be thinking about getting more use out of the ones we already have.
I think a good gift for the President would be a chocolate revolver. And since he is so busy, you’d probably have to run up to him real quick and give it to him.
Just because swans mate for life, I don’t think it’s that big a deal. First of all, if you’re a swan, you’re probably not going to find a swan that looks much better than the one you’ve got, so why not mate for life?
If you’re robbing a bank and you’re pants fall down, I think it’s okay to laugh and to let the hostages laugh too, because, come on, life is funny.
It takes a big man to cry, but it takes a bigger man to laugh at that man.
Too bad you can’t buy a voodoo globe so that you could make the earth spin real fast and freak everybody out.
10. Your belt size is 32 – - But you wear three of them.
9. Whenever you go to the beach people come around you yelling, “Free Willy! Free Willy!”
8. You butter your margarine.
7. You deep fry your tooth paste.
6. You eat Wheat Thicks.
5. Words you say most frequently: “Super size that, please.”
4. Red Cross changed your blood type from “O” to “Pancake batter”.
3. You have more chins than a Hong Kong phone book.
2. You start every day with a nice, steaming cup of gravy.
1. You buy ham by the square foot.
I’m actually doing it. Like eating squid, blogging is something I said I would never do. I’m not sure if it’s because of the peer pressure of so many of my friends that are doing it or if it’s because I want to appear computer savvy to my young people. But I think the real reason is because I like to write. I’m no wordsmith, that’s for sure. No doubt you will find mistakes in grammar and punctuation, maybe even a misspelled word or too (see, I did it already) but I will primarily use this blog to bore you half to death. So sit back and enjoy reading about a guy with too much to do and who really doesn’t have the time to blog, but he’s doing it anyway. Who knows, I might even enjoy it; I enjoyed the squid.
