[0:00] Toscanini was a composer or a director of orchestras, and he was a very heralded one, and they described him as an interpreter.
[0:12] And what he did was he wanted to interpret what the composer of the music intended as far as the highs and the lows and the whole thoughts, the coloring of the song.
[0:24] Toscanini, at one rehearsal, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, had his musicians respond with particular sensitivity to his every wish, his every desire, recreating the masterpiece.
[0:37] What resulted was a performance that moved the men of the orchestra to a spontaneous ovation. They rose to their feet and cheered the little man who had just given them such a new and wonderful insight into the music.
[0:49] Like, desperately, Toscanini tried to stop them, waving his arms wildly, shouting to them, finally, over the ovation, it isn't me, man, it's Beethoven. It isn't me, it's Beethoven.
[1:01] And that's, when we preach, boy, in a sense, that's what we want. Praise the Lord. It's praise the Lord. You know, at best, when someone compliments our preaching, they're complimenting, if it's good preaching, boy, we want to recognize and then recreate so that people have a sense of exactly what God was doing, what God was speaking, the message that God was giving.
[1:33] And so, a couple of guys that have gone from topical, am I the only one that is, I used to be just nothing but topical, and now I've probably, maybe, I'm almost nothing but expositional.
[1:46] There's probably a balance in between. Any pastors that would say how it's helped you, how it's helped you, any positives of that? We have a bunch of pastors in here.
[1:57] There's also a bunch of young guys in here. Pastor Jackson. I noticed that when we did topical, people would close their Bible after a while because they don't know where we're going to go. Yeah. But I've noticed that when you preach expository preaching, they just naturally, their Bible's going to fall along with you.
[2:12] Yeah, yeah, yeah. The, getting people to bring their Bibles, getting people into their Bibles, to me, it causes people to read their Bibles because they're seeing it taught the same way they would read it.
[2:24] When all you hear is topical messages, it doesn't encourage Bible reading because you don't read your Bible topically. And that's one of the reasons to keep their nose in the book.
[2:38] Kenny, when he preaches, he's so evangelistic. Sometimes it's hard to make the connection to, and in my opinion, he is very biblical as far as the passage. But sometimes, you know, he's so quick, he's not.
[2:51] I'm for the people seeing where you get the point from the passage because that's where our authority is. Our authority is when we show the author's intent, when they can see the author, what the author had in mind.
[3:07] The fact that it's not our authority. Well, it is if you're not using the Bible and you're just hollering and screaming. But when you're pointing and showing, and there it knows it's in the Bible, boy, that's where our biblical authority is.
[3:19] It helps the people to stay in the Bible. I totally agree. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes. Yes. Any pastors that have gone from solely topical to expositional?
[3:36] am I the only one that's made the change but Staley yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah amen how do I turn this on it's red do I flip it over can we use this it's good we had a a hyper hyper hyper Calvinist was in the church for a while and I'm big on God's sovereignty last night's message on the amen hallelujah it's strong sovereignty up to the point man still has a free will whosoever will may come one of the guys was wearing me out on well you need to you're not seeing it right you need to he ended up leaving the church gone for two years um
[4:55] I'm preaching through Romans before I get to Romans 9 10 and 11 I'm in Romans 8 28 uh 29 where it talks about for whom he did foreknow them he did predestined to be conformed to the image of his son in his foreknowledge he knows who's going to be saved and those that he knows are going to be saved they are predestined to be conformed to the image of his son if you're saved eternal security eventually you'll be Christ-like and maybe in heaven uh and so to set the table for chapter uh 9 10 and 11 I preached a sermon on which came first uh predestination or foreknowledge predestination or foreknowledge and the whole sermon was just basically um uh Larry who hadn't been in church for two years boy all of a sudden right before I got up to preach and this was people don't know as far as what the sermon's going to be boy he ends up coming in and sitting down on the back row and I mean it was just wow
[5:56] I mean the timing of him coming in out of the blue uh he saw me at Home Depot the other day uh the day after saw me at Home Depot the day after he was livid livid but because of my approach or safety they know that I'm not targeting uh and it's God's timing and you know I can't believe and I said well Larry God may have just predestined you to be in that service and so um but it's funny how God's timing is just always and to be honest with you um we don't really know what the church needs anyway or at least I don't um and if I see a situation uh usually there's a a deeper rooted situation underneath that or a reason for that um and God answers those far better than I could we could um he knows um guys that there's there's young guys in here trying to figure out should we preach solely topically arbitrarily old school or and in my opinion exposition is the oldest school um because we're going all the way back to Bible times you look at it um uh
[7:03] Stephen's uh sermon that he preached um uh it was a sermon that was uh 50 verses long and almost every other verse he references a scripture of the Old Testament alludes to it quotes it uh illustrates it uh almost half of his sermon that he preached was Bible um Bible heavy Bible heavy um uh any pastors how it's helped you how exposition has helped you um Pastor Nix uh you I've done both you I would assume I don't know maybe done a little bit of both if you're trying to encourage young guys to preach through books or expositional um how it's helped the church hurt the church any um thing that you could add I just think that that most people have got to find out what works for them um sometimes long durations of a theme can kill it expository preaching for the most part that I grew up under was considered dead dry preaching some guy in a monotone voice going through passages of scripture so
[8:20] I think it has to kind of filter into your life and ministry a little bit different you've got to be creative and preach the way I preach verse by verse chapter by chapter I'm only five years into that it's changed the environment in our church people love the word of God and there are times when we veer away and speak topically on something we don't throw the baby out with the bath water but for the most part it's verse by verse and chapter by chapter now there's a lot of guys who will take and they'll do exposition on multiple passages they'll kind of tie the thing together there's some great preachers that do that but more or less I think sometimes when you talk about expository preaching it's more pastoral type preaching that's where it's kind of a harder setting with missionaries especially if you're an evangelist it's a different setting even a youth pastor it's a different setting and there are different types of expositional preaching there's biographical exposition there's topical exposition there's sequential exposition
[9:26] I think all of us are just for using the Bible though I think the biggest struggle I had when I transitioned from primarily being topical sermons to expository sermons was the personality of the preacher seems to be flattened and the personality of God in the scripture is raised I'm not sure that the flesh likes that and that's why a lot of times when you're an expository preacher there is the idea that you're some kind of reformed theologian or you lean heavily toward hyper Calvinism that seems to be the direction that most people associate those two things together Calvinism and expository preaching and so I think keeps a lot of guys away from it but I think a lot of it is if you've been the personality if you've been the talent or you've been the one driving the thing and then you have to hand that over to God you know some guys have a real struggle with that and so the idea is you leave
[10:32] God in the driver's seat expository preaching you leave God on the throne when you preach verse by verse chapter by chapter and the whole essence of expository preaching is death to self in other words you've got to surrender yourself to the word and scripture let God do the speaking and so we're entrusted with the word of God that's what expository preaching is and then we kindly we're entrusted with what God has said to say what God has said to make it in a way where people understand it but then we're to take and explain who God is so there's a portion of you have different analogies we all have different analogies but I say first off you start with the exegesis you dig it out you find the key points then you move into exposition which they're all similar they mean the same but you move into exposition and then it kind of filters into explanation the whole point is hermeneutically you're just trying to make sure that what
[11:39] God's word says is said correctly and that you're not adding to it and taking away and so that's what I struggle with number one my personality is taken completely away the bible becomes the sole authority and then the other idea is this most everything I did was emotionally driven and now it's scripturally driven text driven that's a hard transition and I won't say this and I'll be done I won't say nothing else but my biggest transition I had a fellow named Garland Odom who was almost seen like less I mean most of you that know Garland Odom is a great preacher but it's like he was saying people looked at him like less of a preacher because he was expositional like he's the morning preacher in the meetings and not the evening preacher which in my opinion after knowing him quite a while he should have been the evening preacher not the morning preacher so there's been a downplaying of somebody who in this general area in the south so you feel like well if
[12:52] I go this direction then I'm going to be castigated whatever you just be who God made you to be at the end of the day young preachers call frustrated they can't come up with ideas anymore they can't come up with enough sermon topics and they say you know what are you doing and so I say to them I was where you were and so I haven't forgotten the past to still pull from it but the point is I'm a whole lot more settled there's a whole lot more fulfillment I know where I've been I can tell you where I've took the church now God opened doors that I would have never imagined to open through all of that the personality what Pastor Nix is talking about with the personality thing if you're fighting someone's personality across town and all of us have that ego we want to be known for and we all do in different ways but understand as there's personality that there's one personality that we're taken away from and that's the only personality there's only one person that's important to
[13:57] Rosedale Baptist Church there's only one person that's it and that's from the top down no one is more important no one boy and it's the Lord Jesus Christ and it does so much when we subjugate we humble and we're able to go that direction pastors if you had one thing to say about exposition on yeah yeah yeah yeah the other thing too is with if it was a point that I wanted to make sure that I put more weight on that next service I'm going to use it as an introduction and I'm going to lean on it a little bit more and it may sound subjective a little bit and I don't mean for it to but if it's a big deal to God I want it to be a big deal so I appreciate that yes do you make a big deal of we are talking to preaching we are do you make a big deal of that style of preaching to your people so that they know that if they have to move for work for whatever reasons that they know to look for that or they just kind of figure out we get more
[15:13] Bible here than anywhere else yeah I think it's more of that biblically based scripturally soaked sermons that are dripping with the word of God they've probably heard that phrase a lot biblically based scripturally soaked sermons that are dripping with the word of God they've heard phrases like I'm not the final authority of a faith it's the Bible let's see what the Bible says let's Bible heavy I don't terms like expositional and I don't think that they're they're clued in or I don't try to clue them in on and I'm sure a lot of them understand that but I don't try to use those terms with them as much as we have some guest speakers that I hardly ever have someone that I haven't heard myself but every once in a while you know there'll be an anomaly and I'll have people that that are walking out of the church if they've if it hasn't been a Bible heavy sermon and they'll say pastor let me know when he comes back again because I probably won't come back to church on that service and I'm thinking well amen that's good yeah but to me that's a good thing when Joe
[16:20] Blackburn says I don't come to hear what you have to say I come to hear what God has to say well to me that's a good thing that's a good thing and we want them hitching their wagon to the Bible and to the Lord Jesus Christ and I'm very clear too that hey if you hear if I'm all for it if someone comes and shows me something I'll adjust my approach my opinion I'm not the final authority the book is the final authority so pastor any word on on one of the I think one of the best benefits is that it trains your people to listen to exposition and preaching and you won't notice it as much until you go preach out somewhere where they're not used to hearing expositional preaching and you'll feel it feels flat it feels like you're over their head even though you shouldn't be it's nothing deep but when you're preaching to your own people every week expositional sermons and it's so much it's easy because they're trained to hear it when you go out somewhere and they're not junk food it's hard to retrain your appetite when you're used to junk food and candy bars and cotton candy and fluff to try to adjust adapt someone's appetite for healthy food it can be a hard thing at times and the thing about junk food is you binge on junk food but there's no nutritional value to it and so you're still hungry and so you binge some more on junk food but there's still no nutritional value to it so you're still hungry and that's where that bigger that bigger that bigger that sensational we're building carnal appetite the prophets prophesied falsely the priests bear rule by their own means and my people love to have it so it's
[18:20] Pastor Gardner you know expositional preaching is very boring unless you find what he's talking about and that's I think what has happened is we you know I grew up thinking that you're going to do an expositional message you're just going to read that passage of scripture and you're going to restate what it says I think J. Vernon McGee gave us a bad name that's just my opinion but I think another thing we've done is we preach what is a hot topic a hobby horse I find world evangelism in Genesis 1-1 that's about world evangelism in the beginning God created the world so you could preach to it tell the gospel that's my hobby so I find it and so I think that I think that turns into I think that's a problem I think you know man I would I would say that I am much more bound to a text and so you know it's amazing just like what happened in your church how many times if you're going to preach through a text somehow divinely no strain and no working it people come in office does man he must have planned that one for this they know where we are they know
[19:37] I didn't strain it most of our guys they can easily say we know where the preacher is just the last thing a few weeks ago a lady came because one of our men was baptizing his son and she told him after the church what do you think of our church she goes to one of the mega churches and she said well that's the most unusual preaching I've ever heard he was right there in the Bible and I could see everything he was saying he just kept talking about what it said and she said I really liked it because it was exactly what the Bible was saying but she said I never seen anybody preach like that in my life one of the mega churches in the area Andy Stanley said that expository preaching is I forget how he criticized it but he said it's too easy it's too easy what we need to do is creatively come up with the smoke and mirrors and entertainment and there are people that are successful at that but our goal isn't to be successful at that our goal is to build a church and that's going to be the
[20:43] Bible that my prayer before I preach not always but a lot of times is God I have no agenda but what you had pre-planned from eternity past for this passage for tonight I have no agenda but what this passage what you want to tell us through this passage and sometimes I try to be true to that and I'm sure we do better but that should be our goal that should be our of that anybody else all right let's let's third John let's try to diagram third John which I was struggling with block diagramming and let me give you one other one too look at Ephesians chapter number Ephesians chapter number four Ephesians chapter number four Ephesians four look at verse number four
[21:46] Ephesians four four just different ways that you can track a text you can track a text by scenes you can track a text by characters you can track a text by that main topic look at Ephesians four four in the sermon that I've preached before but verse four there is one body and one spirit called into one hope one Lord one faith one baptism one God look at the number change in verse seven but unto every one of us it goes from one to everyone verse eleven and he gave some some some some verse thirteen till we all verse sixteen from whom the whole body and then down to verse sixteen the measure of every part as long as you're staying inside of the governance of what the structure the spirit the subject
[22:50] I don't think it's a wrong thing in fact the sermon that I preached was by way of those numbers point one the first amount is one the unity of the church and that's where I taught the first part of it and I added a side item you teach through a passage vertically you apply it horizontally if you get so horizontal that you're way out here one of the snid bits that I'll use every once in a while is everyone adds to it anyone can take from it no one is more important than it talking about the unity no one of us is more important than all of us talking about unity one one one one one the second amount is everyone everyone is a part of the body everyone is gifted in the body everyone is to have a part of the body from one to some apostles and prophets and pastors and teachers and then after some it's all till we all come to the unity of the faith and when pastors do what pastors do and the people do what the people do the pastors are to pastor to preach the
[24:13] Bible the people are to minister the result there's unity 13 unity of the faith maturity till we all come to the perfect man fullness of Christ stability and no more toss to and fro charity speaking the truth and love authority which is the head even Christ verse 15 reciprocity but I showed you that to say block diagramming isn't the only way to track sometimes just saturating things will start to lift sometimes it's seen sometimes it's a person let me show you one other one if I can find it turn your Bibles to 1st Corinthians 16 and then we'll get into block diagramming after this but I just want you to see that block diagramming isn't the only way and you don't necessarily have to do it mechanically you can do it intuitively and none of these other ways should take away from he had three main subjects the imperatives and then there's some essential there's some incidental there's some ornamental we need to make sure we focus on the essential look at 1st
[25:29] Corinthians 16 look at verse number 5 just some of the nuanced chains and it's all about the sermon is on planning and this is one of those end time end of the book type doing some house cleaning as he listed a few things but the truth verse 5 now I will come unto you when I shall pass for Macedonia for I will I shall I do verse number 5 but listen to the change in tone verse 6 it may be that I shall abide with you and it's basically Paul writing a letter to this church at Corinth and he's sending it by way of a messenger he's planning on following after on his way to Ephesus I'm way back from Ephesus I will I shall I do but then he couples his planning specificity with the potential uncertainty verse 6 from I will I shall I do to it may be that I will abide yea winter with you that you may bring me on my journey for
[26:31] I'll not see you now by the way but I trust to carry a while with you verse 10 now now if Timotheus comes the planning specificity the potential uncertainty but then Paul's divine flexibility was at the end of verse 7 after he said I will I shall I do it may be it could be possibly he was flexible enough blessed are the flexible for they shall not be bent out of shape our planning our planning very firm very very purposeful but we have to be flexible and it's all coupled with that divine flexibility last part of verse 7 if the Lord permit here's my plan here's my flexibility and it's all filtered through nevertheless not my will but thy will be done and in my opinion when you have that that planning specificity understanding the potential uncertainty
[27:32] Paul's divine flexibility that's when we have a powerful opportunity look at verse number 9 when we plan when we plan when we prepare when we're very deliberate when we cast a vision but we also are flexible not only are the steps of a good man ordered by the Lord but the stops of a good man sent out by the Holy Spirit forbidden by the Holy Spirit Paul throughout his journey is flexible but it was all filtered through if the Lord permit when we have that balance look at the powerful opportunity verse 9 for a great door and effectual is opened unto me when we left we're leaving California I knew for sure that God's will was Glenwood Springs Colorado there was a small church there it was paid off there was a parsonage there'd be no problems a kuna matata we're ready to go so anyway I knew it was God's will I knew it was I was praying Lord I found God God give me this it's your will this is what
[28:33] I want I even have in my Bible I think it's this Bible Jeremiah 33 3 call unto me and I will answer thee I'm calling I'm calling Glenwood Springs Colorado I'm calling so I planning specificity but there is a potential uncertainty and we want Paul's divine flexibility flexibility it ended up not being Glenwood Springs Colorado it ended up being Rosedale Baptist Church which was not in as good a shape as Glenwood Springs would have been I have written next to the second half of that verse Rosedale Baptist Church praise the Lord call unto me and I will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not by being flexible enough but and then lastly a powerful opportunity and then there's going to be a persistent tenacity there are many adversaries but I only show you that to show you some passages are outlined and organized and you have the selection you have the saturation you have the investigation you have the observation the investigation sometimes the diagramming is not going to be the best way but let's look at it 3rd John 3rd John block diagramming 3rd John boy I hate to even do it off the cuff
[30:03] I have it down here I have a cheat sheet that I did the elder under the well-beloved gayest whom I love it's kind of an intro kind of a phrase you get you get into the first stand alone beloved I wished above all things that I'll go up and how I do this is if it's just a phrase that doesn't stand alone I'll tab in in fact I'll tab that in the level of gayest gayest whom I love in the truth it's modifying gayest but then the first stand alone is beloved I wish above all things I wish above all things the next phrase is modifying what he wishes for I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health even as thy soul prospereth does anybody see how
[31:05] I'm taking the main thought the essential the skeletal structure the stand alone phrases and I'm pushing them all the way to the left all the modifiers I'm pushing them and placing them underneath what they modify for I rejoiced greatly for I rejoiced greatly what is that modifying do one of the gasways want to help me with my English for I rejoiced greatly it's a modifier it modifies I wish above all things here's what he's wishing but here's why he's wishing it's still a modifier my opinion for I wished let me see if I did that yeah for I for I rejoiced greatly when the brethren came is is modifying when I rejoiced when the brethren came and testified of the truth when the brethren came when the brethren testified of the truth let's actually go a little bit to the right the truth that is in thee that is in thee is modifying truth and so what I do is just tab the modifiers over to the right and I'm keeping the main skeletal structure the main theme of that passage on the far left for I rejoiced greatly when the brethren came
[32:30] I rejoiced greatly I have no greater joy than to hear my children walk in truth to me that's modifying how he rejoiced or why he rejoiced but so far we have beloved I wish above all things that's all the way to the left and then the second subject verb stand alone sentence is beloved thou doest faithfully and so as you're reading the introduction a lot of times we'll get we'll get bogged down in the weeds and we'll miss the trees the trees are beloved I wish above all things point number two of the introduction beloved thou doest faithfully whatsoever thou doest in the way I would probably start wording the outline and it's too early to do that first it's selection third John saturation investigation and I may go through this exercise just for my own benefit
[33:31] I may even scrap it all at the end of the day but to me anytime you're looking at the scripture meditating on the scripture pondering the scripture comparing spiritual with spiritual to me that's at least a good thing right that's a positive thing I'm giving attendance to reading I'm diligent in my studying and delighting and so I mean I hate to go down here it took me a minute to get my English I dropped non-credit English in college two times so I'm not good with the modifiers but beloved thou doest faithfully that modifies what he's doing whatsoever thou doest it modifies so what I do is I just return verse five which is a standalone is all the way over to the left the far left so that at the end of it I can look down the left hand column and I can see the main structure of what that passage was talking about that doesn't mean I ignore the rest of it but if it's not a main point in the passage it's not going to be typically a main point in my sermon and if it's a modifier of the main point of the passage then
[34:43] I'm probably going to make it a sub point of one of the main points does that make sense at all it's not we're not doing as cleanly as we've done it as Tim O'Donnell would do it but thou doest faithfully is modifying doeth so I push that underneath doeth so I understand that it's whatsoever thou doest to me is still modifying what he's doing everything that you're doing whatsoever thou doest he's doing it to the brethren and to strangers which have borne witness of thy charity is that modifying is that modifying John is that modifying Gaius or is it modifying these guys have borne witness of thy charity what's that modifying brethren of strangers and so because that's modifying those things I put it underneath those things which have borne witness they've borne witness of what they've borne witness of thy charity of thy charity where do they bear witness they bear witness before the church whom if thou bring forward on their journey after a godly sort thou shalt do well whom if thou bring forward who's he bringing forward he's bringing forward the strangers to me this would go under where verse 6 the brethren of the strangers they borne witness and what are you to do to them you're to bring them forward on their journey and and it's it's it's helping us sift through and to syntactically look at what phrases modify what phrases so that we can make sure the main part of the passage is the main part of our sermon and the subordinate part of the passages should be a subordinate part of our sermon is that making sense so far and so to the far left as
[36:47] I'm quickly reading down, beloved, I wish above all things, beloved, thou doest faithfully, and then the last one, we therefore ought to receive such that we might be fellow helpers of the truth. The introduction, I'm typically not going to preach as a standalone sermon, but if I was going to, I'd probably go back to the three points, beloved, I wish, I wish blessings, beloved, thou doest, you do faithfully, I wish blessings, you do faithfully, we ought to receive. It's probably going to be my three-point sermon, or at least, and I may change that up, I'm not finalizing anything now, I'm just considering, giving consideration to, I'm looking at, I'm taking under advisement of the scripture as I'm sorting through it. Any questions on that so far? Am I totally missing it, guys that have seen it before? Is it clicking at all? The return in the tab makes it very easy to push to the right those things that are modifying the modifier, the modifier, the modifier, what is the subject and verb? Now, where this helps me a lot is, I speak in sound bites. When I'm texting someone, I don't even make complete sentences, what, you know, okay, and when people come to my office, give me the facts, give me the facts, keep the emotions out there, just give me the facts, and it's just blurb, blurbs. There are some passages in the Bible that it is such a long sentence that it, by the time you get to the end of the sentence, I'm captured by a subordinate part of that passage rather than the main part of that passage. Has anybody else been there besides me on that? And I step back and say, now, okay, now what was that talking about exactly? This is an exercise that helps me to see it, where before we're saturating, saturation, and things are starting to lift up, love, charity, those repeated words. This is one where you can mechanically do a similar thing. Let's look at the main paragraph.
[39:00] Verse 9, second paragraph. We already know that. We've already split it up into three paragraphs. I wrote unto the church, but Diotrephes, Diotrephes is, but Diotrephes to me is modifying, I wrote unto the church, I wrote unto the church, but this happened. Diotrephes, who loveth, who loveth what? To have the preeminence. It's all pushed. Preeminence is modifying love. What does he love? To have the preeminence. The preeminence at his workplace? The preeminence, in his neighborhood? No. The preeminence among them, the church. And so keep pushing it to the left. But Diotrephes receiveth us not. All of those phrases get pushed to the right because the meat of that is Diotrephes receives us not. It just helps to sort through, does anybody see the, Jake, does that make sense to anybody at all? It helps to sort through the, not the ornamental, because every word, every jot, every tittle, it's all, it's all, but it does help you to keep the themes in front of you, to keep the topics, the subjects in front of you. I wrote unto the church, verse 10, wherefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds. I will remember his deeds. Wherefore, if I come, to me is modifying, I will remember his deeds. Wherefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds, which he doeth. Now, the deeds in verse 10, prating against us with malicious words, and, and that modifies his deeds. And, not content therewith, still modifying the deeds. Neither doth he himself receive the brother, still modifying his deeds. And forbideth them that would, still modifying his deeds.
[40:49] And what we have a tendency to do is, we all have hobby horses. Underneath this, you know what the problem with Diotrephes was? Diotrephes' problem was, he wasn't content. And so we'll preach a whole sermon, and we're not given consideration to, we, we, we overemphasize a piece, something that's good, at the expense of under-emphasizing, um, the same emphasis that God has placed on it. Okay. Um, we all need vitamin A, B, C, D, B12. We all need those vitamins, but we don't need 30,000 milligrams of vitamin C and one milligram of vitamin B. Uh, the only one that has the authority to give us our balanced diet is the one who wrote the book. He's the one that knows what the balanced diet is. And when I'm arbitrarily capriciously just deciding, boy, I need to make sure that I hit that, uh, and, and I'm not hitting the other things.
[41:46] I was in church 14 years, um, in, in a, a independent fundamental Baptist church, conservative Baptist church, 14 years before I went into the pastorate, um, I heard thousands and thousands and thousands of sermons. There's whole books of the Bible that I never heard preached on one time, not one time. There's huge themes of the Bible that, that, wow, this is new to me. I've never seen this. Why wasn't this preached? Um, and the reason it wasn't preached is because it wasn't sensational enough or, and that pastor wouldn't build the church or, or, or, or, or, that's not what his hobby horse was. Uh, listen, I don't want to be the one governing the Bible and the preaching. I want the Bible to be the one governing the message. Um, I wrote in the church.
[42:35] I will remember his deeds, beloved, follow, follow, beloved, follow. That's an imperative beloved. Follow what? Well, not that which is evil. It's qualifying the follow, uh, but that which is good, it's qualifying the follow. Uh, and then he that do with good is of God. To me, it's, it's qualifying, it's modifying, but that which is good. All the modifiers, all of the subordinate clauses I'm pushing to the right. Uh, Demetrius hath a good report of all men and of the truth itself.
[43:06] Uh, yay. We also bear record and you know that our record is true by all modifying Demetrius is good report. Um, and, and so if I'm preaching that one expositional unit in third John, it's probably going to be point one, John's past writing. I wrote in the church, uh, point number two, which is, is, is not on the first phrase of verse 10. It's on the second phrase. I will remember his deeds.
[43:29] John's future remembrance, John's past writing verse nine, John's future remembrance. The second phrase of verse 10, I will remember his deeds. I wrote in the church. I will remember his deeds. Our present work beloved, follow beloved, follow. Um, to me, that's when we're, we're, uh, rightly dividing is when, um, we're taking the structure of what God wrote to us. Uh, and we're able to see that structure rather than just reading it like a novel and, and, and just hoping, Hey, we need the macro view, but we also need the micro view. Uh, if all we have is the macro view, we're going to miss all kinds of great nuggets and jewels. If all we have is the micro view and don't step out of it to make sure that, that we are doctrinally moored correctly. Um, we, we need to have both. Um, and then the last paragraph I just grouped together cause he's just saying goodbye. And, um, did I totally miss it on the diagramming? Did I totally miss it? Do you understand the concepts? Um, Logos is a great check. When I get to the point where I'm thinking, well, I wonder what that modifies. Does that modify this or does that modify that? Logos does have a place where you can go in and it has lines showing you. It doesn't diagram the English. It diagrams the Greek, but it has the English words next to it and it'll show you what it, what it modifies. Okay. It's part of selection, saturation, investigation, where you're kind of pulling it apart. You're turning it over. You're looking at it. You're giving consideration to the words that are relating the paragraphs that are relating. Um, uh, and at the end of this, you're going to go back, uh, after you praying, you're saturating, uh, and then you're going to make some decisions on how I'm going to approach the passage. Okay. Um, any questions about that at all? Tim
[45:27] O'Donnell does it backwards. He goes from the right to the left. Uh, and, and it's just, uh, and I think it's because is Hebrew written from the right to the left? Is that the way it is? He's a brainiac. He's just up here. Um, I'm down here. And so, uh, I go left to right, but, but does anybody, everybody see the purpose of it? I think that's the main thing I wanted everyone to see is the purpose of it. Um, let me show you another one, show you another one.
[46:00] We did this, did this one last year. Um, Matthew 28, 16 through 20, the 11 disciples went away to the Galilee mountain where Jesus appointed them and they saw him. They worshiped him. Some doubted Jesus came and spake to them saying, all power is given unto me, heaven and earth. Go ye therefore teach all nations, baptize in the name of the father, son, Holy ghost, teaching them to observe all things, which are I've commanded you. And lo, I'm with you always, even in the end of the world. Amen. Okay. 16, um, and 17 is kind of a transitional narrative. Uh, it's a transitional narrative and they're moving from one place to another place. I would focus in more on Jesus came and spake unto them saying, all power is given unto me, heaven and earth.
[46:41] Go ye therefore. Now the verbs are the bearing walls of a house, the verbs. That's what you push all the way to the left are the verbs. Um, uh, go ye therefore teach all nations, baptizing them, teaching them. Um, in the English there's, there's four verbs. Uh, and, uh, in the English also take note that the two of the verbs are, are, are, are present participles, uh, which are used to modify nouns or noun phrases or noun clauses, uh, baptizing and teaching. So the two imperatives are go ye therefore, uh, and teach all nations push to the right of that would at least be baptizing and teaching them to observe. Uh, now I'm told in the Greek, there's actually three present participles. Uh, the go is actually a present participle, uh, going because you're going and that's why I have it outlined. And, but again, I wouldn't argue that point, especially in the front of a lot of front of a lot of pastors. So, um, whether you want to have go all the way to the left, um, and make it a two point type structure with, with verse 19 all the way to the left where, where it's, uh, go and teach two point sermon. My opinion, um, going should be pushed in at the same level as the baptizing, um, uh, uh, uh, go ye therefore and teach and teach as you're going, you teach all nations. You teach, you're baptizing them to the father, son, the Holy ghost. That's all modifying the baptism. Um, uh, teaching them to observe as you're going, you're baptizing, you're teaching. Um, but I would almost preach this as a topical message on, on, um, where to make disciples, where to make, where to reach people and, and, and, uh, where to make disciples. One of the reasons that this intrigues me is because when I preach on Matthew 28, 19 and 20, um, you're already going, you're already going. The question is not, are you going, you're going to the Maryland school for the blind Monday. You're going to Bethlehem steel, uh, Monday. You're going to, you're already going. We're going into all the world tomorrow morning. Um, the question is not, are you going?
[49:08] The question is, are you going to be teaching and witnessing, uh, and sharing and inviting? Hey, that's the question. Well, we're already mobilized. Uh, but are we inviting people to church as we're mobilized? Someone, someone asked me, um, uh, what the biggest, uh, um, draw for visitors is. Is it web or yellow pages, which we don't even do anymore? Um, or, uh, bulk mailings. The biggest draw that we have is when we are able to, to mobilize our people. Um, and, and we, this last Sunday probably had about 1600 on Sunday morning. Uh, if we can get every one of those people, um, uh, excited about what's happening and inviting someone out or, or so strong in their testimony, they're able to share the gospel. Uh, we have, uh, witnessing workshops twice a year, spring and fall. Um, but, but Hey, they're already going. You're already going. Question is, are you, it's not, are you going? You're going. The question is, um, are you going to be reaching and witnessing and sharing and inviting? Uh, to me, it just is, is a powerful approach to that.
[50:17] That passage. But, um, uh, the next thing I would do is, uh, and I, I, I don't know that I can get into this whole thing, but let me, let me go ahead and try. Uh, in Matthew, we, we had selection. If we're going to use that passage, selection, saturation, investigation, where we identify the bearing walls, the verbs, the clauses we push, we're block diagramming, observation. Um, are there any, uh, any repeated words in there that kind of float to the surface?
[50:47] Uh, and Jesus came and spake unto them saying, all power is given unto me in heaven and earth. Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the father, son, and the Holy Ghost.
[50:59] Teach them to observe all things. Is there any, uh, repeated words in there? Is anybody following? Um, uh, and lo, I will be with you all, all ways, even unto the end of the world. Are there any repeated words in there that we should be highlighting? Okay. Um, uh, there's some back referencing that we should also do on, um, his, this is his, his great commission. I think it's interesting that, that we call it the great commission, but, but nowhere in the Bible does it call it the great commission. Uh, my opinion, um, if we're not careful, I hate to say we can overemphasize evangelism, but, uh, in my opinion, sometimes we so emphasize the great commission that we miss the foundation, which is the great commandments. Uh, love God, love others, love God, love others. Boy, that's the great, that's a great Jesus said, this is the first and great, great. Uh, now, uh, that in that, that, uh, that foundation is what the great commission is built upon. Um, but when you're thinking about why is it great, Jesus makes a great claim. All power is given unto me in heaven and earth. Great claim. Boy, all power, all power. Uh, you could back reference Matthew four, when the temptation and the wilderness, the devil is saying all these kingdoms and the power, well, I give it to you. If you just bow down now, I'll give all these things. You can back reference that to give light, to shed light on. We stay in the passage, but we do bring in scriptures, testimonies throughout the Bible. Um, uh, there's a great claim. There's a great, uh, commission, uh, to go and there's a great comfort on, uh, low. I will be with you all way. Am I going to preach it that way? I don't know. I may preach it topically. I may end up, uh, but, but if you don't go through the exercise, um, all you're going to be doing, doing is parroting what someone else has said about it, um, or preaching what you've always saw in it, well, we need to take the time to just consider, to observe, to mull over. The next step is interpretation.
[53:07] And interpretation is basically, uh, paraphrasing to make sure that, that you're not misunderstanding it. Um, trying to get your mind around it in, uh, uh, in, in, you know, 15 words or less.
[53:22] How would you summarize that? 15 words or less, um, uh, because of Christ, uh, uh, because he has all power, he's, he's backing us to do all evangelism, uh, and he's given us, uh, all assurance that he'll be with us every step of the way. Uh, after interpretation, as far, as far as getting that, that, um, paraphrasing to make sure that it's making sense. Okay.
[53:51] If your paraphrase doesn't make sense, you may want to start back and say, I may have pushed the wrong thing to the right. Um, uh, and then organization, which, uh, you end up starting to piece it together. Uh, and then finalization, uh, is when you start, uh, trying to get all of the, the pieces, the pieces together in place. Uh, can I show you one other thing?
[54:13] One other thing? Um, in fact, uh, turn to your Bibles, if you will, turn to your Bibles to, to, uh, second Kings chapter four, second Kings chapter four. Are there any questions about the block diagramming, which is, is I can get you copies of, of six books or the names of six books that that'll teach it better. That'll display it, um, or track by the scenes, especially the narratives or the characters or, uh, nuanced voices. Um, but if all of this does is improve, you'll never be a better preacher of the Bible than you are a student of the Bible. If all this does is causes us to dig into the Bible a little more, grab a hold of it, boy, take it, look at it, boy, every, every aspect of it. To me, that's why meditation is so powerful because what you're doing is you're putting it up here and you're, you're thinking about it and then you're thinking about it and then you're thinking about it.
[55:12] You're relooking at it. You're considering it from all different angles. And that's when God just opens it up. Um, so any, any questions about the block diagramming on that? Yeah, I will. Should I make copies? What should I do? Should I want me to read? I read them quickly the other day. Uh, I will, I will. I can, I can give you, um, as soon as, and you can just photocopy it. Um, and it'll have other books too on, uh, train his book on observation. There's another Duval's book on grasping God's word, um, has a lot to do with that bridge concept. Um, uh, you know, I'll give you all the books, the information I got. Um, Genesis chapter four, verse number eight. Um, and it fell on a day that Elisha passed to Shunem, where was a great woman, a great woman. And she constrained him to eat bread. And so it was that as often as he passed by, he turned in thither to eat bread. Uh, this, this great woman that had a great wealth that did a great work that received a great reward. Uh, Shunem was on the way from
[56:22] Mount Carmel to Jezreel. Uh, and of course this is all the historical context of the, of the understanding where you are in your passage. Um, um, and anytime she, anytime, um, Elisha passed by, uh, as often as he passed by, she, she'd be a blessing to him, be a blessing to him, be a blessing to him. Um, um, but, but the whole, the whole thrust of the sermon is she was serving. She was serving. She ended up adding onto her house. She ended up putting bread before him, feeding him. She was serving. Um, as you're reading through this, uh, it fell on a day. She was purposefully serving. It fell on a day, purposefully serving. Uh, it fell on a day that Elisha passed to Shunem, where there's a great woman and she constrained him. She was passionately serving. Uh, and what I want to do is get all the points. Uh, my, my central theme of the sermon is going to be, it pays to serve God or, um, serving helps you to plant your heart or serving something about serving. I want all of those points to be funneling down to that central theme. And this is more practicality, nuts and bolts of homiletics. Um, uh, she was purposefully serving. She was passionately serving. She was practically serving. Uh, she constrained him to eat bread. She wasn't just saying be warmed and filled. I'll be praying for you. Uh, she constrained him to eat bread. Who so give a glass of water? Uh, she'll not lose his reward. Uh, she was practically serving purposefully, passionately, practically, persistently as oft as he passed by. Uh, now the, the, the, the whole hook in the sermon, uh, is going to be point number five. Uh, she was purposefully at fall on a day. She was passionately, uh, she constrained him. She was practically to eat bread. She was persistently as oft as he passed by. But while she was doing that, she was perceptively seeing, perceptively serving. I look at verse number nine. And she said under her husband, by the way, I may have already back referenced, um, uh, Elisha now has someone serving him because anybody remember who Elisha served? Boy, Elijah chapter two, stay at Bethel, stay at Jericho, stay at where I'm going to go to these places. Don't say I'm going to be taken.
[58:41] Boy, Elisha insisted passionately serving him. Uh, in fact, uh, when, when the kings were trying to find Elisha, they referenced him as the man that poured water over the hands of Elijah by serving. Um, and, uh, whatsoever man, so it actually also reap what because he was serving. Now he has a servant. Uh, but as she's serving him, she's also verse nine seeing. And she said to her husband, behold, now I perceive as I'm serving. Now I perceive that this is a holy man of God, which passes by us continually, but perceptively serving, uh, the serving always see so much more. They always see so much more. Um, by the way, I would back reference this with, she never saw one miracle. She never saw him take the mantle.
[59:30] Now those sons of the prophets, when they saw him take that mantle, she never saw him do one miracle. But she says, now I know it's because she's serving him. She's seeing that he's a holy man of God. Hey, the sons of the prophets, they saw him do that miracle Jordan part. And then they said, but she never saw that. And why, how did she see it's because she was serving the serving always see so much more. By the way, there was another group that saw this same person exactly how she saw the same person, but those teenagers didn't perceive the same thing. Those teenagers didn't say, uh, now I perceive that this is a holy man of God. Hey, they weren't serving.
[60:08] They weren't serving. They were scorning when they said, go up thou bald head, go up thou bald head. Um, she perceptively serving. She saw the nature of the prophet, holy man of God. She saw the need for the project. Boy, let's build, let's build, let's build. The thing I want you to see is the back referencing, the back referencing, making sure you keep it in context where the back referencing builds to what you're trying to preach out of second Kings chapter four.
[60:35] Uh, and then she's, she's profitably serving because after that, uh, Elisha says to the servant, what should be done for this woman? And, uh, well, she didn't have a son. Give her a son. And, uh, uh, um, the serving, the serving, not only are seeing, uh, they're being blessed with sons.
[60:53] Um, those that are sitting are souring and they're also sterile. Boy, they don't get sons. They don't have sons. If she wasn't serving, she never would have gained a son. Um, you could wear this thing out as far as, uh, the critical, the critical, boy, they're the ones that aren't serving. Um, it's, but anyway, does anybody see the back referencing with that? Um, and then making sure the flow of the points are all, you're keeping that theme, that theme of the passage serving, serving, but, uh, and if I was going to go pragmatically, I'd say what I'm trying to accomplish out of this is to get people to serve. That's what that passage seems like. It's speaking to my heart. Um, by the way, application, you don't have to make it a stretch because hopefully the first heart that was convicted was mine and I need to serve more and I need to serve more. Uh, sometimes I don't serve as much as I should. I need to serve in this area and that area. Uh, and then as you think through, um, how to make application to them, well, I would think through it on different levels to, uh, uh, men and ladies to old and young to, to, uh, blue collar, white collar to, uh, how do I make this applicable, practical, um, as you're thinking through it, but, um, so anyway, any questions about that at all? The diagramming, the, the continuity of the points, the trying to keep a central theme in front of us and, uh, have I given just enough to make it even more confusing? Have I, have I done that? Um, uh, I think that's probably the last thing. I have, I have a couple more things, but I'm afraid if I get into them, it's going to be too much. Um, are there any questions, comments, anything that someone wants to add? Right over here. Yeah, just, uh, uh, organization finalization. Do you have any more what you do there? I have a, I have a, I have a, oh, here it is. Um, I have a diagram, how, how, how, how, how, how do I talk about and, and, and Robert will give us copies? Um, and it, and it has three points, but you, you, you have your central theme up here. And all, all of these points should be coming down, should be in line with, now I'm not for forcing I made
[63:22] There are times when the passage doesn't lend itself to that. But I want that that will help you as far as thinking through, making sure the points are in line with that.
[63:40] Organization, I think we should try to personalize points rather than just the Shunammite woman was practically serving.
[63:54] I'd probably try to make it more of an imperative in the points, more passionately, purposefully. And then, obviously, as you're preaching it towards the end, you're going to really try to bring it home more.
[64:08] Finalization is when I try to do the alliteration at the end. And my alliteration, I'll come up with new words to try to get it. It don't even make sense words. As long as it alliterates.
[64:20] I will take freedom with the English language before I take freedom with the passage to make it alliterate. I'll come up with reciprocity or specificity.
[64:35] There are some words that people will say. And you can banter with them. And I'm not saying you have to do this. I do it. It's kind of an ongoing, yeah, it is a word. Or spell check that. But, you know, it's just, you know, we'll end up...
[64:47] And it's funny. People don't know about personality. That's why preaching to your church is the best. It's the best. If your church is a missions church or a church... When you have a people that God has brought to you, you can convey so much without having to...
[65:02] God's called me to be a pastor. He's not called me to be an evangelist. I'll preach out, but he's called me to pastor. And the alliteration I do at the end so that I'm not superimposing onto the passage what I want to say and how I want to say it.
[65:17] But that's the finalization. Making sure the points are in line. Then I have to look at the subordinate clauses. Do I want to make them sub-points? I don't necessarily have to. As long as I can go through that and say, Diotrephes, you know, his deeds, he was prating against them.
[65:36] He was also not content. He was also forbidding them. And as long as I'm giving equal weight to them, you don't necessarily have to say, okay, point one, letter A, underneath point, you know.
[65:50] But that would be the finalization part of it. And then I would look into more illustrations, Bible illustrations, what other thing. And that's meditating on the sermon. Boy, that's a lot like this. Or that's a lot like that.
[66:02] I have an illustration about the tabernacle. If you're serving in the tabernacle, there's no place to sit down. If you're sitting, you're souring because it's the seat of the scornful.
[66:13] You need to be serving. That's when you're going to be seeing. John chapter 2, a cross-reference, the servants knew. That water was made wine. The ruler didn't know. He didn't know. He didn't see it. He didn't get it. But the servants, those that were involved in the work, boy, they saw the miracle.
[66:27] They saw the miracle. And in the tabernacle, when you're up and serving, there's no seat except for the mercy seat. And that's for the Lord. There's no seat. We're supposed to be serving. When you're serving, you're going to see the glories, the handiwork, the candlestick, the menorah, all the pictures of Christ, the embroidery, the colors.
[66:42] You're going to see all of those ways. There is one place that's not grand and glorious. And that's if you choose to just stop serving. And there's no floor covering in the tabernacle.
[66:54] You're not going to see carpeting. You can dig in the dirt if you choose to. You're going to be in the place where there's miracles and pictures of the Lord and just all the wonders of God.
[67:05] But if you want to, it comes back to you're going to see what you want to see. And if you choose to sit and dig around in the dirt, there's dirt to dig around in. Boy, I have dirt. You have dirt. God remembers our frame.
[67:17] You know that we are but dust. We're made from the dust of the earth. And so that's where I end up hammering on. It's not a question of is the church perfect. It's a question of are you serving?
[67:27] Are you serving? Because to the pure, all things are pure. But to the unbelieving, defiled, not anything pure. For even their conscience is defiled. But that's all finalization, trying to find biblical illustrations and stuff.
[67:41] So any more organizational finalization? Amen.
[67:56] Yeah, yeah. Probably the best thing that I could do is take an English class again just so I can get a better grip on Tim.
[68:10] And there's others in the room that, you know, the subordinate clauses, the present part, you know, all of that stuff. And I get lost in that. But you can read a sentence. And as long as you take bite size, you can tell what the main part of the sentence is and what the subordinate parts are without knowing, is that a gerund?
[68:27] Is that a hanging whatever? I don't even know. But, yeah. I think the fact that we get together and talk about something that we're all passionate about, we may not get a whole lot of new tools to use in our process.
[68:44] But if nothing else, hopefully it's helped reiterate some things in our minds. But any questions? I think we have until 12. And I think that's like 15 minutes, isn't it, from now?
[68:56] Seven minutes from now. Right back here. For the individual sermon, I try to come up with a clever, that's a funny title.
[69:07] And most of the time I miss it or they don't get it. So, and it's just, the only problem is when the title is better than the sermon. That's when it becomes a problem. And that's all I had, just the title. But I do try to come up with some title.
[69:20] You know, for that sermon, I could entitle. I've used the phrase, what are you looking at? And it's kind of a funny phrase for a title. What are you looking at? Or what are you looking at?
[69:31] You know, it's kind of a, so it can be a, and they usually laugh about as much as you just did. So I do try to come up with a title that's intriguing. But that's in the finalization.
[69:44] Finalization. Pastor, next. Did you have a question? Did you raise? Yes, sir. Do you use the handout? I do.
[69:54] I do for everything except, you know, funerals and weddings I don't. But Sunday morning, Sunday night and Wednesday night I do. It's, to me, the more senses you can involve in.
[70:08] I don't know that I would, I think I was preachy the other night. I don't know. I don't evaluate that part of it as much. Thursday night, I think I got loud and soft, different things. But I don't know that I consider myself a preacher as much as a communicator.
[70:19] My dad was retired as a principal of a public school. My mom retired as a teacher in a public school. Big in education. My communicating. Communicating. To me, the best communication is when you're able to, they hear it, the screens, they see it.
[70:38] I'm having them repeat. They say it. Now say that first point with me. They're horrific plagues. That's the next point is the heavenly perspective. The more of them I'm involving in the education, the transfer of information. Now I'm going to also light it on fire before it's over as far as the preaching.
[70:52] But if they write it, that's another way. If there's some way I could have a scratch and sniff outline, I would do that. Oh, yeah, I get it now. So I'm for all of that.
[71:03] So, yes, I do. Yes, I do. Do I use the fill-in-the-blank outline religiously? I do. So, yes. Yeah, typically.
[71:17] Typically. If I get into the front half and the back half of the page, people are coming in discouraged. Oh, man, this is going to be long. And so I try to keep it like five or six points.
[71:28] Some of the sub points I may or may not put on there. Some of the sub points I may just have bulleted in my. So I try not to get to the point where it's lecture. There's so many notes they have to write.
[71:39] But I do want to keep them. I want to keep them involved. I want them to be able to take something home. I have people that use those throughout the week as they meditate, they look at, they read, hash the sermon in their mind.
[71:51] And our graphic arts has, we put a lot of attention, time, and money into it recently. And so, like, the outline is very sharp, very polished.
[72:03] To me, visual aids can either be one of the biggest helps or one of the biggest distractions. If we have misspells, I just, you know, I can make myself look stupid.
[72:15] I don't need a secretary helping make me look even more stupid. So I've had that conversation with a couple of secretaries. But it's in a nice tone. I'm a nice person. But it can be a distraction.
[72:27] But if you do it well, it can also be a blessing. Any other questions at all? Thank you very much.
[72:53] Thank you.