“So important is eternal life that the Bible gives us many illustrations so that no one will miss the message. To the farmers, Jesus talked about soil and seed. To the shepherds, He talked about sheep. To beggars, He talked about a great feast that God had spread. To lawyers, He talked abut justification. To the housewife, He talked about a coin that had been lost and had to be found. But when you use the word ‘imputation,’ you find God speaking to the banker, because it is a financial term . . .. Our English word ‘imputation’ comes from the Latin word which means ‘to reckon, or credit, to one’s account.’ When you go to the bank or the savings and loan association and deposit money, imputation takes place. They deposit that on your account, and they write it on your record . . .. Right in the middle of that word ‘impute’ you have p-u-t, righteousness put to our account” (Warren Wiersbe, Key Words of the Christian Life, Lincoln: Back to the Bible, 1982, pages 55, 56, 58).
Read morePre-suppositional Apologetics
Dr. John Whitcomb taught and practiced pre-suppositional apologetics. Pre-suppositional apologetics depends not on Christian evidence to win over sinners or skeptics but the gospel which is the power of God unto salvation. The following is Dr. John Whitcomb’s testimony.
Read moreAre People Basically Good?
Are people basically good? Both Christians and non-Christians agree, “People are basically good.” Barna Research Group found that 87% of non-Christians say, “People are basically good.” What should be shocking is that 90% of Christians in mainline Protestant churches agreed, “People are basically good” (What Americans Believe, 89-91).
Before we examine the different theological views, does life experience show us that “People are basically good”?
Read more“The Church Business Meeting” for Dummies
It is almost 7:00 p.m. and you are about to chair your church’s business meeting. You ask yourself, “Self, what if someone wants to amend the original motion, how will I handle it?” “Self, what if the discussion gets a little out of hand and I need to table the motion in order to do some more research?”
Read moreOUR SINFUL INHERITANCE
Have you seen the car tag, “I’m spending my children’s inheritance?” Comforting thought. Right? There is one inheritance most children wish had been spent by their parents. The inheritance of a sinful nature.
Read moreWhy Do We Baptize By Immersion?
The word “baptize” means to immerse. Lexicons define baptizo to mean to dip, immerge, submerge. “Consider also the testimonies of three non-Baptist who led the Protestant Reformation. John Calvin, founder of Presbyterianism, declared, ‘The word baptize itself signifies immerse, and it is certain that the rite of immersion was observed by the ancient church.’ In commenting on Romans 6:3-5, John Wesley, founder of Methodism, said, ‘Buried with Him, alluding to the ancient manner of baptism by immersion.’ In speaking of the meaning of baptism, Martin Luther, founder of Lutheranism, said, ‘They ought to be entirely immersed, and immediately drawn out. For this the etymology of the name seems to demand.’ I have always appreciated Luther’s practical theology when he advised the pastor to immediately draw out the person being immersed.
Read moreStep Eight: Preach so People will Respond (Part 2)
Haddon Robinson opens chapter 10 “How To Preach So People Will Listen” with an important reminder: Most books on preaching say a great deal about the development of the sermon but little about its delivery. That is reflected in the way we preach. While ministers spend hours every week on sermon construction, they seldom give even a few hours a year to thinking about their delivery. Yet sermons do not come into the world as outlines or manuscripts. They live only when they are preached. A sermon ineptly delivered arrives stillborn” ((Robinson, The Development and Delivery of Expository Messages, second edition, p. 201).
Read moreStep Eight: Preach so People will Respond (Part 1)
C. John Miller taught homiletics at Westminster and was listening to a taped sermon that one of his students had preached at a nearby church as an assignment. “He was not exactly reading the manuscript, but he was heavily dependent on it. I could feel that his interest was not in his listeners, but in the ideas in the manuscript. He droned on in a wooden tone when suddenly loud, booming voices began to break into his message. A true-life adventure was taking place! The recording equipment in the church was picking up police radio calls. The radio messages revealed that a robber was trapped by the police in a fast-food drive-in restaurant.
Every word the police said had a clear purpose. They meant to capture this man or know the reason why not. I can remember many of the words of the policemen. One of them was yelling to his partners, “Come on! Come on! Over there!” These men, out there on the street with drawn weapons, knew what they had to do. Their whole enterprise was focused on a single purpose: to capture the man. I think that is our purpose in preaching too: to capture the man for Christ when we preach! Permit nothing in the message that does not serve this master purpose” (C. John Miller, Preaching by Faith, 124).
To capture a man for Christ we must use every weapon at our disposal including the voice God has given us, facial expressions, and gesturing ability empowered by God's Spirit.
Read more“Winning Souls by Prayer”
Lewis Sperry Chafer in his book entitled “True Evangelism: Winning Souls by Prayer” writes, “The personal element in true soul-winning work is more a service of pleading for souls than a service of pleading with souls. It is talking with God about men from a clean heart and in the power of the Spirit, rather than talking to men about God…. the divine order is to talk to God about men, until the door is definitely open to talk to men about God” (Lewis Sperry Chafer. True Evangelism. Grand Rapids: Kregel, 1993, 69-71). In light of this statement we need to answer some questions about praying people into heaven.
Read moreStep Seven: Prepare the Conclusion
“Some preachers are in their approach toward the runway when, at an altitude of only a few feet from the ground, they get a new thought and —instead of landing —zoom up into the air again. Then, once more, they circle the field, line up with the landing strip, lower their flaps and start to come in for the landing, only to shoot up into the sky instead” (Jay Adams, Preaching with Purpose, p. 66). Haddon Robinson adds that your conclusion should not resemble a crash (Steven Mathewson, The Art of Preaching Old Testament Narrative, 150).
Read moreStep Six: Prepare the Introduction
If what Haddon Robinson said is true of our average congregation, then we preachers have our work cut out: “When you stand up to preach, people are bored and expect you to make it worse" (Biblical Preaching, Second Edition. page 166).
Read moreDave Ramsey’s Checklist For Decision Making in EntreLeadership
A good plan, violently executed now, is better than a perfect plan next week. —George S. Patton.
“Indecisive leader” is an oxymoron.
How to Resist the Devil (Ephesians 6:10-20)
A pastor tells an amusing story about a man who was on his way to attend a costume party one Sunday evening. He was wearing a red suit with a tail and a skintight mask with horns. He looked like the false, but widely accepted picture of the devil. As he hurried along, he was caught in a sudden rainstorm, so he took shelter in a church where the service was just ending. As he entered the building, he shocked the members who thought he was the real thing. A flash of lightning and a clap of thunder added to the illusion. The congregation panicked and rushed for the exits. The intruder thought thchurch had been struck by lightning and was on fire, so he raced after them. Everyone got out except an elderly lady. Turning in fear, she stretched out her hands and pleaded for mercy, “Oh, devil, please don’t hurt me. I know I’ve been a member of this church for 30 years, but I’ve really been on your side all the time.Sadly, many church members have no more insight as to who their greatest enemy is. There are certainly extreme views on the devil and his demons.
Read moreThe Image of God
HOBBY LOBBY and Chick-fil-A have more in common besides being closed on Sundays. These two companies are for-profit businesses. They are not Christian organizations like churches. Nor are they non-profit corporations. They are for-profit organizations ran by Christians. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of permitting Hobby Lobby to not obey the mandate in Obama Care that requires employers to provide health care coverage for contraceptives that end the life of conceived babies. Hobby Lobby has no problem providing health care that covered 16 out of 20 FDA-approved contraceptives. But Hobby Lobby refused to pay for contraceptives, such as the morning after pill, that destroyed fertilized eggs. The owners of Hobby Lobby (the David Green family) believe life in the image of God begins at the fertilization or conception and that the Bible forbids wrongly taking the life of a person. I agree with Hobby Lobby and the Supreme Court ruling.
Read moreJack Hyles verses Mark Dever on Expository Preaching
Jack Hyles wrote an article entitled The Science of Calling a Pastor. In this article intended on instructing churches on how to call a pastor he wrote:
Choose someone who is not a Bible expositor. There is not one expository sermon in the Bible. All of them are topical. I am not fighting expository preaching, but that kind of preaching will destroy a great church. Do not be swayed by their suave teaching. The great soul-winning churches have been pastored by topical preaching. I am not talking about evangelistic churches; I mean soul-winning churches! If you want a soul-winning church, you must call a pastor who preaches topical sermons. Many of our once great soul-winning churches fell prey to the popular notion of expository preaching. They decided that they wanted more Bible, but when they got it, it cost them their effective soul winning.
Read moreFIVE PRINCIPLES OF INTERPRETATION
Philip asks the Ethiopian eunuch a hermeneutic question, “Do you understand what you are reading?” The eunuch’s response, “How can I…unless some man explain it to me” (Acts 8:31)?
John in 1 John 2:27 does not contradict: “The anointing which you have received of him abides in you, and you need not that any man teach you.”
Wayne Grudem: "The clarity of Scripture means that the Bible is written in such a way that its teachings are able to be understood by all who will read it" (Systematic Theology, p. 108).
Read moreThe Pastor/People Relationship
Billy Sunday once said, “I would rather preach than anything on earth. If President Harding should telegraph me tomorrow, and say, ‘Bill, will you change jobs with me?’ I’d say ‘Nothin doin, Warren.’”
Read more8 Steps to Sermon Preparation: Step Five (Part 4) Application
A Sermon Without Application is like someone shouting to a drowning man “swim” "swim" but not throwing him a life preserver. Spurgeon believed so strongly in sermon application that he said, “Where application begins, there the sermon begins.”
Read moreStep Five: Develop the Sermon Outline (Part 3: Illustrations)
James Braga defines an illustration as “a means of throwing light upon a sermon by the use of an example” (How to Prepare Bible Messages, 231). Haddon Robinson says an illustration can either be like a beautiful lamp and a streetlight. When you walk into someone’s expensive den and notice an ornate lamp, you compliment its beauty to the owners. But if you are walking down a city sidewalk at night, the streetlights provide you visibility but you hardly notice them. A sermon illustration should be like the streetlight. It throws light on the subject you are preaching but doesn’t unnecessarily draw attention to the illustration. The illustration is always a handmaiden to explanation.
Read moreStep Five: Develop the Sermon Outline (Part 2) Argumentation
Albert Mohler in his book, He is Not Silent has Chapter 3 “Preaching is Expository: A Theology of Exposition."In this chapter, Mohler contends that our view of God's revelation in His Word will be reflected in our preaching. If we possess a low view of revelation then our preaching will not have much or any theology in it. If we have a low view of the doctrine of revelation, then in our preaching we will preach “pop psychology and culture, or we will tell compelling stories." We preach the theology of a passage because it is God's authoritative Word that is life changing.
In this step, we insert the theology of the text.
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