Preach Peace, Part 1 (Preaching Series 4 of 6)

Turn up the music and call the dance, and then the third one is what I call "The Preach Peace Path." I know, I'm trying to try to help you just remember these ideas. Here's what I mean. If you go hiking in a national forest, there's a path and usually these paths have been created by the forest rangers for a purpose. They'll take you to see all the vistas that you most need to see.

If you're a hunter and you go out in the woods, and you look for the paths that the animals are taking, there are well-worn paths; there are game trails in the woods because they take that deer from his bedding area to where the water is, to where the forage is, to where the girls are, and then back to his bedding area, and so you see these game trails.

I think in preparing sermons, I've found it to be very helpful to have a path that I am confident will take me through everything I need to have, or everything I need to see. And in the Colossians verse, Paul said ... he talked about proclaiming Christ, and then he said, "For this I toil, struggling with all his energy."

There's hard work in proclaiming Christ well, so I actually use this outline sort of like a checklist. Have any of you seen the TED Talk called "The Power of Checklists"? There's a surgeon named Atul Gawande, he's Indian, and just listen to this because I find it very intriguing. He's written about researching for the World Health Organization for improving surgical outcomes in the developing world. He did a study to try to understand, what could they do around the world to lessen the negative implications of complications after surgery?

To their surprise, what they discovered was that the single most effective way to lower the complications and death rates of surgical patients was not better training for the surgeons, because most of the surgeons already had good training. The most effective thing which was resisted by the surgeons was to give them a checklist.

The checklists were resisted because the surgeons didn't want to have to use them. The checklists were powerful because they forced the surgeons to admit humility, and to acknowledge that certain important steps, like making sure you've got the right patient, and were working on the right organ, and had retrieved all the implements from the body cavity before sewing them up, all of those things can slip in the intensity of being focused on the outcome.

They implemented the checklist system in eight hospitals around the world from Tanzania to Seattle, and found the rate of complications fell 35% in every hospital where a checklist was implemented. And the death rate fell by 47%.

So what I want to give you is sort of a checklist, and I think though, that sometimes pastors, like surgeons, resist the idea. I mean, you know, it's a spiritual inspired process; kind of half artistic, half scientific thing that we do, but if you don't like my checklist, maybe come up with your own checklist. Think through, "What are the steps that I want to make sure I accomplish in my sermon preparation?"

The one that I teach here at the seminary and that I use myself is called "Preach Peace," and it just starts with, "Prepare yourself and your materials." How might you prepare yourself for Gospel-centered preaching? Again, some of us have little rituals or disciplines, but as we open the text, I usually, if I know if I'm doing expository preaching Sunday night, not in a preparatory mode but in a reflective mode, I just read and have kind of a devotional time with the text that I'm going to be approaching for the week to come. I want it to be in my mind, in my heart, beating.

What else could we do to prepare yourself and your materials? For me, it could be something as simple as then on Monday morning, I know I'm preaching. Like my last weekend, I was preaching from 1 Peter on, "Let everyone be submissive, be subject to every human institution, whether the emperor, or ..." I knew I was preaching on the role of government and our response to human government as Christians.

One of the things I did is, I actually downloaded a couple MP3s off the Gospel Coalition site to load on my iPhone that I can throw in my car, and just listen to during the week; by the end of the week, I would have listened to maybe Tim Keller, and Dick Lucas, or somebody else. I might not even know their name, but I saw that they had preached on that passage, or on that theme from Romans.

I grabbed some commentaries on Monday morning off my shelf, and I gave them to one of my assistants and asked her to photocopy that section on that part, and throw them into a file so I could throw them in my briefcase and take them with me. It can be that simple. You know, it's both this combination of both spiritual preparation and getting your gear together. You know, if you do any sport and you're getting ready to go, whether it's hunting, or fishing, you get all your stuff together, and that's kind of the first step: prepare yourself and your material.

Then, "Read and reflect." This is where somebody talked about humbling yourself before the text yourself. This is where before you reach for the commentaries, or you start listening to what other people have done, you just do Psalm 1: "Blessed is the person who meditates on the law of the LORD." You read in that meditative, reflective mode for yourself, but also to begin to surface themes, ideas, whatever you may want to develop more thoroughly.

And then for me, this read and reflect is important, especially in the sense of having time to do that before I move to E, so that there's some opportunity to just get those first initial impressions and to write them down. I think it's important to write them down, and some things just to me, work better hand, but it doesn't matter whether you type it up, or whatever.

But then, "Exegete the text in its context." Crucial step, that's a big part of what we're taught to do in seminary is how to do exegesis, how to begin with the background, put it in the context of history, and scripture, and then dig down into the details. Are there particular words here that I need to understand better? How does the grammar work together?

Is there a chiasm, or some kind of literary aspect that helps me identify ... maybe at first, a word jumped out at me because it's something I'm in to, but when I actually look more carefully, I realize, "It's not really the point that Peter, or Paul, or Isaiah is making." You know, you have to do that basic fundamental, exegete the text in its context.

But then, A is "Ask questions." What might be some of the questions that you would want to ask? Think about what you've done: you've gathered your materials, you've got your commentaries, articles, MP3s; you've read and just reflected in kind of a prayerful mode, now you've done your exegesis. Pause, and before you start writing your sermon, what would be some of the questions you might want to ask?

What's my context in terms of my particular people? We don't have generic churches, this is the big failure in fact, if you listen to different preachers. You end up listening to Mark Driscoll all the time and you're pastoring in Biloxi, Mississippi, and you're going to have a problem if you just start sounding like him. If you're listening to Tim Keller and you're in Biloxi, Mississippi, you're also going to have a problem.

No offense if any of you are here from Biloxi, Mississippi, but you have to understand your people, and even specific people. Alexander Maclaren used to put a chair across from his desk and picture concrete people; a woman, a widower, a man, a young person, and think, "How do I communicate this to them?" What would be some other questions? "How might non-believers hear this?"

And kind of closely related to that, defeater beliefs. Are you guys all familiar with defeater beliefs? The idea of defeater beliefs ... you can google for it by the way, there's a great little PDF that Tim Keller wrote but it originally comes from Alvin Plantinga, and it's the idea that in every culture, there are things that are believed so deeply that they're just assumed to be true, and if what you're saying contradicts those things, those defeater beliefs will defeat what you're saying.

An example would be, if in our culture, everybody is just convinced, young people are convinced, "Tolerance is good, judgmentalism is bad." And it's just so deeply ingrained in the culture and in their mindset, "Tolerance is good, judgmentalism is bad," and then you get up and say, "Jesus is the only way to heaven," or "Homosexuality is a sin," and a defeater belief works in the sense that the person doesn't really even have to engage with your arguments, they just think, "That can't be true. It just can't be true because that's intolerant, and tolerance is good, and intolerance is bad."

If you're preaching in today's culture, like when I was 24 years old and preaching in Kansas, if I was preaching through Ephesians and I came to, "Wives, be subject to your husbands," I would do a sermon on it and I'd try to explain what it really means and what it doesn't mean, but now in my community if I'm preaching on that, I actually may not spend less time on it, I may spend more time on it. That may require three sermons so that I can flesh out a whole biblical view of gender and put it in its context, so you ask questions. "What questions would this surface? What objections would this surface? What problems would this surface in the people that I'm called to preach to?"

And then, "Construct an outline." I believe in outlines, I think outlines are helpful; they help people follow you and they help you unify your sermon, and they also help you. I like to be able to stand and deliver without having to look at my notes too much, an outline helps you do that.

And that leads to my next part of this, the Preach, but notice it says "Highlight and hone?" Highlight and hone means by highlighting, you surface what's predominant, and distinguish it from what's subordinate, because you're going to say a lot of different things; before this sermon is over, you're going to use a lot of words. How do you highlight what is predominant so that it doesn't just get lost in what's subordinate?

Some of what is your main point, and like Marty was saying, you have a single main burden of the text, everything else is supposed to be supporting that. And then honing is how do you sharpen the way you communicate it in such a way that you say it in the sharpest manner; that it's the most compelling, concise, convicting way to communicate it?

A Walk Through Ephesians (Preaching Series 3 of 6)

Going back to Stott’s statement that the key to the secret to effective preaching is not mastering certain techniques but being mastered by core convictions, I want you to indulge me in something that's designed to just deepen that conviction in you. Because there are a lot of things out there about how to do Christ centered preaching but I think the single most important thing and the reason I like to use this analogy is that if it becomes a core conviction that you must both turn up the music and call the dance, I believe you'll find a way to do it.

Here's the exercise. I want us to look at one of the most famous church renewal pastors and church planters and how he does it in one of his most famous books, the book of Ephesians. I'm talking about Paul. In Ephesians, part of the beauty of Ephesians and why I want to do it is there are six chapters. I think in the first three chapters, what you have are the riches of God's love in Christ, and the last three chapters, the expression of Christ in our lives. Here's what I want us to do for just a minute though, to see how Paul does this, let's think about how Ephesians 1 through 3 reveals the grace of God. If you have a Bible, turn to Ephesians 1, if you don't have a Bible just remember because I'm sure you know Ephesians. What are some of the expressions of the grace of God that we are given in Ephesians Chapter 1? Is there any grace in Ephesians Chapter 1?

He starts off by saying, "Blessed be, the God and Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ." He's putting all of this in the context of praise, which by the way there's an application for all of that. He says he chose us before the foundations of the world, he pre-destined us, there's an inheritance there and in verse 5 through 7, he says, "In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace which he lavished on us." Lavished mean just like "Whoo!" Is there any other grace anywhere else in Chapter 1? We're predestined for the adoption of sons, what comes right after that? Inheritance? What else? Sealed by the spirit who's the earnest of our inheritance into the day of redemption. That's a tremendous outpouring of the grace of God right there, so much so that what does Paul do at the end of the first chapter? He's caught up in praise and he turns into prayer for his spirit of revelation in the knowledge of Christ so that we would grasp the richness of his power at work within us.

That's chapter 1. Is there any grace in Chapter 2 of Ephesians? Starts out, "You are dead in your trespasses and sins. You walked according to the course of this world. The prince of the power the air, children of wrath." This is that powerful, powerful but God… But God. Then how does he describe God right after he says, "But God"? Being rich in mercy. Then, what was motivating when he acted? Because of his great love with which he loved us? This is amazing. Made us alive together in Christ, by grace you're saved.

A little bit later on in the book of, in Chapter 2, what else does he say are some of the things that are true of us, like get down around verses 19 and 22? You are without hope and without God in the world but you're no longer foreigners and strangers, there's reconciliation. What's the image that he uses in that passage? The dividing wall of the temple and Christ as the cornerstone that Isaiah had talked about. In Chapter 3 he says, verses 1 through 6, who shares together in the promise of grace. Look in Chapter 3, we'll move a little bit more quickly, if you come down to chapter 3 verses 7 through 13, what is the result in terms of how we can approach God? Different versions will put it a little bit differently. How can we approach God because of this? With boldness, confidence, some versions have with freedom and boldness or freedom and confidence.

Does anybody know how many imperatives, how many commands are in Ephesians Chapter 1 through 3? The only command for three chapters is to remember where you used to be before you got the grace of God in Jesus. That's the music. At the end, he comes to the end in Chapter 3 and he gives a prayer, we're going to come back and look at that prayer but then he says, "I, as a prisoner of the Lord, then", and the then softens it. This is the NIV but a lot of versions, it's the therefore. "As a prisoner of the Lord, therefore, I urge you live a life worthy of the calling." Worthy, I think in our modern culture that almost makes it sound like ... I think it throws you a little bit. It's the idea of a life that's in keeping with or appropriate to what you just read and everything that came up before this.

Here what I want to do now though. One imperative, only one imperative in the first three chapters and that's the imperative to remember that formerly, you were without Christ. Now, are there any imperatives in Chapter 4? We got one. "Live a life worthy of the calling that you've received." Think about it or look if you have Ephesians 4 in front of you and quickly, let's begin to itemize some of the imperatives. What else are we told to do?

I'm not just looking for implied imperatives but just explicit imperatives. Forgive us Christ, forgave you, do you know where that is? Twenty eight, I think. Before we get to 28, let's back up and go through it. "Be patient with each other", where's that? Verse 2. "Guard the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace, be humble and gentle, bear with one another." Then there's a little section in there where he talks about Christ ascended and poured out gifts and apostles and prophets for equipping of the saints, but then right after that, begins more imperatives. What's some others?

Is there anything between verse 15 and 24 that's an imperative? Speak the truth in love, no longer walk as the Gentiles walk, be renewed in your mind, lay aside the old self put on the new self. I don't want to just do one. There won't be anything to work with. Then we'd get, be angry and do not sin, don't let the sun go down on your wrath. Then right after that, there's a bunch of others aren't there? What are some of the other ones? Don't steal. Don't steal but labor. You get that series of "don't do this but do that", replace this old behavior with this new behavior, is that it? What comes after "Don't steal"?"

No unwholesome talk come out of your mouth, only what's good for the edification of others. What else? Don't grieve the Holy Spirit. Do you see how many imperatives now where you go from three chapters where there's basically no imperatives. Then, here we are in the first 20 verses, I think we just named almost 20 imperatives. But does it end there? No. If we go back and we look, what are some of the other ones in Ephesians 4? Be kind, tenderhearted, forgiving, even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you. Before that he says, there's a negative before that, get rid of all what? Malice, brawling, slander. In this church, the brawling has to stop. Be kind to one another, imitators of God as dearly beloved children. Walk in love just as Christ loved us.

Now we're into chapter 5 aren't we? What comes after that, "walk in love just as Christ loved us"? No sexual immorality, and then he talks about your speech. Then we'll go a little bit faster but if you read on, he talk about such a variety of applications. Be circumspect in how you walk redeeming the time for the days are evil. Do not be drunk with wine but be filled with the spirit. Submit to one another out of fear of Christ. Husbands love your wives. Wives, love and respect and submit to your husbands. That ends Chapter 5.

He's talked about substance abuse, he's talked about marriage, he's talked about time management, he's talked about sexual immorality, lying, stealing, unity, love, forgiveness, bitterness. Now we get into Chapter 6, are there any imperatives? Children, obey your parents, fathers raise your children and nurture the discipline of the Lord, put on the armor of God, fight these spiritual battles, praying always. There's just this incredible, I think it's Sinclair Ferguson says that it is as if in Ephesians, what you get is this beautiful white light of the Gospel that passes through this prism and it just spreads it into this entire spectrum of every single aspect imaginable, pretty much of life.

We left out the part about masters and servants, so you've got the workplace, the home, substance abuse, time management, sexuality, your words, your heart, laying aside all malice, it's just every single aspect of life is affected by the music. That's the dance. That's all the dance and it's all important. Preaching the Gospel doesn't mean that you somehow diminish the imperative nature of those imperatives.

What percentage of obedience do we aim at?  100% obedience, from the inside out, 24/7. But what Paul is showing us is that dance, the God who choreographed the dance composed the music that goes with it and that is intended to inspire and empower it. We can't dance the dance well unless we're listening to the music.

Look at this prayer. This is the hinge between those two chapters. He says, "I pray that out of his glorious riches", this is the end of chapter 3, last thing before he gives the beginning of the imperative. "He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit and your inner being." It's interesting also, we're talking about dependence upon the Holy Spirit. Sometimes when people think of the power of the Holy Spirit, they may think of many different things in life but he says that what he's praying for is that this empowering will result in Christ dwelling in your hearts through faith.

We know earlier in Ephesians 1:13, he said that, "If you have heard and believe the Gospel, the Holy Spirit has sealed you and you the indwelling of Christ to be the person of the spirit." I agree with the commentators who say here he's talking about a more experiential or existential sense. It's not talking about the ontological reality of the indwelling Christ because every believer has that reality. It's part of the Gospel, part of what it means to be renewed. It's part of the new covenant. But rather the experiential acknowledgement and sense of Christ dwelling in our hearts through active living vital faith.

“I pray that you being rooted and established in love.” Two metaphors, one from gardening planting, one from building, establish like on a foundation, rooted like a plant in the soil. Again, there's no corresponding attribute of God what we're ever told to be rooted or established, so yes God's holy and he's wrathful. He has his wrath but there's no verse that says, "I pray that you would rooted in the wrath of God."

Propitiation has resulted in Christ having taken the wrath for us as believers. As J.I. Packer says in Knowing God, "Those who received Christ as their propitiation do not face the wrath of God. But so that you would be rooted and established in love and you may have power together with all the saints to grasp the full dimensions of the love of God." How wide and long and high and deep is the love of God. To know, again, since it surpasses knowledge, this is talking about a kind of existential spiritual knowledge of a love that surpasses intellectual comprehension that you may be filled to the measure of the fullness of God and this is what leads into all of those imperatives. Those imperatives are showing you what the effect of being filled all the fullness of God will mean as it works its way out in marriage and children, in the workplace, in time, in substance abuse, in sexuality, in words, in bitterness, and all of it.

Music and Dance (Preaching Series 2 of 6)

A core conviction for Christ-centered or gospel centered preaching, and I want to use an analogy that I use a lot whenever I teach at the seminary, but I also use it just in my own life and in my church for discipleship, for preaching, and for my personal life. It's called "The Music and the Dance." To do it, let me just create a very imaginary scenario.

Imagine that there's a huge house and in this huge house, there are people living who are hearing and there's people who are deaf. There are deaf people and hearing people in this same house. You're like a third person looking in through a window and you see a first guy walk in and he walks over to an entertainment center and he hits a button and the room fills with music. It's obvious that he's enjoying the music because he doesn't just stand there; he starts to move in time with the music. At first, he's just kind of enjoying it and moving with the beat, but pretty soon this guy's just full-on dancing, he's having a great time. He's in the room, he's in the mood, he's listening to the music, and he's moving in response to it.

A second guy comes in who's deaf. One of the deaf people in the home comes in and he looks at this first guy, and you can kind of see by the expression on his face that he thinks, "That looks really cool. I want to do that," and so he starts trying. At first, he's pretty awkward and it's not very graceful, but as he really watches the other guy carefully, as he really hones in on the other guy, pretty soon he's actually able to kind of get in step just by mimicking the other guy.

Then you see a third person comes up alongside of you and he doesn't know who these people are so he looks at them and what does he see? Well, it looks to him like he sees two people doing the same thing. Listening to the music and dancing in response to it. Here's the point of the analogy. Does it matter, are those guys really doing the same thing? Are they really doing the same thing? And does it matter that they're not doing the same thing?

There's a kind of preaching, there's a kind of ministry, there's a kind of Christian living that's very much about people dancing well and doesn't care if they can hear the music. There's a kind of preaching and ministry that is always prescribing the steps and calling out people who are out of step and out of rhythm and telling them, "That's not right and here's how you're supposed to do it," but doesn't really care whether they're really hearing the music.

There's a kind of trying to live the Christian life that we all get into from time to time. It can either be just ... I mean, I've been at this church for 30 years. It can just be the longevity of ministry and the wear and tear on your soul, the disappointments, the death of 1,000 cuts of criticism and disappointment, and over and over again to where you pretty soon just, you're trying very hard to dance the dance but you're no longer hearing the music.

At the essence of what I mean by gospel-centered preaching is that you turn up the music and call the dance. It's not one or the other. Sometimes people think when we talk about gospel-centered preaching or Christ-centered preaching that what we really mean is just turn up the music and don't care if people dance, but it's not one or the other. It's both.

What I mean, just to clarify, the music and the dance, in this analogy, the music is this massive message of the redemptive love in Christ through the gospel and all the richness of what we have through the gospel which is not simply forgiveness or justification or heaven, but also adoption and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and all things being made new at the end of human history as we know it. It's just this huge kaleidoscope of gracious gifts that come to us through the Incarnation, through the life, death and resurrection and ascension of Jesus. That's the music.

The dance is the whole Christian life; that life of love for God and love for people, and all of the many facets and dimensions of what that requires that are spelled out in all of the imperatives and the exhortations of Scripture. So, in this analogy, it's not, "Turn up the music and let people just listen," nor is it constantly calling out people who are out of step or out of rhythm, it's both. It's got to be both.

So, gospel-centered preaching means preaching the person and work of Christ as both the motive and means to true Christian living and relating all aspects of Christian life to Christ and the gospel. The conviction that we need is that all application of scripture needs to be Christ-centered and what I mean by that is ... the dance always has to be related to the music. The question then, when we're preparing our sermons, is: how does the richness of our redemption in Christ supply the motive and means for the application of this scripture to life?

If you don't think I know what I'm talking about, this is John Calvin and he says: "We ought to read the Scriptures with the express design of finding Christ in them. Whoever shall turn aside from this object, though he may weary himself throughout his whole life in learning, will never attain the knowledge of the truth; for what wisdom can we have without the wisdom of God?"

Here's Charles Spurgeon. He says: "Preach Christ, always and everywhere. He is the whole gospel. His person, offices, and work must be our one great all-comprehending theme."

Core Convictions (Preaching Series 1 of 6)

I want to read a scripture and then open in prayer. We'll start. The scripture is a famous one relating to preaching: 2 Timothy, chapter four verses one through two. "In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: preach the word. Be prepared in season and out of season. Correct, rebuke and encourage with great patience and careful instruction."

Well this is one of many verses that talk about preaching in the scriptures. I love working at preaching, because of all the many different things that we do as pastors this is one of the things that is the most explicitly, repeatedly and emphatically impressed upon us in scripture. There are a lot of good things we do: planning services, the order of worship, developing small groups, figuring out discipleship strategies. All of those things are great and they're good, and they're important.

But take for instance the issue of small groups. I think pretty much everybody I know that's working hard in ministry today wants to encourage small groups, but there's nothing comparable in the New Testament that explicitly says preach the word, "develop small group". They're a means to an end of fellowship and community, discipleship and missional evangelism, all of those things which are wonderful and important, so don't misunderstand. I'm just saying when you actually read scripture and say, "What are we called to do as pastors and leaders in the church?" this is something that is undeniably, emphatically, explicitly and repeatedly impressed upon us. It's not just this verse.

In fact, I did something simple last night. I just went on Bible Gateway and did a search for "preach" and "preaching". I found just shy of 100 passages, 79 in the New Testament alone. Jesus in the gospel of Matthew, just starting out in Matthew chapter four, as we get through the birth accounts it says, "and Jesus began to preach". Then in Matthew 11, "he went from there to preach". Then in Matthew 11 Jesus is describing his ministry and he says, "the poor have the gospel preached to them", or in Matthew 12, "The men of Nineveh did repent at the preaching of Jonah", and he's using that to convict the people in his day who were failing to repent at his preaching.

In Mark and Luke, in the first chapter of the gospel of Mark, "preaching" appears four times. He preached and said, "I must go to other towns to preach there also." He appointed the 12, sent them to preach. They went and preached everywhere. It's all through Acts, all through the epistles. Paul and Barnabas and Peter are preaching. Then Paul in his epistles is asking people to pray for him so that when he preaches he'll preach boldly. Then when he writes to Timothy and Titus he tells them to preach.

It's almost like it's one of those things where it becomes so commonplace that you don't see it unless you're looking for it. As many things that are biblical, it's also practical. Every study I have some examples in your notes. Thom Rainer did a study, which really fits the theme of this group. They studied churches that went through a plateau or a decline and then recovered and began to grow, church renewal. When they did they found in every case one of if not the predominate factors was the preaching of the senior pastor that brought that renewal about, not just that he was a good preacher but that he was preaching in a way that was shaping the renewal. Then Rainer in his book, "Breakout Churches" is what he called that study, he said that this did not surprise him because they had done another study about church planting and found that the same thing was true, that the majority of people coming, being won to Christ and being a part of a new church plant identified the preaching as the most significant thing that brought them to it.

There was just a recent study that I saw, I don't know who did it. It was in Christianity Today. It asked why people choose a church, but it was a little bit more specific than that. It was asking people who had a church background, moved to a new community, why they chose a church. I think that's important because I think this could be different for people that are just far from God and out there in the culture. It said people who had a church background, moved to a new community, the number one thing, which I felt was kind of encouraging, 89% of them said it was the beliefs of the church was why they came to it, but the second, 87% was the preaching of the senior pastor in the worship service. Worship, other aspects, children's ministry even, which I know is super important for young families, all of those things were less in the overall.

Mark Dever in his book "The 9 Marks of a Healthy Church", I'll end with this, he says "of the nine marks of a healthy church the first mark is expositional preaching. It's not only the first mark, it's far and away the most important of them all, because if you get this right all the others should follow." Now, I understand the logic of what he's saying. I think there's many a slip in how that actually works out with real people, but I think his idea is if you're doing solid, powerful, authentic, heartfelt, applicable, expositional preaching then whatever else you're lacking will be surfaced whether it's worship or evangelism. I think those of us who have been in ministry for a while realize that you can have all of that and it still doesn't necessarily mean once you do that sermon on evangelism everybody is going to become an effective evangelist.

I understand the logic of what he's saying. He goes on to say, "This is the crucial mark. If you want to read only one chapter in this book, you've picked the right one. That's the importance of biblical preaching." The question for us is how can pastors who are seeking renewal or church planters who are establishing churches best preach life changing sermons that can speak to both believers and non believers so that we can build the church for the glory of God.

I've put my main points kind of like a sermon into points. Here's the first one. Lay a foundation of core convictions for gospel centered preaching. I love this quote by John Stott, I believe it and it shaped my own life in ministry. He says, "In a world that no longer wants to listen, how can we be persuaded to go on preaching and learn to do so effectively? The essential secret is not mastering certain techniques, but being mastered by certain core convictions."

If you have the conviction, true conviction: I must preach the word in the sense that my preaching must expose what's in scripture, then even if you don't know the techniques you'll find a way to make that happen. If you have the conviction that in your preaching you need to preach in such a way that people understand clearly the implications of what you're saying for their lives, then better than some technique of illustration that conviction will drive you to find a way to communicate that. If you believe that preaching is a God ordained means of grace that can change people's hearts, that it's emphatically given to you in scripture, that this is what you're to do, that it's important that you do it in the way that ... Well, I don't have the verse up there that talks about with patience and endurance and in season and out of season. Then even if you don't feel that you've got a tool belt with all the techniques, you will still have that end in mind that will drive you to find your way to those results.

If that's the case then some of you have already mentioned this, but what would be some of the core convictions that someone preaching for renewal and development of their church, wanting to see preaching as being not just a thing you do but one of the primary ways you shape, guide, lead and change peoples lives, what would be some of the core convictions that you might need? Authentic preaching is kind of a test of faith because you can't just think that you can accomplish it by the words that you've written or the words that you're saying. There has to be this heart deep dependence on the Holy Spirit to work.

I mean, on our best days the reality is we're going to have a congregation, I know I've said this a lot if you've had my classes, you've got however many people you've got that represents real families, real crisis, real lost people. Sure, God is sovereign but he's working through human instrumentality. On our best we're like the boy with the loaves and fishes. What I bring, how is it going to feed these hearts? How is it going to fix that brokenhearted person that's about to walk out of their marriage or give up on their future, or come to Christ? We can't do that. The greatest preachers historically who wrote about this, when you think about people like Charles Spurgeon, they always talked about dependence on the Holy Spirit.

You're like Elijah who builds the altar and pours the water on it. Then you step back and depend. Unless God lights the fire, nothing powerful. That's one core conviction. For me, in my church the way I apply that is I try to think about it all through the preparation. You're going to see later on when I give you kind of a trajectory for sermon preparation where it begins. Also, every Saturday night we have Saturday night service, Sunday morning, I'm in the front row worshiping before I preach. Part of what I'm doing is not only worshiping, but in that worship depending on the Holy Spirit. Everybody can have their own different personal disciplines for reminding you to go there, but it's crucial. That's one: dependence on the Holy Spirit.

What would be another core conviction, which if you are mastered by it, it will help you be a better preacher? Loving others. Have any of you ever read the book by Jack Miller called Outgrowing the Ingrown Church? There's a place where he talks about preaching by faith. Back in those days he used to actually sit on the platform in a chair during the worship. I don't think many of us do that anymore. He would look out at the people and think about God's love for them.

What else? Faith in the word of God. I believe that there are many voices, and there is a lot of ineffective preaching, but there are some voices that tell us preaching isn't effective. It's more important to get one on one with people and all of that. I'm all for all of that, but I believe we should go into the pulpit every opportunity to minister the word of God with great faith. Jesus and Paul and Peter and others, they preached to large groups of people and lives were changed and the Holy Spirit worked and decisions were made.

I just read this story of a famous evangelist. There was a whole chain of the revival that took place in Korea in the 1900s, it went back to this missionary who was influenced by this other missionary who in a sermon was called to the mission field and responded in prayer at the invitation of a sermon. Out of that came this string of people that led to this humongous revival in the 1900s in Korea.

I think there are a lot of different things we could talk about that would be good. I think another one, you said humility or humbleness, I think another one that goes with that and we're going to talk about a little bit later on is hard work. Sometimes people think, "Well, I if have a gift for speaking I ought to be able to just do it pretty easily", but Paul talks about laboring. I think to preach well, certainly in today's culture, the other side of that humility is a willingness to work hard at it.

Well, lay a foundation. I want to focus. If you look in your notes there's a verse from Colossians, Colossians chapter one, verse 28. "We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ." I want to talk about a core conviction for a little while, which is the core conviction that in our preaching we proclaim him. Whether we're admonishing or teaching with all wisdom, it's still him that we're proclaiming in some sense. The result or the goal is that we may present everyone perfect in Christ.

Corporate Worship Services (Worship Series 6 of 6)

In this final article, our focus is on a few principles and practices undergirding corporate worship services. This list is far from comprehensive. Rather, it's meant to explain some practical ways all worship services can be more edifying to people and honoring to God.

Sabbath Rhythm in Worship

To worship the one true God (1st Commandment) in a true way (2nd Commandment) that brings honor to his name (3rd Commandment), we must remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy (4th commandment).

         To keep the Sabbath Day holy means to set the day aside “for the Lord.” We set the day aside from all other ordinary days by stopping our work so we can focus more on God in worship as the source of all blessing in life. This weekly rhythm of the Sabbath Day helps us keep remembering and worshipping God as our creator and redeemer. (Exod 20:11, Deut 5:15, Exod 31:13)

         The 4th Commandment instructs us to not only rest on one day but also to work for six days. However, this doesn’t mean these six days are to be without worship. From Genesis 1 onward, humans have the task of bringing honor and glory to God in worship through carrying out his will on the earth in service.

         So, our corporate worship services on the Lord’s Day should inspire and instruct our personal worship in all of life during the rest of the week. Likewise, our personal worship in all areas of life, on Monday through Saturday, should inspire and culminate in our corporate worship on the Lord’s Day.[1]

         God builds this sabbath rhythm of corporate and private worship into his created order for his glory and for our good (Isa 58:13-14). To gather with God’s people to worship on the Lord’s Day is both our solemn duty and joyful privilege.

Gospel-Remembering

The gospel of Jesus Christ is at the center of biblical worship. It's an announcement about something God has done in history. It's the good news that the Father’s creation, ruined by the Fall, is being redeemed by Christ and restored by the Spirit into the kingdom of God.

         Therefore, the good news of who Jesus is and what he has done is at the heart of God-honoring worship. What separates Christianity from all other religions is that God has revealed in Scripture not only who he is, his personal attributes, but also what he does, his acts in history. Author James White says, “For Christianity, the ultimate meaning of life is revealed not by universal and timeless statements but by concrete acts of God.”

         Just as God meant for the Exodus event to be central in Israel’s worship in the Old Testament, so God means for the events surrounding the person and work of Jesus Christ to be central in our worship today.

         Israel’s worship celebrated their deliverance from captivity under an evil ruler in Egypt and how God brought them out of slavery and led them through the desert into the promised land. As this story is re-told and re-lived again and again in Hebrew worship, the people of Israel find purpose and power to live out this story in their personal lives.

         In the Christ event we see the fulfillment of the Exodus event. Jesus is the Lamb of God prefigured in the Passover. Through his blood we are delivered from our slavery to sin so we can one day enter the Promised Land of eternal life with God in a new heavens and new earth.

         As this story is re-told and re-lived again and again in Christian worship, we find purpose and power to align our life purpose with God’s.

Means of Grace

At the center of God-honoring worship is the ordinary means of grace given to us in prayer, the preaching of the Word, and the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper.

         By his Holy Spirit, God uses common things in worship like human speech, water, bread, and wine to do a work of grace in our hearts as we draw near to Christ in faith.

         The grace we receive by the Holy Spirit through baptism and the Lord’s Supper is the same grace we receive through prayer and the preaching of the Word. But unlike prayer and preaching, the sacraments use our sight, taste, touch, and smell to enhance our experience of the gospel as we feed spiritually on Christ by faith.

         The Apostle Paul presents the Lord’s Supper to us as a multisensory preaching of the gospel to God’s people: “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes” (1 Cor 11:26). However, the Lord’s Supper is not an end in itself. Instead, it is to be administered alongside the preaching of the Word.

         In the early church, preaching and the Lord’s Supper went hand in hand. In Acts 2:42 we see that the first Christians devoted themselves to the Apostles’ teaching, fellowship, breaking bread (Lord’s Supper), and prayer.

Liturgy and Order

Christian liturgy is a pattern used in corporate worship. Although people usually refer to more traditional worship as liturgical, every worship service, including the most non-traditional, follows some kind of pattern.

         In the Old Testament, God gave Israel a calendar of dates during which they celebrated God’s great acts of redemption and salvation. For example, the Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles. God also gave Israel the Psalms as their inspired hymnal.

         New Testament worship practices came from the Jewish synagogue liturgies that had a particular pattern, including memorized prayers. Early church Christians prayed “the prayers” recited by the Jews (Acts 2:42), gathered on the first day of the week for the Lord’s Supper (Acts 20:7), took up financial collections for the poor (1 Cor 16:2), and sang psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs (Eph 5:19, Phil 2:6-11, 1 Tim 3:16 ).

         Some people draw on worship patterns from encounters people had with God in the Old Testament (Isaiah 6) and Israel’s covenant renewal ceremonies. Examples include praise, confession, assurance of pardon, Scripture reading, proclamation of the Word, sacraments, and benediction.

         It can also be helpful to draw patterns from our spiritual ancestors in church history who used the Ten Commandments, creeds, confessions, catechisms, responsive readings, etc. in worship.

         But, we must always be cautious against absolutizing historic patterns–doing exactly the same thing every week in exactly the same order, and charging people with being unbiblical merely for suggesting something different.

Undistracted Excellence

We are to use liturgical elements in worship with excellence to help people focus on God. When the Apostle Paul gives instructions about worship liturgy to the church at Corinth, he writes, “But all things should be done decently and in order” (1 Cor 14:40).

         For example, if people can't hear or understand the language spoken or sung, or the instruments used are out of tune, or those leading worship continue making mistakes, the focus in worship will not be on God.

         Likewise, if a vocalist sings like a professional on a concert stage to a small gathering, musicians show off their musical talent, or those leading worship are so dressed up (or down) they draw attention to themselves, the focus in worship will also not be on God.

         The goal is undistracted excellence, so whatever we do in worship we do it all to the glory of God (1 Cor 10:31).

[1] In the New Testament, we find that the early church continued the Old Testament Sabbath rhythm of a weekly day of rest and worship. In Acts 20:7 Luke writes, “On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them.” This seems to be a corporate worship gathering that includes the Lord’s Supper and learning from the Apostle Paul. Later, when Paul writes the Corinthians, he refers to a collection of money that he is taking up for the poor believers in Jerusalem: “On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come” (1 Cor 16:2). Again, it seems that the first day of the week is the day when followers of Jesus regularly gather for worship.

Wholehearted Worship (Worship Series 5 of 6)

Jesus’ disciples didn’t follow the legalistic worship traditions of the religious leaders. As a result, the leaders complained to Jesus, “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders” (Matt 15:2)? Jesus’ response must have surprised them:

 So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God. You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. (Matt 15:6-9)

            Later, a religious expert in the Scriptures tried to trick Jesus with this question, “What is the greatest commandment?” Jesus’ answer does not refer to laws regarding how people should worship or even to the ten commandments. Instead, he answers by saying:

 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets”.(Matt 22: 37-40)[1]

            Jesus’ responses show us that true worship is not about our outward behavior but the inward motivation of our heart.

            Earlier we examined the biblical perspective by answering the question “What should we do in worship?” Then we looked at the cultural perspective answering the question “How should we do these things in worship?”

            But if we only think of worship in terms of outward religious practices, we miss the most important thing–worshiping God with our whole heart. In Scripture, the heart describes the core inner life of a person. The heart includes our understanding, affections, and decisions. Worship that is wholehearted engages all three.

Deep Understanding

Wholehearted worship involves deep understanding. God calls us to worship him by engaging our minds. Jesus commands us: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matt 22:37).

            One way we love God is by loving the truth about God found in his Word. The Apostle Paul describes those who are perishing as those who “refused to love the truth and so be saved” (2 Thess 2:10). The Psalmist teaches that God’s law reflects the character of God himself and is sufficient to make us wise and train us in righteousness. (Ps 19:7-8, 2 Tim 3:15-17)

            Therefore, in the first century, Sabbath worship in the Jewish synagogue included a public reading from the Law and the Prophets followed by a word of encouragement for the people. It wasn’t enough for the people to hear the Scriptures read, they also needed someone to help them understand the Scriptures. This is why, in Acts 13, the leaders asked Paul to give them a “word of encouragement” following the public reading of Scripture (Acts 13:15-16a).

            After standing up, Paul delivered a sermon showing in the Old Testament Scriptures the good news that Jesus is the promised Seed, the long-awaited Son of David, and the Savior of both Jews and Gentiles. (Acts 13:16b-41)

            Paul understands the need to engage and renew people’s minds with God’s Word in worship. Therefore, he writes, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind” (Rom 12:2a). He also says, “We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ” (2 Cor 10:5).

            To renew our minds, we must “hear the word of the Lord” (Acts 13:44), and this requires that “the word of God be spoken” to us (Acts 13:46a). This is because “faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Rom 10:17).

            Since Paul could not give his personal “word of encouragement” following the reading of Scripture in all the churches, his letters were later distributed to them for public reading (1 Thess 5:27, Col 4:16, 2 Pet 3:15-16).[2] At the end of his life, Paul issues a solemn, final challenge to Timothy, his son in the faith, to preach the word:

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus … preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. (2 Tim 4:1-4)

         God calls us to worship him by engaging our minds as we receive the preaching of the word in worship.

Profound Affections

Wholehearted worship involves more than engaging our minds with God’s word. It also engages our heart affections. Jesus commands us: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matt 22:37). Notice how the Psalmist describes his worship experience:
 

• “I pour out my soul.” (Ps 42:4)

• “To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.” (Ps 25:1)

• “My soul, makes its boast in the Lord.” (Ps 34:2)

            The Psalmist doesn’t tell us to understand or believe the Lord is good, but to “taste and see that the Lord is good!” (Ps 34:8) Scripture instructs us to “delight in the Lord” (Ps 37:4). The Bible portrays our heart affections as more than mere emotions. Affections are our underlying core motivations that compel us toward something or someone.

            Examples in Scripture of pouring out our soul and worshiping God with the fullness of our affections include expressing the whole range of human emotions from ecstatic joy to agonizing lament.

1. “Let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire” (Heb 12:28b-29).

2. “Our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy” (Ps 126:2).

3. “Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling” (Ps 2:11).

4. “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb 4:16, 10:19, 13:6).

5. “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” (Is 6:5).

6. “But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, ‘Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord’” (Luke 5:8).

            Our affections and emotions are not an end in themselves but should be aimed toward the Triune God for who he is and what he does in his acts of creation and redemption in Christ. With this aim in mind, it can be biblical and honoring to God to use the emotional power of words in worship liturgy, including prayers, preaching, and hymns, to help move people away from idols and help them set their affections and emotions on God.

Intentional Behaviors

God calls us to worship him by engaging our whole being, including our mind, our affections, and our behaviors. So wholehearted worship involves not only deep understanding and profound affections but also intentional behaviors.

            Following his exposition of the gospel in the first eleven chapters of Romans, Paul exhorts his readers: “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship” (Rom 12:1).

            In Romans 12:1 Paul refers to our physical bodies, not our souls. In the next verse, Romans 12:2, he refers to our minds. How does our body become a living sacrifice and our spiritual worship? By reflecting our behaviors rooted in the renewal of our minds and hearts by the mercies of God found in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul describes some of these behaviors in the rest of Romans 12, including using our gifts to love and serve others in the body of Christ.

            Since God creates us with souls and bodies, and because Christ redeems not only our souls but also our bodies at the final resurrection, Christianity is a physical religion.[3] Correcting those who think of Christianity as primarily spiritual and not physical, C. S. Lewis writes:

 
Our new life is spread not only by purely mental acts like belief, but by bodily acts like baptism and Holy Communion. It is not merely the spreading of an idea … God never meant man to be a purely spiritual creature. That is why he uses material things like bread and wine to put the new life into us. We may think this rather crude and unspiritual. God does not: He invented eating. He likes matter. He invented it.[4]

            Therefore, biblical worship engages not only our souls but also our bodies. In fact if we don’t engage our bodies in worship, our souls cannot be engaged as God designs. This is why Scripture describes many physical acts in worship, including:

• Praying out loud (Acts 4:23-31)

• Eating and drinking the Lord’s Supper (1 Cor 11)

• Singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs (1 Cor 14:26, Eph 5:)

• Falling on your face (Gen 17:3, Neh 8:6, Ezek 1:28, Rev 4:9-10, 5:8, 14)

• Shouting (Ps 71:23, 81:1)

• Bowing down (Exod 34:8, Ps 5:7, Is 66:23, Zeph 2:11)

• Clapping (Ps 47:1, 98:8)

• Dancing (2 Sam 6:14, Ps 149:3, 150:4)

• Raising hands (Ps 28:2, 63:3-4, 68:31, 88:9, 119:48, 134:2, 141:2, 143:6, 1 Tim. 2:8)

• Offering gifts (1 Cor. 16:1, Phil. 4:18)

• Encouraging one another (1 Cor 14, Heb. 10:25, Rom. 16:16, 1 Cor 16:20)

God calls us to love and worship him with our whole being, and that must include our bodies.

[1] The second Great Commandment is from Lev. 19:18.

[2] These letters make up almost a third of the New Testament.

[3] D. Martyn Lloyd Jones writes, “You cannot isolate the spiritual from the physical for we are body, mind, and spirit. D. Martyn Lloyd Jones, Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Cures.

[4] C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (1952; Harper Collins: 2001) 63-64.