I need to uh open it up and let you ask any questions at this point so it's just not all me but during the break different guys come up and we talk and probably a couple things would be helpful for me to say that that I feel like I need to say one if you're working while you're going to Seminary you're not in sin okay I I I don't I don't want to give that impression um that was me uh I was a single guy I did not have a wife to provide for I did not have children to provide for as a single guy I could just beg my way you know I could just show up at someone's house at night for a meal uh and literally invite myself in and so um if I had been married and then on top of that if IID had children as some many of you do then there are the responsibilities that come with that and if a man does not provide for his own household he's worse than an Infidel so just to balance this whole thing out I I don't mean to give that impression and the one who came up didn't take it that way but I I I don't want to anyone to have a feeling of guilt unnecessarily for me it was all about priorities and and for me it was all about why why am I on this Earth and what am I supposed to do with my life and what started out as a good thing for me became um a bad thing and in and of itself it was an aoral thing um but it was too much of a good thing and it and it just took over my life and I needed to get back to the basics and the all saying the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing and now if in any way any of you feel that hey maybe I do need to make a midcourse correction then that's between you and the Lord but not based upon me that would be based upon What the Lord Has for your life second thing uh a very good question was asked about uh as we preach and it's Christ centered uh to what extent do we take that and you know there there's some people who tell us that Christ is in every verse in the Bible I I I don't think Christ is in every verse in the Bible they point to Luke 24 and the road toas and Jesus showed himself to them in all the scripture and my response to that was well EMAs was just down the road I mean you know I mean they weren't walking to the North Pole and and and we had five months now to talk about this I don't know the exact number of miles it was to amus at that point but um it it didn't there wasn't that much time to go through every verse of the Old Testament okay it was hitting the high points um but one way that even in texts where Christ is not directly mentioned in our preaching nevertheless Christ can become the example on how this has worked out in our lives Christ can be the illustration for what this would look like in my life Christ can be the wisdom for how this would be applied in my life Christ can be the grace that is necessary for me to fulfill what this proverb requires or what this text in an obscure text in the Old Testament scripture I mean Christ is always at my right hand as I preach he is always seated at the right hand of the pulpit and he is always within arms length in fact the Scots used to say there need to be two in the Pulpit the priest prer and Christ and Christ in the the preacher but we are always uh using Christ for application Christ for illustration Christ for motivation Christ for um Power Christ for Grace Etc so those are two things that that I that I wanted to mention uh let me just open it up on what we've talked about to this point if anyone like to ask a question or has a thought um yes yeah just a follow question yeah I just recently preached Psalm 1 and there's not a there's not there's not a direct reference to Christ there's just a contrast between the Godly and the ungodly yeah and given that the gen's wisdom Literature Like is Christ the example like is he the the psalm one man or like do do we fall under the category of the wicked where we're Sinners and judgment's coming upon us and Christ we could receive you know the blessings of how would you go about that yeah that's a great question and Psalm 1 is so preach I mean it's placed there for a reason wasn't the first Psalm written but it's placed there number one well uh several things uh I would want to begin by looking at the New Testament to see what are obvious uh fulfillments uh first of all in Psalm 1 there's the way of the righteous and the way of the of the wicked and Jesus says in John 14: six I am the way and the truth and the life so Christ is this way this this narrow path that is being laid out in in Psalm 1 that's very carefully defined uh second Christ is the lawgiver uh the one who meditates on his law day and night will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water and so Christ is the author of this law and so it is his commands and his precepts and his instruction um second or third um Christ is the very center of the law and the law is pointing to Christ um fifth um the one who meditates on his law be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water uh Spurgeon says in treasury of David at that point on Psalm 1 that that is a beautiful picture of regeneration that this tree didn't start out here this tree was transplanted and and moved here this tree was previously living someplace else and by comparison with Jeremiah 17 wherever that is um it was once living as a bush in a desert in a Wilderness but now it's planted by streams of water and that is the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and that is the power to save of the Lord Jesus Christ uh I would also say sixth or seventh um as Jesus begins his public Ministry the very first word um that we have coming from his mouth in the first sermon of which we have the record of The Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:3 blessed are the poor in spirit uh blessed are they who mourn blessed are the meek blessed are they hunger and thirst for righteousness Psalm 1:1 how blessed is the man uh who does not walk in the counsil of the wicked stand in the path of centers sit in the seat of scoffers um I think that there is an obvious illusion here between Psalm 1 the beginning of the Salter and Christ uh the beginning of his public preaching Ministry uh he's come to bring not cursing he's come to bring blessing even John 3:17 says that that he's come not to to judge but to save the inevitable result of not receiving a Salvation is you will be judged by him but but even at TI and I think you could go on even the Judgment of the wicked um will be by Christ every knee will bow every tongue will confess uh John 5 all judgment has been committed by the father to the hands of the son um and when the the the wicked will not stand in the judgment it will be before Christ um before whom they will stand um so I I I think that yeah that that we would preach Christ from Psalm 1 though he is not directly mentioned or named in Psalm 1 but as we put our arms around the New Testament um we we we have I think great license and and and Liberty in fact obligation uh to preach Christ so that that's a great question and um we all need to go out and preach Psalm one um what a great Psalm that is I when I spoke at uh the graduation for the Master's College uh I preached Psalm one I just just love that that Psalm yes with regard to the uh issue of calling a lot of guys really kind of unsure their calling how would you how would you go about explaining or or helping them come to the conclusion or have some clarity on on the issue yeah yeah and I and I realize there there is some subjectivity uh to that again I I don't want to put anyone on a under a a cloud of guilt although I do want to motivate and I do want to to urge uh and to exhort and those who are called to preach the words that I said I hope would be wind in their sails and and urge them on and those not called to preach here that it would even be a a caution not to to lay hands on that to which they have not been called um to to help the clarity of it um meaning whether or not one is truly called to preach um first of all i' i' I'd go to the library and Xerox that chapter out of lectures to my students and anytime I have a young man young man in our church come by and talk to me I have my secretary just Zer rocks that and hand it to them and read this come back and we'll talk um I I think that's one thing I think also if there is a desire to preach I think the more that you preach there will be confirmation or I don't think that is what I'm supposed to do but as as long as you're just reading about it talking about it thinking about it I think there will always be some uncertainty that it's not until you jump into the pool can you really um have Clarity on this and I I remember the first time I preached and it it was it was the most bizarre of circumstances and I had no idea I would preach I was in the service and the pastor calls me out to come up to preach and and and I I was so flabbergasted hardly even knew what to say and it was just a in a very unusual set of circumstances to say the least but and I had such a fear of public speaking I would have never done that except Providence really just threw me into the the mix of it but I I remember when it was over it it was was like wow that I I mean I it's almost like that line out of Chariots of Fire when I run I feel his pleasure and I mean I sense God's pleasure that I was a round Peg and a round hole that I I was doing something that I wanted to do more of and that I would have never done it if I hadn't been thrown into this um it could have been the other way it could have been once in it I'll never do this again so I I think you have to put your toe in the water a little bit to see is this what I'm called of God to do or not called of God to do but until you do it would be hard to have full clarity in your mind but that's a great question yeah yes yeah I was going to ask about expositional preach and topical sermons can um a topical sermon be Exposition can a topical sermon be Exposition yes um yes there is a topical expository sermon uh for example you could preach um a sermon on repentance and you could go to eight different passages of scripture you know four from the Old Testament four from the New Testament one from John the Baptist one from Christ one from Peter one from Paul and in that sense that's a topical message in that you are addressing a topic you're bringing the full counsel of God to Bear upon this one topic that's a very biblical expository message what you must do is you just must actually exposit those individual verses as you come to them now obviously you cannot give as much historical background and do as many word studies and etc etc as you would if you were only preaching that one particular verse but like pearls put onto one strand to make a necklace so all these different texts can be strung together to make a very beautiful god-honoring Christ exalting expository sermon some of the greatest series that MacArthur has done here U have been topical expository series I mean he's done a series on how to glorify God and tied together 11 different uh passages that speak in different ways on how to glorify God and we glorify God by confessing Christ we glorify God by believing upon uh upon Christ we glorify God but um by obedience we glorify God by suffering I mean he just strung all those together so that's a legitimate expository message and uh I I think what Spurgeon did for the most part can be called expository in those messages where he would take a passage and and open it up and a slightly different nuanced than than we would and sometimes he would go too far with almost allegorizing although everything that he said was true it just didn't come from that verse um but worse things could happen to us than we end up being Spurgeon um you know so the key is that it's biblical and and that you explain and show in a logical ordered fashion As you move from text to text to text I try to like let's just say it's um it is repentance to to take those verses in the order in which they're found in scripture to help give a a coherent logical progression of thought is one way to do it chronologically sequentially um through the scripture but yes and I think Dr bunit has given it Shepherd's conference a u workshop on the topical expository uh sermon now that's a that's a great question uh James mcgomery Boyce some some of the his greatest sermons were topical expository messages and he's known for preaching through Ro preaching through Romans preaching through John preaching through Genesis preaching through the Psalms but he also like that book foundations of the Christian faith he preached through um Calvin's um Institutes of the Christian religion and just took those main headings but you know would preach Systematic Theology um that that can be done in in an expository fashion not be um tradition well what would not what would what would be topical but not expository okay would be to preach the culture uh to preach politics uh to preach a book review uh to preach um morality uh to preach anything that does not originate out of the word of God does not St with the word of God and does not end up in the word of God um so there's a lot of political pro-america messages that are not expository um and some would even like read a passage but just rip it out of context and and do Injustice and so in that sense it's not expository because it's not a true explanation of a passage of of scripture I think a lot of of the emphasis on just the culture today is just pulled out of thin air it's it's not pulled out of really texts of scripture that have a historical setting and what that what was the authorial intent and how did those recipients take and understand that message so um I I think you know I I I can remember when I was in college hearing a a a Baptist preacher preaching on like a movie he had just seen and using that as an allegory of you know Christian Life and I mean it had no basis in in scripture whatsoever so anyway yes sir can you talk about the role of Prayer in your personal consecration well um sure um I mean it's it's just being alone with God God and I I Tred to take um you know Matthew 6 that General outline of progression as Jesus taught his disciples how to pray and to pray through um those main headings um as well as take various Psalms and just pray verse by verse through those psalms um as well as to pray pray through my sermon notes um and preach them to my own heart and confess to God where it's not there as well as uh live in a sense of desperation before God uh needing his grace to do the things that I'm about to do um as well as afterwards giving glory to God and giving thanks to God for those things that he has done as well as keeping short lists of things that you would repeatedly pray for um as well as because I spent so much of my life preparing messages um that pray for illumination and Enlightenment as Paul prayed for the Ephesians and the just that they would come to understand that I need to understand uh and there those verses in Psalm 119 um so you know that would be just in general in overview yes sir how would you approach impromptu sermons MH meaning not time for Preparation right you weren planing to preach yeah sure sure and I'm sure in the Providence of God there there are times that we find ourselves in those situations uh a couple things number one I think it requires that you draw from a deep well that you have been digging digging digging into scripture such that if called upon you know someone could open a a Bible and put it in front of you and you begin to give explanation and application of that passage um you know there there have been a few times in my Ministry because of emergencies that I've had to um like on a Wednesday night you know preach with virtually no preparation simply because of a death or something like that and I will say God gives extraordinary Grace in those situations and quickness of mind and even to the point that my my wife and children said I ought to do it more often and you know it's like I'm the one up on the tight wire you're down in the seats I mean that's no way to live doing this without a safety net and you know and they're taping you as well um so you wouldn't want to live that way but I think you need to be ready to to to to die that way um to do that and and we we do find ourselves at times I mean I I'll be on the road and someone would you mind coming and speaking to this group as long as you're here and and you want to be used and so there there are times I've found myself in that position and and I think that I I have felt extraordinary freedom and some ways there there are some pluses uh as far as eye contact as far as the the the pace with which you speak um and not being sometimes overly structured uh and a natural development of thought and a natural progression of thought and when you are spontaneous sometimes you're more IC um um so those you know are some things that you know come to mine and I I've have certainly done that um I I I just couldn't do that on an ongoing basis and for there to be depth of ministry but I I I think it's almost more like the the dessert you you can't LIF all live off dessert but you know you want the meat and the potatoes but there's a time and a place for the dessert and there there can be a time and a place for that and I can go with that yeah as you preach verse by verse um and you come across a passage which relates to an area which you're struggling with in your own life how do you approach that you mean as far as uh personal growth and development I just have to preach it anyway I mean if I waited until I'm perfect in order to preach a text I'll never preach and and I just have to preach that first to the Lord in prayer that God you know and I know that my life has not been all that it should be I mean I I just preached I think 21 sermons on First Corinthians 13 and there's 15 Virtues Of Love and some more sermons before and after verses 4-7 I I I I promise you every time I walked into that pull but I I I even said it I I'm the last person in the world to be preaching on 1 Corinthians 13 um if this was a text on Justice I'm there this is a text on sound Doctrine I've got it in Spades but you know this kind of love I can't get past love is patient um love is kind um love does not take into account a wrongs suffered love hopes all things Bears all things believes all things I I would just have if if I couldn't preach it until I had all this resolved well first of all Romans 7 tells me I'm never going to have it all resolved and then second um if I had to wait till I had it resolved I would just go from chapter 12 to chapter 14 and the church would know that I'd passed over this I think there's a sanctifying effect in the life of the preacher to have to preach those verses that I'm I'm forced to deal with it in my own life even more so um and I think sometimes we preach even more humbly in those settings in those times and more dependent upon God when the reality is is is not there um in one's life to the extent that you would want it to be now that's not a hall P pass to to um to to to to not deal with things in your life and it's not a free past to to to be living as in immaturity or carnality but I mean you're just going to have to preach on I mean you just can't preach every other chapter in the Bible yes sir how do you manage uh your time with preaching and counseling like what erors do you spend more time with is it counseling or is it preaching yeah think first of all as a general principle I think God has given different gifts to different men and even among those who preach as the pastor teacher and um I I don't do as much counseling as as other pastors um I'm kind of more from the AL Moher School of counseling um he has three questions number one what is your problem number two what does the Bible say number three why are we still [Laughter] talking so it kind of works for me I mean now I realize that there's more to it order to be longsuffering and come alongside and and there are knots to untangle and it's not as simple as that although I think some counseling gets way out of hand and I mean it just becomes a matter of sheer you know are you going to obey God are you not going to obey God are you waiting for a feeling or I I don't know what you're waiting on um but until you come to this point of repentance I I don't know that we have a whole lot to talk about um Thou Art the man so I I don't do as much counseling but that is not to say that pastors shouldn't and that there are others others who do more than I do that's a part of pastoral Ministry most of my counseling really is with other pastors as I travel and as I preach and conferences and whenever I'm picked up at the airport whoever takes me back to the airport whoever drops me off at the hotel whoever greets me at the door I mean I'm just always met with problems and I'm just counseling people and especially pastors and with emails and phones and cell phones and airplanes and most of my counseling is just in in um and more with other pastors and elders and young men going into the ministry but that's just the time in my life it wasn't that way 15 years ago and it wasn't even that way hardly 20 I mean 10 years ago so you know there's a a a shifting of focus of ministry forming by and large I'll just give you a general principle I I would give my mornings to God I'd give my afternoons to men and I would give my evenings to my family and I would try to keep that as rigidly as I can um for me 1 hour in the morning is worth three hours in the afternoon so I want to give God the best hours of the day not the leftovers and I don't want to give give man the best hours I want to give God the best hours the most important strategic thing for me to do in the life of this church is to preach the word of God and so I give my mornings to God and I don't answer phone calls I don't answer emails I don't even have a computer so I mean I'm locked up with God and I can be reached but it needs to be like you're about to jump off of a building and and unless you talk to me you're going to jump um and I'll send my wife [Laughter] and um usually with people um this problem didn't happen overnight and it's not going to be solved overnight and so you know the Tyranny the Urgent is usually not that um things have a way of working themselves out with time also um and then I would give my afternoons to to me to meeting with people to counseling to staff meetings to return phone calls to write letters to etc etc to plan meetings to be in meetings to be in committees and do that in the afternoon and whenever there's a block of time then give it to God and then give your evenings to your family you're going to be gone on Sunday night anyway and probably on Wednesday night and Saturday night you're kind of not you know all there you know with your family when you are there and so that just leaves you know four other nights um so I I just try to give my family those evenings but I'm I'm pushing it hard in the mornings and in the afternoons that's just a general you know layout some people study better at night and you know they're not as sharp in the morning and usually that's in your Youth and the older you become the more you become a morning person but I I became a morning person early on just out of necessity I I just had to because of all that I was doing so I don't know if that's helpful or not I I I think the key is discipline I mean you've got to be disciplined and um I mean that's one thing I think I learned from Athletics and sports that I mean you just have to be disciplined great preachers are dis disciplined great students of scripture great theologians are are disciplined great commentary writers are disciplined um and you know an an athlete tells his body what to do um you you don't allow your appetites or your tiredness or whatever to dictate to you you dictate to your body you push yourself and I realize that we run by grace and not just self-will but um I I think that 1 Timothy 4:7 and8 discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness um that's a key factor um the busiest man I know is John MacArthur um you know he's just driven he does the work of 20 people does the word of 30 work of 30 people uh and part of it is discipline and drive and dedication and determination so I it's kind of like a secret is there's no secrets I mean you just have you just do it by God's grace of course when you were in seminary and when you started out in Ministry you were the preaches that influenced you the most yeah well when I was in seminary I would say the two greatest Baptist preach ERS over the last 100 years I sat under both of those men would sit on the front row and just listen to them preach the first would be Adrien Rogers from Bellevue Baptist Church I was the first young man to sent out into the ministry under his preaching at Belleview I I bear the stamp and the imprint of his preaching um I still have never heard a stronger gospel preacher than Adrien Rogers if if you ever can listen to any of his tapes get the early years I mean every Sunday morning every Sunday night every Wednesday night I mean it was Heaven come down it was powerful and I learned from him what it I'd never sat under biblical preaching so that's what it would look like to work through a passage of scripture that's what an outline would look like that's what exhortation would sound like that's what it would feel like that's what a a gospel appeal would sound like the other was W chrisell who was at First Baptist in Dallas and you know when MacArthur's 35th Anniversary here at Grace I mean there there was no one else they could invite who had such a stature to bring in for his 35th Anniversary but wa chrisell and I mean people still talk about the sermon that he preached um that Sunday um so those two men left uh a very strong impact on my life for preaching and a love for God's word um at the same time I was I was in seminary I would I would go to two two church services on Sunday morning I'd go to the early service to hear chrisell I get my car and then go and hear a man named es Lewis Johnson at a church called Believers chapel and that was the first time I had ever sat under verse by verse sequential theological doctrinal Exposition through books in the Bible with with grammatical syntactical care and and so God Was preparing me and positioning me to have emphasis on preaching but then the emphasis on Exposition and then immediately after after that came under the influence of Dr MacArthur and and and his powerful exposition of scripture and back then I I said I'm just like a halfway house between this strong preaching and then this very careful exegetical theological Exposition and then I had two other influences um James mcgomery Boyce actually came and preached for me as a young man on two different occasions and preached through Romans Romans 1-4 and then Romans 5 through 8 in my church and I ate every lunch and every dinner with him and then flew up to Philadelphia and he had an enormous influence on my life as a young man and and that was a slightly different style of exposition with that a structured outline but a very homiletically pleasing presentation and very theological and then when I went to get my dmen degree um I had just read the Holiness of God by RC Sproul and I found out he was at Reformed Theological Seminary so that's where I went to study just so I could take every class that he offered and sit under Dr Sproul and and God's goodness became a a a friend of his um and so those six influences two Baptist two independent and two Presbyterian um and and I and I think this um I think if only one preacher is influencing you it's going to lead to an imbalance and I don't think you'll ever grow and reach your maturity I think you need multiple influences and examples and and there are things to learn from each man and the old saying you eat the meat and spit out the bones and there there are things that you take and things that you that you do not emulate if you only have one man you'll just end up emulating everything but there there needs to be a crosssection and and I think that you know even Paul says imitate me as I imitate the Lord that there are Godly men who are given as examples that uh we do well to to draw from those influences so you know I'm very grateful to say that I I knew all six of those men and had a direct influence from them on my life and I feel a real sense of accountability with what has been entrusted to me in that kind of a cloud of witnesses with regards to compulsion to preach how will you um encourage or challenge those preachers who wants to to spend more time in preaching and less in studying how would I challenge men who want to spend more time in preaching and less time in study well I mean you you you can't preach without studying I mean if you did you would just be hot air um I mean there there would be no depth to your preaching um leaders are readers and the day you stop learning is the day you stop leading it's the day you stop living it's the day you stop really preaching um I can't imagine for example if you just preach the same thing over and over and over and over and over I mean it's kind of like being a John 3:16 preacher I mean I love that verse but you you couldn't preach that every Sunday for the rest of your life um you you you would become shallow even with a profound verse like that and and so you would be doing your church an inser an injustice you would be doing yourself an injustice um a as we broaden our study I mean we're expanding our own heart and our own knowledge of God um in some ways I do my best study as I know I'm about to preach and I retain and remember what I preach sometimes I just read things and I forget it but as I've had to mark it up underline it write it cut and paste it highlight it Arrow it internalize it pray over it and then stand up and preach it and then people come up and are saved by it or encouraged by it I mean it has a way of just sealing it to your own heart that that that you own this now um and so if you were just only preaching without studying I think you would be very shallow yeah yes sir what have you done for uh what's been your greatest encouragement when You Face frustration or discouragement yeah my greatest encouragement when I face frustration or discouragement well you know I I I can be discouraged um my wife is a straight line and I'm a a roller coaster and when I'm up I'm things are like seem better than what they really are and when I'm down I mean things are like worse than what they really are and it's like Spurgeon said of reading the Psalms he said I've never been so high but that I read in the Psalms David was yet higher in his praise for God and he said but I've never been so discouraged but that David was not lower than me also um I I I think the more I focus upon the word of God um concentrated study of the word of God um the more I preach I'm encouraged as I exercise my gift uh I'm encouraged as I read church history and read Christian biography to see that everyone without exception whom God ever used in a great way was faced with great adversity and great trial um and that no one whom God has used greatly has ever had an easy life um so I'm encouraged to read William Tindale I'm encouraged to read Calvin Luther I I I'm encouraged to read you know men that that uh in fact one time when I I probably the most discouraged I've ever been in the ministry I just rearranged all the books in my library and and I just gathered all my church history books and I moved them right behind my desk just so I could just Reach Out And Touch them and it was like for me and it was just in my mind but it was though they were looking over my shoulder as I studied and as I prayed and you know Jonathan Edwards one of his resolutions was to think of the death of the martyrs constantly and it it has a a a maturing effect it has a sobering effect it also has a way of putting things in right perspective I've never had a bad day I mean compared to the death of the martyrs uh I've never been strapped to a steak I've never had my children pulled away from me I've never heard the crackling of the wood around me I've never smelled my own flesh burning um I've never had gunpowder tied around my neck um I've never had the hangman hangman's noose brought out um so even my very discouraging times in Ministry need to be put in right perspective um also preaching through the Psalms um I I I see times of great discouragement in David's life and beginning as early as Psalm 3 and Psalm 4 at the at the very outset and um that I I see how he worked through it and he begins so low and ends up so high from the beginning to the end of of one Psalm and um you know Lloyd Jones's book on spiritual depression uh is written from his reading of Psalm 42 um and needing to preach to your own heart why are you discouraged oh my soul have hope in God and I'm strong in preaching to others I I I need to preach to myself I need to proclaim the truth to my own ears silently and hear my own sermons and hear the truth of God's word um that and I I have a iPod that my brother downloaded my favorite hymns onto I I I have 25 versions of A Mighty Fortress Is Our God just back to back to back to back I'm obsessive although he did it but uh so you just listen to 25 versions of A Mighty Fortress Is Our God nonstop for you know two hours and I mean if that doesn't have an effect on you I I I don't know what would um and then to read about Luther's writing of that in 1527 the dark year of his life and the black plague sweeping through Saxony and and people fleeing from vurg and he decides he will stay and his house will become a hospital and his own son almost dying and him figting at the table and repeatedly having being carried to his room and I mean that drives you deeper into the word of God I mean it's one thing to go to the library and study the Bible it's something else to be drowning and to cling to it as the only thing that'll keep your nostrils above water and and so I don't know that has a way of helping and um you know probably some other things as well usually it involves people and people in the church and you just have to consider the source as well I mean a lot of it's people are no bodies at work and they want to come and be somebody at church and nobody will pay attention to them at the church and they're told what to do and the church is the one place that they can you know speak up and act up and but you just have to kind of consider the source who who this is that's saying this and doing this and acting like this I mean if if this wasn't my job and I just walked in I mean you'd be laughing that this person would have any sway over your emotions that helps anything [Laughter] else yes sir what passages Would You Preach to a dead church and what passages that you would not preach to a dead Church well I think we could preach anything to a dead Church all scripture is inspired by God and profitable um well I mean I've preached to a dead Church um you know I came to realize uh a few years ago not my present church but I was pastoring an unconverted church so I mean that's what literally a dead church is is an unconverted church so um they didn't need John 3:16 they had had that every Sunday um I preached first John and the necessary marks of the new birth uh the distinguishing marks of one who is born of God and a dead church has got to come alive in Christ uh to begin with and so um I mean I saw over a hundred adult conversions in one year just among church members um coming to faith in Christ um so preaching first John was um it had power it works in the South you know where everybody thinks they're saved um that there are necessary evidences of the new birth and without these evidences you can be assured you're not saved um and then you said um well and then if a church was just languishing I don't know I might go to the seven letters to the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3 I mean there's some there's some kick in those verses in those those verses and those letters you know from but I have this against you you've left your first love to but I spew you out of my mouth I mean I mean that's just kind of a wakeup call right there and then everything in between but I have this against you you tolerate this woman Jezebel um you have a name but you're dead the church at Sardis so those immediately come to mind plus the demands of discipleship from Christ except a man ha his own father and mother and brother and sister yes even his own life I mean I would want to jolt them a bit off the fence help them see their their lost condition or just their languishing and backsliding uh a right diagnosis is half the Cure uh and help them see where they where they are so my question is on the difference between um a preacher and a pastor uhhuh um aren't all Christians including Layman called to preach regardless their label a pastor or not I I don't think that every person in the body of Christ is called to preach not in a formal way where you stand up first of all women are not allowed to preach to men now they could to other women I think but um not in a formal way of reading the text explaining the text and exhorting with the text um so I I would refer even to Lloyd Jones and his comments on lay preachers Etc um I would want those that the elders have laid hands on uh to be before the church and preaching um tell me the other part of the question that that's yeah okay sure no I I I I think we're all called to witness and we're all called to test ify but I don't think we're all called to stand up before the body of Christ on the Lord's day and take the word of God and to and to assume a posture of spiritual leadership and influence over the entire flock I mean that would be just too much of a of um I don't know what movement that would be but I I I I don't see that in scripture first of all thank you very much for coming and serving us here here um my question is what comments or counsel would you give to a man who finds himself in a church um let's say he's convinced in keeping the main thing the main thing but he's up against opposition to that in the church maybe amongst people who are um in a congregation or perhaps other Elders who don't see the same the ministry of prayer and of the word in the same way that sure that you would be convinced of sure I've lived that I mean i' I've done M Spades at more than one Church um so first of all it's always right to do right and so whatever God would have you to do I mean we're going to have to do it regardless now we may have to be more patient and more longsuffering than we would like to be um we need to remember that we're trying to take this church from where it is to where it needs to be and that's a process and that we're not turning around u a road booat we're turning around a battleship and that's going to take a little bit longer um we could I you know I could go in and be impulsive and make o overthe toop statements and the way I couch the truth and really just cut myself off and so there there there there is wisdom and grace and patience um that is needed but at the same time I would have my strategy uh the first thing I would do would be to have uh a men's bible study and meet on Friday morning or whenever and have all the hot Hearts there and to be reaching them and that's what I've done and um you know while there would be some who would resistant I mean I'm just piling on the coals on other hearts and and and God is building a nucleus and God is building a consensus and if you have strong men who'll stand with you you can withstand a lot and so I I would have a men's bible study and I'd pour myself into that and and it would be we're going to study theology we we're going to study the the the word I mean we're we're going to this is going to be an adult deal this is not going to be a chest pumping male bonding little group here um I mean this is going to be we're going to go down deep in the word and um I I I think that that's one of the greatest things that you could do and then second I I I would keep on preaching systematically through books in the Bible and um I I I literally would plant my flag there and if I die I die and if I live I live um and let let it be what the word of God makes it to be I would also try to be as gracious and endearing and Bridge Building as I can be in relationships to people so I I don't need to be thumping people in the chest or stiff arming them I need to be reaching out putting my arm around them um to help overcome some of this so I I can't have an attitude that kind of thing I'd have people over to my home I would intentionally mix who's coming over and some people people who are really excited about this church what's going on and some people who um can't handle what's going on in this church and let those people hear the excitement uh in a closed setting I mean I I've I've had that in my Den multiple times and it's like I mean what can what can they say when these people are you know I was just saved I just came to Christ we've never seen God this big we've never known such Grace in our lives um you know those are the things that immediately you know come to mind well maybe maybe we ought to hop back in I see we've got an hour and I guess we just did this for an hour so I'm trying to do the math on this um let's do a couple more headings and then we'll take our our break and then we'll finish this off we we go until when 5:30 okay all right five okay we're doing this till 6 it's until five because the national championship game is uh is tonight so no I'm with you I'm I'm with you so uh you know tonight it's it's the Catholics against the cousins okay so the Catholics against everyone that's married among themselves so it's an Alabama joke okay I live there so I can uh do that all right we're talking about what is expository preaching and and honestly before we can even talk about how to do it we need to understand what it is that we're trying to do um and so I'm just trying to lay a foundation maybe taking a little bit longer than than we should but just to remind ourselves what is expository preaching and I I'm reminded too that um I know it's different at this school but I I I did the week of Chapel messages on expository preaching at at a very well-known seminary in our country two years ago and I remember the head of the Systematic Theology Department telling me Steve most of these men have never even sat under expository preaching and this isn't a bad Seminary this is kind of a good Seminary and so they don't even know exactly what it is I mean it's it's a trendy term that they hear um I went in the bookstore and they asked me which book should they have out for the students on expository preaching and I gave my thoughts and I remember the bookstore manager saying I don't think they they'll even know I mean they'll know the name they've just never read them I think these books will just stay in here and we we'll have to return what we've ordered um I know it's different here and this is a more narrowly defined not just in Doctrine but in methodology but I I think we need to be clear when we say the mechanics of preaching um I mean we're not talking about devotional chats we're not talking about spiritual pep talk we're not talking about even lecturing on the Bible we we're talking about expository preaching so it's textual it's trinitarian third it's theological and by theological I mean we mean several things I mean first of all it it it is Gospel centered preaching and in all of the elements that surround the gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ everything from repentance and lordship to the free offer of the Gospel to the narrow gate to the call to deny yourself and take up a cross and follow Christ to Redemption to reconciliation propitiation adoption regeneration justification I mean all of the Glorious soteriological doctrines that that surround and the christological doctrines that surround the very epicenter of what is the one true saving Gospel of Jesus Christ expository preaching is fiercely gospel centered gospel driven and we also need to remember that gospel is good news that we offer good news to people and if they remember us for anything that we are those who have come and offered good news to those who are far away um certainly the ministry of Christ exemplifies that certainly read read through the book of Acts we see that read through the book of Romans second under that heading it's very doctrinal as well not just those doctrines surrounding the gospel but to build that out um we really are theological expositors we are doctrinal expositors we are we are teachers of sound words I we as we work our way through passages we we we extract the gold of of doctrinal Truth out of those texts and we tie it to together with the rest of the Bible on these glorious truths and we show other related doctrines as well that if we preach on Redemption I mean we we we preach on the fall we preach on the curse we we preach on Grace I mean we preach on those other doctrines that make this Doctrine stand out and shine like a powerful Beacon um Paul said until I come give attention to the public reading of scripture to exhortation and teaching um let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor especially those who work hard at preaching Ing and teaching and there is this content of teaching that is very much at the heart of of our expository preaching Titus 2:1 speak the things that are fitting for sound Doctrine so there there's theological clarity about our preaching and then also I would say under that there's a pic Edge to our preaching as well we are refuting sound we are refuting false Doctrine we are exposing false Doctrine and we we are not naive and we do not want our flock to be naive and we we call into account that which is in contradiction to the word of God we are we are Defenders of the truth we are Warrior preachers as came out of Scotland many years ago uh we are known not only for what we Embrace but we are known for also that which we reject and we can't we must have it both uh we can't only just be for for upholding the truth we must also be exposing the LIE now there must be a proper proportion to that and then the fourth thing that I would say after uh theological preaching and and that's why we need to be steeped in Systematic Theology and biblical Theology and even his historical theology sharpens that edge even more um the fourth thing I would say is triumphant preaching we need to be bold we need to be passionate we need to be compelling we need need to be persuasive um the word bold simply means to tell it all all speech that we don't hold back um we are passionate um we we're not monotoned we're not lecturers we are fervent we are zealous uh we are impassioned as we preach there's a fire in our bones um because the truth it it it it's it's not only taught but it's also caught we're to be contagious in our preaching um bugs are drawn to a fire and people are drawn to a fire when it's in right portion when a man is burning for the truth and we are to be compelling when we preach we're not just putting it out there and you can take it or leave it when when we preach we are trying to be as persuasively as we can legitimately be without being manipulative without Crossing that line but we are we are presenting evidence for what we're saying we are building a case so we bring things into the sermon that go beyond just what the word studies are and the grammar in the syntax in that passage we are giving proofs for what we say we we are building our case we are like lawyers presenting evidence and calling witnesses to the stand to testify to the truth we we are continually bringing cross references and and various other passages as well as logic and we we are persuading people of of the truth um and we're trying to win you over to the truth and we are to do it in a in a triumphant way we're we're not to browbeat people we're not to put them on a guilt trip we we are to be upbeat and and triumphant and for them to be swept in to the truth so again I want to say we're we're not just leaving the matter with them um we're we're trying to win you over I mean like a man courting a a young woman and trying to to woo her and and win her over to win her hand um so by way of analogy we're trying to win people to Christ that's what 1 Corinthians 9 says we are to win people to Christ and to win them over in in this we're to be compelling and then finally transformational we we preach for Souls we preach for a harvest what fisherman wants to go off fishing and never catch anything what farmer wants to spend Seasons sewing and tilling and planting and watering and never has a harvest we do this for a reason we we we do all of this that there will be a harvest that there will be fish that will be caught um even so we we we preach that men and women would be dramatically Changed by the word of God so so there's a a bottom line and we we know it's in God's hands we can't save anyone we can't sanctify anyone but we're not passive about it either we're not hyper Calvinists we're Red Hot For The Souls of men and we want people we want their lives to be dramatically changed so therefore our preaching has has certain elements about it that we are we're drawing the net we we're we're not just casting the net we're we're drawing the net how many preachers just State the gospel but they never make an appeal we need to be assaulting the will of people we we we need to be calling them to commitment to Jesus Christ I me we're not like a sto that just has merchandise out but there's no cash resters anywhere you can't ever buy anything around here all we can do is just look at things the church is not a museum for us just to look at truth I mean there're we're to be a narrow gate by which people are entering into the kingdom and and we are to be taking people from where they are to to where they need to grow and what they need to become in their in their spiritual growth and so our preaching comes across in a certain way then as we try to connect with with with people I mean we we are trying to to move you to urge you to bring you along again we're not hyper Calvinists we're we're not waiting for people to first come under conviction of sin and run us down in the parking lot before we say anything you know we're I'm after you I'm after your children I'm after your family I am I'm after your I'm not play acting up here I'm not waiting for you to hold up cards and give me style Point numbers I'm I'm trying to win you to Christ I'm trying to win your family to Christ I'm trying to urge you to Christ I mean listen to Jesus preach come unto me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest enter by the narrow gate for the gate is small and the way is broad that leads to destruction I mean he was he would preach in the imperative mood not just the indicative you get to the imperative and really too many people in our camp are just all indicative you're just encyclopedic you you're just Mr Wikipedia there's no Open Arms there's no open gate Paradise is not open the gates must be swung open and urging people to come through them MacArthur says the preacher needs to be like the lawyer first he calls his Witnesses then he presents his evidence but then he calls for the verdict and too often we don't call for the verdict sometimes We're Just Too Proud to Beg and we're too concerned with Rejection it was said of Jonathan Edward's preaching that in the doctrinal part you know he had the old Puritan headings the doctrine or the text the doctrine and then the application that in the doctrine all he was doing was lining up his guns in the doctrine all he was doing was lining up the cannons in the doctrinal section all he was doing was putting the ammo into the Cannons but it was in the application that he fired those cannons I think too often all we do is line up our little cannons and we never get to fire iring them and connecting it to people's lives so expository preaching let me just say it one more time is not expository lecturing that's another gift that's another office that's another place we need lecturing but lecturing only goes so far lecturing is teaching the choir we've got to get to the to the aspects of preaching yes sir making a verdict you know I know the average thing I think immed thing that comes to mind is like you know calling for a person to raise a hand or something like that oh yeah no I'm not talking about that but like what I'm I'm talking about in your heart yeah so I'm just saying like how does that how does that practically fled out from the pull pit like you just say enter by the Nar gate well I mean how does that work out I mean I don't give a public invitation to get up out of your seat and come forward at the end of the service I mean my whole sermon is that right where you're seated um you move from the indicative to the imperative and sometimes you use the interrogative in between to call for self-examination ation I mean first you state the truth but then you call for commitment to the truth and until you do the bridge isn't built all the way across to where people are so um I mean I mean you teach um I mean last Sunday I preached on heaven and hell I just said it's been too long since I've preached on heaven and hell so I'm I'm preaching today on Heaven and Hell and we all need it I need it you need it and but I I didn't just do word studies on Hades um I mean you have to get to the point where 5 seconds after you die where will you be it's appointed in a man wants to die and after this the Judgment you do realize you have an unbreakable appointment with God two unbreakable appointments with God unless Christ comes first and you're down to one death and judgment those are coming have you made preparation you know you can settle out of court you need an advocate you need someone to represent you and there's only one the Lord Jesus Christ I want you to know he's never lost a case have you committed your life to him and you just begin to ask questions and and so searching and could it be that you're just here because of your spouse could it be that you are a teenager here you've grown up in this church but you've never yet come to own the Lord Jesus Christ as your own Lord and Savior could it be and and then you go from the interrogative to the imperative I call you this day I bear the witness of Heaven believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved this very moment this second give your life to Christ what would hold what prevent you from giving your life to Christ are you waiting for a feeling can you imagine what you'll feel in hell are are are you waiting for tomorrow what a fool you would be if you were to die today while you're waiting for tomorrow tomorrow is the devil's day today is God's day behold now is the accepted time behold today is the day of salvation and and you you you you you begin to hedge people in I mean you you be persuasive with them um it's the way it is in oneon-one witnessing it's it's not just like reading a little booklet like which Circle represents your life which one would you like to represent your life would you be willing to sign the back of this I mean you you you you you you you begin to be persuasive with them can you give me one reason why you would not commit your life to Christ do you realize the offer that's being made to you this moment do you realize you may never have this offer being extended to you again like it is right now now in order to preach like that you've got to do more than read commentaries I mean you've got to do more than word studies I mean you you you you've got to you've got to read great preaching you've got to hear great preaching you've got to sit under great preaching to to even learn how to draw the net in in a way that is biblically right I I I you know go read Spurgeon go read Whitfield go read Robert Murray McShan I I I read a McShan sermon last week and and really my thought was I've never preached a day in my life I've just been Shadow Boxing that's preaching read great preaching it it'll it'll bring it'll elevate your game it it'll it'll it it it will cause you to be dissatisfied with where you are in a good way and and want to reach higher for God as far as greater Effectiveness uh in in preaching so I mean that that's what I would say on that I mean you you've got to hear it you've got to read it you've got to see it but you've got to feel it and if you've never seen it never heard it never felt it then it it's hard to you know to totally I going it be like caning me a computer I I mean I wouldn't even I I would have it upside down and like where do you put the eight track into this and I mean you you've got to see it and hear it and feel it and and know it in order to do it out of nothing nothing comes I mean you you you so that's the value of of drawing from other great preaching you go that's what it sounds like that's what it looks like I mean you're not going to just emulate that but you you take those principles you you take the effectiveness of that and you you you integrate That Into Your Arsenal now I mean I've got a war chest now of ways to come at at it I mean when we get to application I I think later in this outline I think I've got like 20 different approaches all with cross references from scripture on how scripture applies truth I mean we just need to know what what all is in our Arsenal how many arrows do we have in our quiver I mean what can I pull to put into my bow to fire one thing would be helpful just get them all out on the table there there's one sermon by Spurgeon you you've got to read it um it's entitled compel them to come in from Matthew 22 go out to the highways and the byways and compel them to come in I've never preached a day in my life after reading that and he he goes through like eight or nine different approaches like roads up a kill different approaches to urge someone to commit their life to Christ everything from holding before them the grace and the glory of God to threatening them with wrath to the urgency of the moment to just on and on and on and on I mean we're we're just like two onedimensional but we get stuck in a rut and just keep repeating the same words at the end of a of a sermon if we ever even have the appeal in a rut so it expands your repertoire so it's kind of like it's a big world out there of men who have gone before us and who have preached the gospel and been mightily used by God and again this class is about preaching the mechanics of preaching so um you know we need to get to the point of choose you this day whom you will serve for me in my house will serve the Lord well let me let me just conclude Packer despite his goofiness with the gospel itself the true idea of preaching is that the preacher should become a mouthpiece for his text opening it up and applying it those are the those are the two elements we open it up and we apply it think of First Timothy 4: 13 I I think it really matters to to God how his word is preached and I don't think we're free to preach however we want to I I I think that there is a basic overlay a template that scripture gives on how to preach not only not only are we supposed to preach the word but we are to preach the word as the scripture pre prescribes he says until I come give attention to the public reading of scripture that's number one we read the text he says to exhortation and to teaching if I could just flip-flop the order of those last two you read the text you teach the text meaning explain the text and then you exhort with the text we know what exhortation means you know the old parac oh you come alongside with the teaching I'm in the pulpit and I am explaining the authorial intent of this text in the analogy of scripture giving its God intended meaning I am teaching the text and then with the exhortation it's as though I am walking out of the pulpit and coming alongside the person in the Pew and I'm putting my arm around them Essence in essence or I'm tapping them on the shoulder and putting my hand into their hand or into their pocket or whatever I'm coming alongside of them in order to connect this teaching to their lives and to show the the implications of this for how you should live and urging them and at times encouraging them and consoling them and comforting them and rebuking them and reproving them I mean all of the elements it cuts both ways it's been well said said we should comfort The Afflicted and afflict the comfortable and and we're we're doing it both ways so that's where we're headed