Good afternoon, brothers. It's a pleasure for me to be here and to talk to you about my most important work. I have been preaching for 40 years, pastoring at the end of this year for 34 in the same church. I am a lot of things, as my short bio told you, I'm an educator, studied education, I'm a counselor, I studied counseling. I run a variety of ministries and do a variety of things.

But all of these things I consider to be secondary. I am first and foremost a preacher. I believe the world will be changed, not by schools or counseling centers or television ministries and all of the various things that we do that are all important. The world will be changed by preaching. The foolishness of preaching.

We need to take preaching seriously. It's our primary duty. The way the pulpit goes, that's the way the whole church goes. That's the way the families go. And so we should never minimize this task.

I am going to be very informal with you and I'm going to try to interact with you. This is not a sermon. So, I will tell you when I want to interact with you, when you can ask questions, when you can make comments, when you can challenge anything, when you can demand further explanation, when you can do all of that. I hope that this is beneficial to you. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, I am grateful that you are pleased to use a wretch like me in the pulpit and even in the edification of my fellow shepherds on the shepherds. Be glorified and give wisdom. Amen. Please turn in your Bible to 2 Timothy chapter 3. 2 Timothy chapter 3 and look at verse 15, Then verse 16, and then chapter 4, verse 2.

All right? Will someone volunteer to read in our hearing verse 15? And please tell us your version that you're reading from. An American standard. Thank you.

From childhood, from infancy. According to custom, the Jewish parent was to begin instructing a child in the law when the child reached five years of age. So this preacher was being reminded by his mentor. That The most important thing in your life up to this point has been the word of God. You have known the holy scriptures.

False teachers had been misinterpreting the Old Testament. We know that from 1 Timothy chapter 1 verse 7 and from Titus chapter 3 and verse 9. Timothy needed to remember the proper instruction that he had received at the hands of his mother and grandmother. Two generations worked to make sure that there was a scriptural foundation to his life. And this was to be the basis of everything including his pastoral ministry now.

And his preaching of the word. He was to go back there. Now the scriptures here refer to the books of the Old Testament. The New Testament did not yet exist as a collection. Indeed some of the New Testament books had not even been written yet.

Even so, as the New Testament literature developed, it too was called the Scriptures according to 2 Peter chapter 3 verses 15 and 16. But we just read that it's able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. The Old Testament points clearly to the central role of Jesus Christ in god's overall plan of creation and salvation. Okay. Will someone else volunteer to read verse sixteen and tell us your version?

Yes, sir. Old scripture. A reference to the Old Testament, of course. Alright? Is God breathed?

This is the is the most important expression in the New Testament of the doctrine of divine inspiration of scripture. It has been breathed out by God. We could refer to 2 Peter 1 21 2. It's been breathed out by God. God is the source and ultimate authority of scripture.

Though written by human authors, it nevertheless is breathed out by God and carries the full weight of God's authority. That is crucial. And it's profitable for what? Production. It's going to teach you the right path, huh?

For reproof. He's going to show you where you went off the path. For correction, he's gonna show you how to get back on the path. For instruction in righteousness, how to stay on the path. That sounds comprehensive enough for me.

That covers all bases. Now go down to chapter four and verse two. Preach the word. The word here is referring to the same scripture we just read in chapter three. And preeminently the gospel as you would read in chapter two and verse fifteen.

Preach that word. And do it in season and out of season. That is in every situation, whether good or bad, the Word of God is to be proclaimed. Okay? Now, I am going to go and make a few comments about this business of preaching, but I wanted to make sure I did it in the light of what we have just read.

That must be the backdrop and must be the context in which we understand the things that I'm about to say. Alright? First of all, some general considerations about expository preaching. Are you all with me? Did they put it up?

No, it's not up there. It is there? Okay. Some general considerations about expository preaching. First of all, I want to talk about the advantages of expository preaching.

I am not, This material is not original with me. I'm quoting others, all right? Briefly, the heart of expository preaching. There's a quotation I have on my page here from Unger. And he says, concerning the heart of expository preaching, it is handling the text in such a way that it's real and essential meaning, it's real and essential meaning as it existed in the mind of the particular biblical writer and as it exists in the light of the overall context of scripture is made plain and applied to the present day needs of the hearers.

So the text is handled in a manner that brings out the real and essential meaning as it existed in the mind of the particular biblical writer. So you have to know something about this biblical writer and all that is being written. And as it exists in the light of the overall context of scripture and the truth are made plain and applied to the present day needs of the heiress. Now John Stott adds to that and I quote, whether it, and he's referring to the text, whether it is long or short, because of course when we preach we take off different chunks. Sometimes we want to preach a whole book.

You know, I've seen that happen. The text is the entire book. Sometimes the text is a chapter. Sometimes the text is a verse. Sometimes the text is a part of a verse.

Depending on the needs of the congregation, you bite off what you need, but your job is to deal with what's written. Okay? So whether it is long or short, our responsibility as expositors is to open it up in such a way that it speaks its message clearly, plainly, accurately, relevantly, without addition, subtraction, or falsification. Subject subtraction or falsification. He continues in expository preaching the biblical text is neither a conventional introduction to a sermon on a largely different theme.

Nor a convenient peg on which to hang a rag-tag of miscellaneous thoughts. But a master which dictates and controls what is said. In other words you're not dealing with exposition if you just need a launching pad. Your text is just a launching pad for what you want to say. Like just introductory material.

Or if your text is just a peg to hang any amount of ideas that you have that you think are important and relevant and whatever. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. In expository preaching, the text is controlling what you say. If it's not in the text, you are not to say it. The text controls what you say.

That is the heart of expository preaching. We can talk about that a little more later. What's the next thing? I told you three things. The necessity.

So let's deal with the necessity of expository preaching. Greg Danos is who I'm relying on here. We have four things to say about this necessity. Alright? One, the question of authority.

The question of authority. If preachers wish to preach with divine authority, they must proclaim the message of the inspired scriptures for the scriptures alone are the word of god written. The scriptures alone have divine authority. So, if you want authority, you have to preach those scriptures. Without those scriptures is just your opinion.

Take it or leave it. You have nothing with which to command anyone. You must say, Thus saith the Lord, and let me show it to you. I am convinced that illiteracy is of the devil. Most people don't think in those categories.

But it has to be because God wrote a book. That means he always intended for all of us to read. You can't tolerate illiteracy. Because God wrote a book. And he wanted that to be the prominent and only guide for faith and practice in our lives.

And so if we will preach with authority, We must invoke what he has written. Other than that, we're on our own. It's just our opinion. Okay? Number two, the Bible as the source of preaching.

The Bible as the source of preaching. The Bible is unique and indispensable for preaching because it provides the definitive interpretation of God's acts in history. We have it good when we preach the Bible Because we don't have to have that burden of interpreting reality. It has already been interpreted for us. And all we have to do is declare it line upon line and precept upon precept.

It's just too much of a weight upon a preacher to be interpreting reality. For one, you just arrived. What do you know? You were born and you found out there were thousands of years before you, all this history and knowledge and how ignorant you are, and you are going to try to interpret reality? No, the reality has been here for a while, and it has already been interpreted by its maker and he wrote it down.

He wrote down the interpretation of that reality. So thank God I don't have to interpret reality. I just have to embrace the maker's interpretation of what he has created. The Bible is a source of contemporary preaching because it alone provides the normative proclamation of God's acts of redemption and the response that God requires. So there's a question of authority and then the Bible as a source of preaching.

Number three, the Bible as the criterion of preaching. The Bible as the criterion of preaching. By what standard shall we test sermons? You know, whether we like it or not, somebody is evaluating our sermons. By what standard shall we test sermons?

The standard surely cannot be personal likes or dislikes. I was telling Pastor Scott about an uncle of mine who is not a believer. I managed to convince him to come to church once a month. He agreed with that, you know, and to stay over at my house for dinner, for lunch, you know, and after Every sermon, you know, you come over and say, great sermon! The man has no use for Jesus, not saved.

He said, great sermon! I am proud of you. That's very little use to me for someone. It's only great if it does something to you. At least, you know, how could you evaluate?

He doesn't know anything to evaluate. Certainly not about what we like or dislike. As a matter of fact, if people like it too much and they won't repent, We have failed. I mean, what's it? Entertainment?

I don't mind people liking me. All of us want people to like us. Rapport sometimes is a great help in getting people's attention and having them consider what you say. That can't be our goal. Can't be.

The only standard we have today is the canon, the Bible. The Bible must evaluate your sermon. Sermons must be biblical, that is, they must pass on the meaning and intent of scripture. The meaning and intent. The meaning and intent.

Sermons must be God-centered or Christ-centered rather than human-centered. I think you have noticed that the sermons in our generation are mostly human centered. It's about felt needs. It's about what people want to hear, as opposed to being about the sovereign God. The pastor of the so-called largest church in America, Mr.

Osteen. Gets up every time. By the way, the guy admits that he never studied the Bible. He admits it upfront. He admits that he never went to Bible college, whatever.

This is the family business. My dad died. Everybody looked to me, so I took it up. Talk about the calls to ministry and what. So he masses this crowd.

He took it beyond his father's wildest dreams. And he gets up and basically says, here's a champion in you. And he smiles. Great smile. And he thrills that crowd with pop psychology.

No exposition of scripture. I remember hearing him one time on Larry King Live, a long time ago, obviously. Larry King asked him, so what's your position on abortion and homosexuality? He says, I don't want to talk about that. That's divisive.

I remember hearing something similar from Robert Shuler when I was a youngster. Robert Shuler said, Sin? I'm not gonna tell them they're sinners. They might believe it. I'll tell them they're saints, they might believe that.

Oh my, it's not even funny. Sermons must be God-centered. We need to get people focused on God, not on themselves. We are already in a narcissistic culture. That's our default mode.

That's why he told us to love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength and love your neighbor as yourself. You know, some people think that's three points, but that's only two points, by the way. You know, they think, well, if he says love your neighbor as yourself, you're supposed to love yourself. No, loving yourself is the problem. You're supposed to focus on loving God and loving others.

He assumes that you're narcissistic. And that's our default mode to start to defend the flames of narcissism and the people will come out in great numbers for that. But you will end up with a crowd, but not a church. Okay? So the sermons must be God-centered.

They must be Christ-centered. And the sermons must be And the sermons must be good news. Sometimes I must announce some very threatening topics. But when all is said and done, my sermon must be good news. You're not preaching the gospel if you don't get to the good news.

But you can't get to the good news unless you get to the bad news. But this is all about good news. If you have preached a sermon and you haven't told the people where the answer is and who to look to, don't call it a sermon. You're just perpetrating a guilt trip, you know? You need to help people.

Let them know there's hope in Jesus Christ and in him alone. All right? So, what have we said? We looked at the question of authority. What else?

The source of preaching, the Bible as a criterion for preaching. Finally, expository preaching and the Bible. An expository sermon purposely seeks to set forth a biblical message on the basis of a biblical text. At heart, expository preaching is not just a method, and I want you to hear me here, it's not just a method but a commitment. It's a commitment.

A view of the essence of preaching, a homiletical approach to preach the scriptures. It's not just a method as opposed to topical or anything else. It's a commitment. I've got to get to the meaning and intent of this passage. I've had many situations where I've announced a text on a topic.

And after the sermon, I've had individuals come up to me and said, Pastor, I was sorry for you because I'm reading that text And I don't see how you could treat that topic from that text. That's because they came to the text with their normal prejudice. They have heard it taught a certain way and they thought it was exhaustive. But I'm finding out this word of God is a gold mine. And even after it has been preached and taught for years, God will rise up somebody to show you all that you missed.

You ought to come with openness and expectation and also come to vet the preacher, the preacher's faithfulness in staying with the whole counsel of God. But it's a commitment to mine all the jewels in God's holy word. And if it please Him to inspire it and to deliver it and to give it to us. We should take it with the utmost seriousness and make sure that every jot and tittle is dealt with. Jot and tittle of course deals with even the punctuation and even the part of a word.

Hallelujah. Okay. I said three things. What was the first one? The heart of it.

Now we're looking at the advantages of expository preaching. The advantages. I go back to start to help me with this. Okay? The advantages.

Advantage number one. It sets limits. It sets limits. That is, it restricts us to the scriptural text. It restricts us to the scriptural text.

And doesn't allow us to invent our own message. You know You don't have an expository preacher who believes in the text. If he goes off on all these excursions, they have nothing to do with this text. We need to be limited. Left to ourselves, we have something to say.

We have opinions, don't we? We need to not trust ourselves. One of my kids asked me some time ago While he was a teenager, Daddy, don't you trust me? I said, no. I don't even trust myself.

How many times have I said, I'm never going to do that again? I disappoint myself. I can't trust myself. I'm not going to trust you and I can't even trust myself. I trust what God says.

Left ourselves, we will have all of our opinions and ready to throw them on people. The text restricts us. It limits us. Okay? So once we have that commitment, we'll stay with the text.

Another advantage. It demands integrity. Expository preaching demands integrity. That is, it confronts the preacher with the question, what did the original author intend these words to mean? That's my job.

To mean. That's my job. I cannot tell my people anything else. I've got to stay there and study this until I get it so that they can get it. I need to ask for help.

First from the Holy Ghost to illuminate us. Then I need to ask for help from the great men of our legacy and faith who though dead still speak. Those are the books on the shelf. Ask those old men. Ask them.

You don't trust yourself. Trust God and glean from the wisdom of our legacy of faith. Ask them, Mrs. Spurgeon, what do you have to say about this text? Mr.

Henry, What do you have to say about this text? We have some other people, you know, contemporary as well as the old, but go to the Puritans too. What do you have to say about this text? Struggle with it. Fight with it before you stand before your people.

Because your job is to bring out the intent of the original author. Don't just trust yourself. So what was the first thing I said? It sets limits. Secondly, it demands integrity.

Thirdly, it identifies pitfalls. It identifies pitfalls. Two pitfalls. Forgetfulness and disloyalty. Forgetfulness and disloyalty.

Forgetfulness. The forgetful expositor loses sight of his text by going off at a tangent and following his own fancy. You don't want to do that. All right? But the disloyal expositor appears to remain with his text, but strains and stretches it into something quite different from the original and natural meaning.

That's a dangerous person. That's a dangerous person. You really don't have to be too much of a scholar to size up these people. Once you have some semblance of a systematic theology, or you have some familiarity with the symbolics of your church, i.e. Your confessions of faith in your catechisms.

Huh? You can smell a rat. I usually like to tell my people, look, if it's new, it's probably not true. The old paths will remain. If it's true, it'll always be true.

I know a dissertation comes out every week. Let me hand out the Ph.D.s. Somebody has a new little twist on something. But if it's new, it's probably not true. Okay?

The old-time religion is good enough. Okay? Amen? Get to the old paths. Finally, number four.

It gives us confidence to preach. It gives us confidence to preach. For we are not expounding our own fallible views, but the oracles of god. I can preach with confidence and authority. Because I know the maker of heaven and earth is the one who breathes out this this text and I can speak without fear of contradiction.

I know I'm right. And I know that people who take me seriously will not be disappointed. When you have this notion that you can throw in your opinion or whatever else, somebody will add on, will that's for free? Or say, no thanks. No, stick to the text.

Stick to the text. That's what we want to hear. So we looked at the heart of it, the necessity of it, of exposition and the advantages. I hope that's even a little bit helpful. Now let's consider the generational aversion to doctrinal messengers.

We live in a time when people don't want doctrine. But if you are giving good exposition, faithful exposition, you must of necessity teach the great doctrines of the faith. You know, emotive terms that are associated with division and contention are often avoided by many in this generation. Because what? Contemporary preachers believe that Doctrine is what divides us.

So let's not get too doctrinal, they say. If it is possible at all not to be doctrinal. They say, well, we don't need doctrine. What we need is love. Well, folks, love is a doctrine.

You can't get away from doctrine. So if in your exegesis and your exposition you are running away from controversy, you have already failed. Because you're going to have to cut it straight. Alright? All right?

Let's not confuse the lecturing of the academy with the preaching in the church. It's a whole different orientation, okay? A whole different purpose. A whole different modus operandi. The academy, A biblical lecture is giving you information, you know, and trying to build your sense of knowledge of the text and maybe even the history and other related issues, More so for facilitating your understanding.

Preaching is much more serious than that. Preaching is shepherding. I was so happy with how Pastor Scott started here. He got to not only love the preacher, he got to love the people. Lecturers are not required to love the people.

Preachers are required to love their people. If you don't love the people, you should not be a preacher. Sometimes there is rhetorical indifference and laziness, and it comes from a misunderstanding of 1 Corinthians 2. Go to 1 Corinthians 2. Let's read some of that.

Thank you. Thank you. So the apostle says, I have not joined the Hellenistic academy in the area of speech and rhetoric. Where they imagine that the power is in the manipulation of language and logic in order to get things done. He's saying that's not where power is.

My power is in the Holy Ghost. Now is he saying that he should therefore be lazy and not use adequate language because clearly we have an inspired text with adequate language. Come on now. So he's not asking us to be lazy and not carefully write our sermons and think of our phraseology and think of vocabulary that communicates with our audience and think of a logical development and structuring. He is not throwing out oratory and rhetoric.

He's saying, I'm not depending on that stuff. I'm not relying on that. I'm relying on the power of God. There is power in the words themselves. Sometimes the most...

Could you name one of the most irresponsible preachers in the Bible? One of the most irresponsible preachers in the Bible was Jonah. God called him to preach and sent him to the people and he was prejudiced. He didn't want them saved, he wanted them dead. So he had a theological problem though.

He actually thought that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was a local one. So he thought he could run. He attempted to run and in his boat he found out the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was right there. And you know what? Even pagans have to deal with the same God.

They don't know him, but they still have to deal with him. Because they suspected this unusual boisterous sea has to do something with God. Who has offended God in here? Of course he eventually volunteered, okay guys it's me. Just throw me over and the sea will calm down.

Because he began to get his theology together. The God of Abraham, like Isaac and Jacob, is not local. And he has followed me and I'm on the full surveillance. So they throw him over in the C-COM but there was a fish waiting for him. Swallowed him up because what?

We will go where he sends us. Come on now. So the Lord provided a submarine to transport him to the correct destination. By the way, right in that fish, that live submarine, was when he became a Calvinist. Lord have mercy.

Salvation is of the Lord. Come on, read it for yourself. And when he was, when the fish spit him up on the shoreline, he finally decided to go and do his job and he did a poor job. The worst piece of preaching, because his heart wasn't in it. He was still prejudiced.

After all he had been through, he hated those people so much that he didn't even bother to develop a decent sermon. So he just told him, 40 days, you'll be destroyed. Negative, no good news, but guess what? The Holy Ghost took over from the palace to the poor house. And they, the Holy Ghost filled in the gaps.

The people themselves said, wow, did you hear what the prophet said? Perhaps if we put on sackcloth and ashes, this great God would have mercy on us. They filled in the good news with the aid of the Holy Ghost. And you have the greatest revival in the Old Testament at Nineveh. Study it.

Greatest revival. So, of course, even when we have done an awful job, God could take that word and transform a life. Because there's power in the word of God. Amen? Amen?

But It doesn't mean that we are to be lazy and not to do our homework. A while ago, when you started to sing without accompaniment, I was going to volunteer to play the song for you, but I thought that would be too disruptive. But if I got up there and volunteered to play the hymn for you and then I started to play a lot of wrong notes and my meter is off, What will happen to our worship? You stop thinking about Jesus and you're wondering what did that clown, why did that clown volunteer to destroy our worship. That means that stewardship, moreover, it is required in stories that a man be found.

Stewardship is important. Competence is important. And I'm not, you're not to rely on an accompaniment to worship God come on now you're not to rely on your speech and rhetoric to change lives come on now But he's not saying that you're not to be a faithful steward. Are you all following what I'm saying to you? OK.

So we need to make sure that we do some work. Do some work, not only with the exegesis, But also with the delivery. Be praying, asking God to show you how to communicate this with power. Amen? Sometimes There is an attempt to be clinical and comprehensive and too much information is given.

You have to pray for discernment to make sure that you don't overkill And thereby shoot yourself in the leg trying to preach the whole Bible in one sermon. In my average sermon preparation, I normally end up with somewhere between 4500 to 5000 words. Okay? But when I'm finished writing and I write my manuscripts out, I don't preach them always word for word, if you know what I mean. But I write so that I'm clear in my understanding of the text and the presentation of the same.

Then you, depending on your ability, you can prepare an outline from your manuscript, you know, if you want to preach extemporaneously. But Because you have written, there's a clarity of mind. Some preach very well from the manuscript itself, depending on your ability. But it is very, very important that you edit the thing down. When I'm finished, I'm normally around 6, 500 words.

So, I've got to figure out how to get rid of 1, 500 words. And still not compromise the message. It's always a better problem to have too much material than to have too little. And it does take some time to work on sermons properly, but if you love your people, you'll make the time. Amen?

But don't just Give them your raw material. Well, you know, I don't know what to take out. Oh, give me a break. That's just arrogance. Like you're going to try to give them all of that?

Give me a break. Do some work and cut to the chase. Amen? So that the people of God are not overwhelmed and do not come to church and are asked to drink not from the water fountain but from your nearest fire hydrant. Okay?

Don't overkill it and give them too much. Right? Alright, let's talk a little bit about the study of homiletics as descriptive rather than prescriptive. I say that it's a prescriptive, it's a descriptive discipline more than it's a prescriptive one. That's because when God calls a man to deliver his message, for the most part, it's between that man and his God.

And so I don't have the right to tell you this is the way you preach. It's this... So homiletics is a more descriptive discipline. We are teaching about how men of God have preached. And every preacher must get with his God concerning what he will do to deliver the message God gives to him.

But no preacher has the right to tell another preacher, this is the way you preach. He can describe what God has done with him. We can study what God has done with great preachers. Thank God many of them have written their sermons, that we can go back to the past. Today we can listen to podcasts and to various electronic presentations of the sermons.

You can go on my website and you can hear some of my sermons. What I'm saying is we can learn from one another. But if you're thinking that this man is the only one who knows about preaching and I must mimic him, you're not ready for the pulpit because you're going to have to get with your God, the one who called you. And it's wise to learn from others. I've picked up a lot of things from all.

I don't preach like my pastor, under whom I grew up, preached. We're like night and day. But I can tell you, I learned a couple of things from him. I learned some things not to do too. Are you understanding what I'm saying to you?

But I keep learning. I keep listening. I keep growing. But most of all, I try to stay on my knees to find my place in the pulpit with my God who called me. So learn from others, but your intimacy with God must be paramount.

The preacher who has been with God in his word and in prayer will come forth with power. All right? So don't be intimidated by other people and their preaching. Learn from them, but don't think you must mimic them. Alright?

Let's talk about the training of preachers. How am I doing? It's almost time for a break, huh? Let's talk about the training of preachers. We will, After I finish this, we'll take questions and discuss a little bit.

Alright, and then we'll take a break. Come back, okay? The training of preachers must be in the context of integrity. The context of integrity. What do you mean by that?

It's like sex, our sexuality. Our training concerning our sexuality must be in the context of marriage. We have a word for it if you're learning your sexuality outside of marriage, horam. That's the word for it. It's horam.

The learning of preaching outside of a real context of divine commission vetted by the people of God is prostitution. De Martin Lloyd-Jones called it prostitution. So, I remember in college, Oklahoma Baptist University, Where I did a homiletics course, we had to actually go and preach to the class. And every student as well as the professors will have these evaluation sheets with various criteria and they'll mark you. That's prostitution.

That's prostitution. It's not real. That's prostitution. It's not real. When real preachers preach, people should worship.

And you're not worshiping, examining a preacher. You're only worshiping, examining yourself. If you're sitting down there with an evaluation sheet, examining the preacher, you're not listening in the right way. You're not going to take that word from God and compare it with yourself, as James put it like that, Mira. You are there judging the preacher.

Well, You should be judging yourself. So in training preachers, there is no other way to train preachers but to put them in real pulpits in front of real people with real needs and we pray for them, encourage them and to be faithful to the word of God. In other words, it must be in a real context Because that preacher will have a whole set of unbiblical criteria messing with his head. He is worried sick that his professor will mark him down. It becomes a show.

He's got to impress. Well that needs to be the last thing on a true preacher's mind. A true preacher is up there saying, Thus saith the Lord, and if I perish, I perish. I perish. A true preacher is trying to represent the government of heaven as an ambassador of Christ.

He's not concerned about whether the other foreign governments like his message. He just needs to get it right. You better be glad you're not an ambassador for Kim Jong-un. He just killed him. That's the news from yesterday, right?

He killed a few of his staff because of the failed summit with Trump. Just on the news last night. So I guess whoever replaces those people, boy, we better get it right. Thank God we have a God of grace. But we're supposed to be worried about breaking his heart by not representing him well.

So we cannot be thinking about whether the people listening in front of us like us and will give us a nine out of 10 or, you know, no, no, No, no, no, no, no. We ought to be representing our God. So let's not encourage prostitution in the training of our preachers. It must be in a real context, Just like our sexuality. We don't need to learn anything about our sexuality outside of a biblical marriage.

Okay? All right? In the same way, we need to learn about the processes and the mechanics of preaching from real context with real people, with real problems and real analysis of the text that is prayed through and be in dependence on the Holy Ghost. Amen? The preacher is impacted by real context, real problems and real people who might be listening with action in mind.

Okay? Not with evaluation sheets. Okay? I think I will stop right there.