Father's Day Sermon

Michael Bryson, a first-time father, surprised his wife on her first Mother’s Day. He did so by bringing their six-month old son, Jason, to the hospital where she worked as a nurse. After the balloons and the laughing and the sharing was over, Miriam returned to her post and her two men returned to the car for the trip home.

You can imagine that getting all the stuff back into the car was not an easy job. Michael balanced the baby carrier on the roof of the car while tossing the candy in the front seat, arranging the flowers on the floor, and wrestling the balloons out of the wind into the backseat. Finally, he got everything arranged and headed home.

Suddenly, other drivers began to honk at Michael and flash their lights. He could not figure out what was happening, until he hit about 55 miles per hour on the highway and heard a scraping sound move across the top of his car. Then, Michael watched in horror through the rearview mirror as the baby carrier – and Jason – slid off the roof, bounced on the trunk, dropped to the road, and began to toboggan down the highway behind the car.

The driver in the car behind Michael’s had spotted the baby carrier and was prepared. He screeched to a halt behind the car seat to shield it from oncoming traffic. Michael slammed on his brakes, ran back to Jason, and discovered the baby had only minor scratches. Then, as the waves of fear, guilt, and relief hit him, this new father began to sob uncontrollably on the highway, while holding his son in a tight embrace (Byran Chapell, Holiness By Grace, 2001, http://www.preachingtoday.com, 2003).

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What is the Letter from the Laodicans?

The possibility of Ephesians being an encyclical letter which therefore could argue for the epistle from the Laodicea being, in reality, the Ephesians epistle has been mentioned several times with good arguments. Dr. Robert Gromacki provides the other view that Ephesians was not an encyclical letter in his introduction to Ephesians.

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God Answers Prayer According to His Will

Should we pray, “Your will be formed,” or “Your will be done.” Bruce Ware contrasts how God answers prayers according to Open Theism, which teaches God does not know the future in reference to prayer, and Biblical Omniscience, which teaches that God does know the future and answers our prayers according to his will.

“God does not necessarily know exactly what will happen in the future,” wrote Open Theist David Basinger in Models of God and Alternative Ultimate Realities 163.

Jesus commanded, “Do not be like them [Pharisees], for your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (Mt 6:8). Because Jesus exhaustively knows the future and what we will be asking before we ask, He can providently prepare to answer our prayers. Open Theism, which teaches that God does not know the future, can only react when He hears our prayers. John Sanders, an Open Theism advocate, wrote, “To a large extent our future is open and we are to determine what it will be in dialogue [prayer] with God” (John Sanders, God Who Risks, 277).

Ware wrote, Jesus does not instruct us to pray, “your will be formed,” but rather, “your will be done.” God has a will that predates our prayers.

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An Illustration for Philippians 2:9

The great British preacher, Charles Spurgeon, knew this encouragement from Christ’s exaltation. When he was only 22, his popularity had spread throughout London. Thousands were flocking to hear him preach. To accommodate the crowds, his church rented the Surrey Gardens Music Hall, which seated at least 10,000. The opening service there was Sunday, October 19, 1856. Word spread and when they opened the building, people crowded in, taking every seat, packing the aisles and stairways, while thousands more stood outside, hoping to hear through the open windows. When Spurgeon arrived and saw the crowd, he was almost overwhelmed. The service began, and everything seemed to be going well.

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Review of Richard Baxter’s The Reformed Pastor (Part Two)

This personal oversight begins with the necessity of the pastor being converted: “See that the work of saving grace be thoroughly wrought in your own souls. Take heed to yourselves, lest you be void of that saving grace of God which you offer to others, and be strangers to the effectual working of that gospel which you preach; and lest, while you proclaim to the world the necessity of a Saviour, your own hearts should neglect him, and you should miss an interest in him and his saving benefits.[10] This is the same counsel with which Charles Spurgeon opened his Lectures to My Students.

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What did the Protestant Reformers believe about creation and the age of the earth

Mark Noll declared that Creationism originated with a false teacher, Ellen White: “[Creationism] has spread like wildfire in our century from its humble beginnings in the writings of Ellen White, the founder of Seventh-day Adventism, to its current status as a gospel truth embraced by tens of millions of bible believing evangelicals and fundamentalist.”[1] Actually, Creationism originated with Moses in Genesis 1-2 and was confirmed by Jesus in Mark 10:6-7 and Paul in 1 Timothy 2:13-14. In a previous post on this subject, I document that the early Church Fathers (click to open) also advocated six twenty-four days of creation six thousand years ago. But let's move on to the Reformers who taught six twenty-four days of creation six thousand years ago. spoke literally and plainly and neither allegorically nor figuratively; that is, he means that the world with all creatures was created in six days as he himself expresses it.[2] The issue with Luther was not a debate of old earth versus young earth but nanoseconds versus literal days. Earth. 

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How can we be amazing illustrators of God’s Word in our preaching?

Haddon Robinson, the former preaching guru, said an illustration can either be like a beautiful lamp or a streetlight. When you walk into someone’s expensive den and notice an ornate lamp, you complement its beauty to the owners. But if you are walking down a city sidewalk at night, the streetlights provide you visibility, but you hardly notice them. A sermon illustration should be like a streetlight. It throws light on the subject you are preaching but doesn’t unnecessarily draw attention to the illustration. The illustration is always a handmaiden to explanation. The illustration should not be the centerpiece of the sermon. Our people should not leave the service saying, “Wow, what an illustration!” They should exit contemplating the text and how they can “be doers of the Word and not hearers only.”

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Review of Crisis Counseling: A Guide for Pastors and Professionals by Scott Floyd

In the introduction, Scott Floyd states the thesis of his book: “Knowing how to provide crisis care is essential, then, to any type of effective ministry.”[1] He begins his introduction with a series of catastrophizes that would demand crisis counseling. Floyd reviewed the 1995 bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, which killed 168 people; the 1997 Columbine High School, where thirteen students and a teacher were killed; the 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center building, massacring almost three thousand civilians, and the 2005 Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans which causes 1,836 fatalities. After listing these disasters, Floyd asks, “Are we dealing with a new problem? He answers his question by referring to examples given by Jesus recorded in Luke 13:1-5. Jesus refers to natural and moral evil. The moral evil was Pilate murdering a group of worshippers. The natural evil was the tower of Siloam falling and killing eighteen individuals. Albert Mohler has a good article describing the difference and even overlap of natural and moral evil: The Reality of Natural Evil and Moral Evil: Devastating Earthquake in Afghanistan, Genocidal Attack in Israel (click to open). Floyd concludes, “Crises and traumatic events have been a part of human experience since the creation.”[2]

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Template and Rubric for Manuscript Sermon

What is in Bold should be written and included in the sermon. 

Scripture: 3 points

Title: 2 points

Introduction: (has three steps)

1. Attention Step: 5 points

2. Interest Step: 5 points

3. Lead into the Subject Step: 5 points (includes the two subpoints)

    A. Give the Theme of the Book of the Bible from which you are preaching

    B. Give the development of the theme

MPS (Main Point of the Sermon): 10 points

Interrogative statement: 10 points

With a HOW or WHY

Transitional statement: 10 points

 a. If How is the interrogative the transitional statement is: We can make disciples By   

     following these steps (keyword is “steps”)

 b. If Why is the interrogative the transitional statement is: We should make disciples   

     Because of the following reasons (keyword is “reasons”)

I. Main Division (beginning with By or Because) 10 points

   A. Explanation: 10 points

   B. Argumentation: 10 points

   C. Illustration: 10 points

   D. Application: 10 points

II. Main Division

    A. Explanation:

    B. Argumentation:

    C. Illustration:

    D. Application:

Conclusion (has two parts) 5 points (includes the two subpoints)

1. Repeat or restate the MPS and Main Divisions

2. Give one final exhortation to practice the MPS

For more details and examples, see the post: Construct the Sermon Outline (click to open)

 

Is the gift of exorcism to be practiced today?

The reason for raising the question, Is the gift of exorcism to be practiced today? is because there are groups (click to open) that believe exorcism is a spiritual gift: “Exorcism is a spiritual gift enabling Christians to confront demonic forces.” One argument against exorcism being a practice for Christians today is that New Testament Epistles do not teach exorcism as a method of confronting demon opposition.

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The Historical/Grammatical Hermeneutic, Part Two

Martin Luther believed that “The entire Old Testament refers to Christ and agrees with Him.” Sidney Greidanus, in Preaching Christ from the Old Testament, wrote that in spite of his warnings against allegorical interpretation, Luther continued using this arbitrary method of interpretation. Ironically, while Luther left some limited room for allegorical interpretation, he apparently had no use of typological interpretation, for, as David Dockery puts it, typology with its foreshadowing “annulled the historical presence of Christ in the Old Testament.” The Antioch School “saw shadowy anticipation of what was to come. This meant nothing to Luther. To him, the Old Testament was not a figure of what would be, but a testimony to what always holds true between humankind and God” (Dockery, GTJ I4/2 (1983) 193.[19]

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The Historical/Grammatical Hermeneutic, Part One

It is becoming common to hear preachers “finding Jesus” in every text of Scripture. Many name recognized Bible Scholars and popular writers advocate a Christological hermeneutic that forces Christ onto every text. Albert Mohler in He Is Not Silent: Preaching in a Postmodern World wrote:

Every single text of Scripture points to Christ. He is the Lord of all, and therefore He is the Lord of the Scriptures too. From Moses to the prophets, He is the focus of every single word of the Bible. Every verse of Scripture finds its fulfillment in Him, and every story in the Bible ends with Him.[1]  

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Review of the Conclusion of Homiletics and Hermeneutics: Four Views on Preaching Today

Scott Gibson and Matthew Kim, in their conclusion to Homiletics and Hermeneutics: Four Views on Preaching Today, correctly observe: “We note that each author reads the text with a theological framework and makes a theological commitment in his exegesis and preaching” (p. 157).

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Review of Paul Scott Wilson's "Law-Gospel View" of Preaching

In Scott M. Gibson’s and Matthew D. Kim’s Homiletics and Hermeneutics (Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition, 2018) Paul Scott Wilson presents his view of interpreting and preaching called the Law-Gospel view. Wilson’s one text, one theme, one doctrine, one need, one image, and one mission is just another way of saying what many homileticians describe as one preaching unit or the text (one text), one MPS (one theme), Argumentation (one doctrine), Interest Step in the Introduction (one need), Illustration (one image), and Application (one mission).

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Review of Bryan Chapell's "Redemptive-Historical View" of Preaching

This post reviews “Redemptive-Historic View” by Bryan Chapell in Scott M. Gibson’s and Matthew D.  Kim’s Homiletics and Hermeneutics: Four Views on Preaching Today.

I agree with Byran Chapell when he warns that the redemptive-historical view of forcing Christ into every text has “been abused, in ways that are now obvious to us, by ancient allegorism that sought to make Jesus ‘magically’ appear in every Bible passage through exegetical acrobatics that stretched logic, imagination, and credulity.”[1] This is a candid admission.

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God’s Prophet Isaiah

One of the main prophets and/or leaders in the Kansas City Prophets movement was Bob Jones (no relation to Bob Jones of Bob Jones University in South Carolina), the movement's visionary.  He was said to have been specially anointed with supernatural visions from the Lord and a prophetic gift.  However, he was quoted as saying that the general level of prophetic revelation in the movement's "prophets" had an accuracy level of about 65 percent.  He said some prophets were as low as 10 percent accurate, with some of the "most mature" prophets having a rating "approaching 85 percent to 95 percent." [1]

Deuteronomy 18:20-23 is the test of a prophet in the OT. A biblical prophet has an accuracy rate of 100 percent.

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Imputed righteousness verses Infused righteousness

Many conservative evangelicals pushed back on Evangelicals and Catholics Together in 1994.

Charles Colson represented evangelicals and Richard John Neuhaus represented the Catholics. The gospel was watered down: “We affirm together that we are justified by grace through faith because of Christ.” (click to open). But the indispensable word "alone” was left out. Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. R. C. Sproul wrote Justification by Faith Alone to correct this biblical error.

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