Introductions

for your midterm review questions, what is a proposition, and there I'm looking for a statement of the subject as the preacher proposes to develop it, that's the classic definition. And then we add to that in light of a following position focus. And we add to that in the terms of the introduction. What components are wed in, and we probably have to add the word a formal, what components are wed in formal, main points and propositions. Here I'm looking for, there could actually be a number of answers, universal truth and application, that could be one, universal truth and exhortation, another way of saying it would be principle and application, or the most basic of all. It is true and what to do, exactly. What is true and what to do, so principle and application, or classic terminology, universal truth and exhortation would be that classic terminology. But any of those answers will do, if you recognize there's a combination of what is true and what to do about it, because that's what the sermon itself ultimately is about. What two basic forms do we have for main point wording, and there I'm looking for conditional and consequential, if it's consequential, what's the key term that will appear, because if it's conditional, what key term will appear, sense or if, sure. How do anchor clauses and magnet clauses differ in main points? How do anchor clauses and magnet clauses differ? The anchor clause stays the same, right? anchor clause stays the same, magnet clause changes what specifically changes in it, key terms. The key terms change, so they're drawing attention, that's what's the magnet clause, they draw the attention of the exposition, because the key terms are what change, everything else stays parallel, but the key terms change in the magnet clause. What's a co-existent point, and why should it be avoided? What is it when it's co-existent? It's too much the same, exactly, so you have a main point that's too much like another main point, or the proposition, right? A main point that's too much like another main point, or the proposition. It may be too much alike in terminology and wording, what's another way? The wording might be different, but what could still be the same? The concept, that's right, so it's not just different in wording, it should be different in concept. Maybe this occurs when you simply word something in the negative. We should not do something, we should do something, actually, even though you word it in the negative, it's the same thing over again. One of the things that we are doing just to avoid that problem too, is we're not doing knots this semester, at least in the way that we word main points and propositions. Not on your list, but sometimes it appears on midterms is what's the double pronoun error, what's the double pronoun error, and that is where you have a pronoun whose antecedent is another pronoun. That's where you have an antecedent, a pronoun whose antecedent is another pronoun. Some of you have been tracking with me because some of you know the situation and pastor and some of you are just aware of me, my friend who left the suicide notes as a pastor has been found, and his body was found two days ago. So when I was out of town from you, I received a call about that. So we'll talk a little bit more and pray about that a little bit more in chapel. Let me if I could just ask you to join me in the Lord's Prayer this morning. Would you repeat that with me please? Our Father, which art in heaven, how it would be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever, all men. Thank you. For today you see that we are talking about introductions, introductions to sermons, and the goal for this lesson is to understand the basic purposes, marks, and construction elements of good sermon introductions. Here is one that I just like to ask you to listen to, and then we'll begin to think about its components. The words were too close for comfort. Had Mickey Mantle not asked that these words be sung at his own funeral, we would have thought them too candid to be appropriate. This is what the legendary Mickey Mantle asked to be sung at his funeral. Yesterday when I was young, the taste of life was sweet as rain upon my tongue. I lived by night and shunned the naked light of day, and only now I see how the years ran away. I used my magic age as if it were a wand, and I never saw the pain and the emptiness beyond. The game of life I played with arrogance and pride, and every flame I lit to quickly, quickly died. Yesterday when I was young, so many drinking songs were waiting to be sung. So many wayward pleasures lay in store for me, and so much pain my dazzled eyes refused to see. I ran so fast that time and youth at last ran out, and now the time has come to pay for yesterday when I was young. So much swirled around Mickey Mantle, that promised happiness, that promised satisfaction in this life, physical ability, fame, wealth, worldly pleasure, the bottle, formal religion, each in its turn offered what it could. Each time Mickey Mantle grabbed for all the joy he could, and each time he came up empty. We understand, don't we? We understand how enticing are the world's promises of satisfaction, but sometimes we forget how empty those promises are. The writer of Ecclesiastes responds, and tells us in plain terms, because the promises of this world are empty, we must find our satisfaction in God alone. I want you to think of some of the things that are occurring in that actual sermon introduction from a sermon I preached a few years ago, and think of what's happening, what is occurring. There is an attempt anyway to get people's attention by speaking of particulars, even the opening words are meant to stand alone to arouse attention. The words were too close for comfort. Now what we can do in introductions is begin to write English essays, and say, sometimes life is complicated and we think that and do some kind of big overarching thing. When introductions don't do that, they invert the pyramid, we start with the particular. What is some particular thing that you can say out of the account that would make it gripping from the beginning? The words were too close for comfort. These are the words that Mickey Mantle asked to be sung at his own funeral. That's part of the beginning. We are also preparing in concept and terminology for the proposition. Now the proposition, remember, was because the promises of this world are empty. Did you hear anything about promises of this world in the introduction? What was promising happiness? Physicability, wealth, fame, the bottle, pleasure, all those promising, but Mickey Mantle came up what? Empty. Got key words that are beginning to beacon already. Promises of this world coming up empty because they are not providing what? So the key words that are going to be in the proposition are occurring within the introduction itself. It's not just preparing conceptually. It is preparing the ear. So the ear is hearing key terms so that when the proposition finally occurs, it just sticks out. We know that's the point now because we've heard those key words beginning and so when they're finally put together, we recognize that's the point of the whole message. The introduction has gotten us ready. One other piece I didn't just say there's an answer for this somewhere. I said the writer of what? The writer of Ecclesiastes addresses that. That's known as a scripture bond. A proposition, excuse me, an introduction is doing all of these things. It's getting us ready in concept and terminology. It's identifying a problem. It's preparing us for the proposition, but it's also bonding the scripture. It's telling me the answer is someplace in the scriptures. And now that you've heard those things, let's begin to particularize and say how we will develop our own introductions because your goal for the next class is to look at the passage that you've been working on so far and now to develop introductions. So we're taking the next step in putting our sermon together. Here are the basic purposes of introductions. There are four of these. The basic purposes of introductions first is to arouse attention. This is important. You must listen to me. This has something to do with your life. A rouse attention is the first goal. Second, to introduce the subject. Not only am I trying to get attention, I'm saying this is what we will be talking about. To introduce the subject. Number three and the most important of the things that I will say to you is it is seeking to identify the F-C-F. The introduction is seeking to identify the F-C-F. It is not just saying what the subject is. It is given the reason that we are looking at the subject. This is where you take one of those key elements and say this is converting a lecture to a sermon. I'm not just saying I'm going to talk today about the history of Israel. You're not just even saying today we're going to talk about the fall of Jericho. I have to say why you must listen. What does this have to do with you? So when you are identifying the F-C-F, you are identifying the burden of the sermon. What is wrong that requires this subject to be dealt with? What is wrong in whose life? The listener's life. It's important that you recognize that. It's not just what was wrong in the life of the biblical people. Why is it something that is simply wrong in the preacher's life? When it's identifiable, it's not simply my identification. It is phrased in such a way that we have identified what is wrong in the listener's lives, so that they now must listen to what this sermon will be about. The tendency, sadly, the great temptation of training to preach in an academic setting, is we become great at giving sermons without reasons. There's simply information for you to know. Whereas what is so important, that typical, you have to listen to this man. You have to listen to this man. He is right from the beginning. Here's why you must listen to this information. Here's what it will have to do with your life. It is identifying an F-C-F that is identifiable, that is we as listeners can identify with it. The fourth purpose of the sermon introduction is to prepare for proposition in concept and terminology, to prepare for the proposition in concept and terminology. Now if you think of why all of these things are important, it's, I think, kind of common senseical. But let's just cover it. Why do we have importance attached to opening words in these opening moments? Because the opening words determine listener attention and speaker estimation. The opening words determine listener attention, but also their estimation of the speaker, that is, speaker estimation. What do I think of you? It's typically determined in the opening moments, just to detail those a little bit. Listener attention. It's ancient going back to the time of the Romans, the phrase, well begun is half done. Well begun is half done. If I lose you at the beginning, if you don't think this is important at the beginning, you don't get that second chance to make that first impression. It is, are you speaking compassionately and credibly to me? So if you say that decision is not only determining listener attention, but are you speaking compassionately and credibly to me, that's speaker estimation. In your readings, I said to you the study of de-collaborately Ford, and this was done three decades ago in his book, The Ministry of the Word. He said the listener judgment of whether a speaker should be listened to was made in the first what? Do you remember? He said, we say 30 seconds, he said, he said 60 seconds, that's right. So that was three decades ago, 60 seconds, now 30 years later what would you say? You might say 30, you might say the first 15 seconds, I mean it's an amazing thought that people are estimating very early on, are you saying something that seems to communicate care for me and are you credible? If those things are being determined for the whole message within the first opening seconds, you have to know, it's really important what we say in these opening moments, right? It is by the way why we speak particulars rather than generalities at first. If I'm just speaking generalities, the problem in the world today is sin. Well there's a new thought, why did you bother to say that? Instead of, it was 10 minutes past midnight and she still wasn't home and it was the third weekend in a row that she'd broken curfew. It is hard to raise teenagers in today's culture. Now if you're writing it in English, I say what would you put first? It is hard to raise teenagers in today's culture and then you would have begun doing the particulars under that. Preaching, we invert it. We put the particular first in order to say this is important to you in particular. This has relevance immediately to life and then I will develop the general principles out of that that will be addressed in the word. Yes, question? When you are developing sermons with people that you know very well over the years, do these same rules apply? It's important to do particulars rather than the universals and the answer is I think when people begin to know you and love you. They forgive you tons. If you say what's typically best, just because we're all oral listeners with preferences for what that means as oral listeners, it's good to be aware of the differences between a written message and a heard message. These general principles will apply but I need to say clearly not only about this but virtually everything I will say in this course. Rules are meant to be broken. If you know what the rule is, then you may know reasons to break it and that becomes a strategy decision. What best enables me to communicate to these people that I know? So sometimes I will do things that I might know in another context might not be as wise or good but because I know these people and I know the effect of doing this thing, I'm actually going to seek to break this rule or standard that I'm aware of. The danger comes when you don't know the rule at all and so you are doing things that you don't know the consequences of and there are times let's say for instance that I say start with particulars and then move generalities. What if it's something that you know is very, very sensitive in the congregation? My strategy may be because I know all of that I want to start with a generality and move to a particular because I know how sensitive this subject is. But now I know why I'm doing what I'm doing. It isn't just kind of haphazard what I'm doing. I know what the effects of these choices are so I'll make appropriate choices. So I will say we'll talk about delivery next time a little bit but I will say I'm going to talk about general rules for delivery but you must know something. You cannot do anything wrong as long as you have a purpose for doing it. Does that make sense? You cannot do anything wrong as long as you have an adequate purpose for doing it. So generally I've just kind of talked around your question to say these are things to know to be guided by and sometimes to vary from because you know what you're doing. Can I help at all? What opening words require? If they are so important for listener attention and speaker estimation then they're just some logical consequences here. What opening words require? First they require careful preparation. They require careful preparation because they are so important. Second a gripping presentation. If people are granted if they know you good question before if they know you they're not quite making so much of an estimation unless they're visitors or new people, perhaps lost people there. High contact becomes very important to vary your head and your notes and read introductions to people is usually saying boy I'm not going to listen to this person you know it shows lack of care for your listener, not only lack of preparation for your message. So gripping presentation usually means good eye contact and not reading words for word. Three opening words require heart involvement, heart involvement. It's the time to start reaching for hearts to say I care about you. It's typically not the time to be argumentative. Now there is time for argumentation and a sermon and a message but the introduction is probably most of the time not the right time. The standard wording of hamleticians is the introduction is the handshake of good intent. Sound good? This is the handshake. I'm reaching out to you and say here come with me. I've got things to tell you. So as in your introduction you're trying to say here is good intention and I'm trying to reach to you and pull you into this message with the handshake of good intent. This typically means that in addition to careful preparation gripping presentation and heart involvement number four there is a strong lead sentence. There's a strong lead sentence. By that you're often saying if I were just to hear this opening line would I be interested in this sermon? The words were too close for comfort. What's he going to talk about? What's that going to be about? Versus something like the world's pleasures lead to dissatisfaction. Well they both stand alone but which would make you want to hear the message more? The generality of their particular. The reason we're doing all this is just an awareness of how sermons typically develop. This was in your readings as well. Remember that emotional intensity graph when you're saying where by the way for most of the time is the highest emotional intensity of a message. What do preachers usually try to have as the greatest emotional intensity of their message? The conclusion. That's right. The conclusion you are saying this is what's so important. This is why we talk. This is why we gather today. You must listen to me now on the basis of everything that I said and give that final exhortation. So that is the conclusion and nothing typically has greater emotive intensity than the conclusion. But the second point of greatest emotive intensity usually is what? The introduction. Now intensities is strange word. It doesn't mean bombast. It doesn't mean loudness. It doesn't mean great energy. Somehow you're saying I am caring about this and I want you to care about it too. So we typically start out with some indication of compassion and credibility. It's the engagement of the heart, emotive intensity. Now typically after that we move in some technical things. Here's my proposition. We begin to say lay out some context of the passage, that sort of thing. It would typically kind of roll off of that, but then we'll start climbing the mountain again. So that when we're done we recognize a sermon kind of has this eventual movement to it. It starts high, begins to explain, but it's moving up the mountain toward greatest emotional intensity. We're building the case to use kind of an argumentative or debater's language, but more than that we are laying foundations upon which transformation can be based. Question. In the introduction of the Mickey Mantle story I use words that would make the listener kind of go, what's he talking about, why is he? So you're creating question marks in the listener's mind. And is that a standard thing that happens in preaching, and the answer is yes. That is a standard. Now it's not, it's one strategy, it's not the only strategy. But one strategy is to create that sense of questioning. Others create a sense of wonder, another is create a sense of controversy, but they're very strategies to say how do I make you have to listen to this biblical material, but certainly one way is to create those questions. Why is he talking about it if that's not the answer, what's the other answer, different what questions, even to word things in a way that make you kind of go what does that mean as long as you're going to explain it later, so that you're creating that interest sometimes one strategy is by raising questions. Yeah, good question. If we move on to say, if these are the, the importance of introductions, what are some standard types of sermon introductions? And let's see, I've got one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, I've got seven of these, and you could multiply it times ten, you know, I mean there's so many variations of introductions, but here are some basic things that are kind of your basic tools to put in your toolbox to be aware of. One basic type of sermon introduction is called simple assertion, simple assertion. This is the most basic type of sermon introduction, and it should not be demeaned. That is where you just simply say, here's what we're going to talk about today. It's very clear, very forthright. I want to talk to you today about how harbored anger can harden the softest heart. I want to talk to you today about how harbored anger can harden the softest heart. Very straightforward, just here's the subject, simple assertion. Some variation on that is startling statement, so number two, a startling statement. Get out of here and never come back. That is what Jesus said to the money changers when he drove them out of the temple. You get out of here, and you never come back. You have no place in my father's house. You hear the startling statement, who would say such a thing? Faith without works is alive and well in living in this church. Would you listen to this sermon? I mean, if you didn't ride him out of town on the rail first, would you listen to this sermon? Again, some variation on that is not startling statement, but provocative question. Both question, why would a loving God tolerate hell? Would you listen to that sermon? Lots of people would. You ask a provocative question as the basis of getting the subject in view and also creating that I need to hear the answer to that. I recognize that problem. I need to hear the answer to that. Changing gears somewhat dramatically are catalog, catalog introductions. That's where we grouped similar items to form a single concept. Group similar items to form a single concept, a hammock under a shade tree, tall glass of iced tea, and Mozart on the breeze. That's contentment. I just grouped some items to create a single concept of what would contentment be, at least in worldly terms. Group things to make that together. If you're a fan of the sound of music, somebody do the song. Rain drops on roses and whiskers on, what's happening? Just grouping things to, this would bring happiness to your life, just it's a catalog approach. Here's one a little bit heavier. William Bennett, Kobe Bryant, William Jefferson Clinton, Martha Stewart, Inron Executives, you and me, secure in the world sinful before God, ready to be judged. You hear the catalog? What groups all of these people? You and me included, we may think ourselves secure in the world. But being sinful before God, we shall be judged. By the way, when I'm judged, I went Christ in my place. And that's the promise of the gospel that he will be. But there will still be a judgment as all stand before the great throne. So we're grouping items to make a point. That's a catalog approach. Remember the longer one in your readings with Lewis Smedes, where he just kind of grouped people in the audience and talked about their various problems. Again, it was longer, but it was still a catalog because he talked about people in their different situations, and the need they all shared. Annick Doats, another form of introduction that's standard is Annick Doat. Little boy went to his father and he said, Dad, what causes war? And the father looked up from his newspaper and he said, well, suppose the United States and Great Britain were to have an argument. And the mother said, the United States and Great Britain wouldn't have an argument. He probably said, well, I know it was just an example. Well, it wasn't a good example. I know I was just trying to make a point. Well, it wasn't a point that you could make that way. Nevermind said the boy. Now I know it causes war. Annick Doats often are the way to get humor to make a point in a message. And for just a moment, we need to talk about the strengths and the weaknesses of using humor in a message. Here's the basic idea. Humor serves you when you raise the hammer of emotional intensity in order to drive it more. You raise the hammer of emotional intensity in order to drive a point. Now, the reason you must hear that it's to drive a point and the humor is obviously being used to drive a point is what happens to listeners if the humor doesn't do that. Not so long ago, if you were trained in law or almost any business school, you were trained to start virtually every public address, every talk with a what? A joke. Start every talk with a joke. Because that little rubric from rhetoric long ago, the introduction is the handshake of good intent was taught over and over and over again. So people thought if I just say something funny, it will draw people in, they will like the joke, they'll feel good about me, et cetera. And it's true. If you were to, and many researchers did this, if you were to graph the attention, the emotional reason that people will listen to a message, they would say by using humor, the attention graph goes up very, very fast. Humor really draws people in and they listen. But here's the important but. What they also begin to recognize is everyone was doing this. So all listeners knew what was going on. You're telling a joke at the beginning to get my attention and to draw me in and to make me feel good about either you or the situation I'm in. Therefore what you are doing by telling the joke is you are trying to manipulate me. It happens so much in this culture that those who had researched it would say just as fast as attention was aroused. So this is attention. This trust, or we should say trust, I guess, trust went down just as fast. Because no one wants to be manipulated. Now what is the way of pulling these two lines together to accomplish your point? It is recognizing the humor does work when people do not feel manipulated. So the way they keep from feeling manipulated is they recognize that what you told us a joke is tied to the subject. It has a purpose. It is when the humor appears not to have a purpose other than manipulating me. And I will strongly distrust you. When the humor is tied to the point, in fact, I now even feel it in my heart with greater intensity because of the way that you use this. Now I actually appreciate the humor and recognize you did it with purpose for your subject. Not merely to manipulate my feelings. So these, now if you throw away humor from your message, believe me, you will be a very sour preacher. Did Jesus ever use humor? No question. Jesus used humor. You know, when he talked about you are willing to judge your brother, and by that you'll take the splinter out of his eye, but ignore the what in your own, the log in your own eye, when he would talk about it's harder for a wealthy man to get to heaven than to go through that. A camel do what? Go through the eye of a needle. And then there's all kinds of exegetical reasons, explanations, and what that needle is, there's no question that people still laugh when he said it. There was clearly something going on with the humor, but it had a point. And that's the issue. It must have a purpose that's clear. Question? Yes. Is there ever time when you're preaching that it's so heavy that the humor lets people off the hook? And let's say it both ways. Yes. And that may be negative, and it may be positive. It may be that you can't deal personally with the intensity anymore, and so just to lighten them, you know, to lighten up, you back off of it by kind of laughing, you know, if you do not accept my message, then there are going to be great and horrible consequences for this church. What did I just do? I had trouble saying this. I had trouble year hearing because I've got a humor to soften it somehow. But that may be very different than pastoral prudence that says, this is so heavy for so long. If I don't lighten up a bit, they will not be able to hear me. And so I need the humor to do that. I, Deans here on the front row, she and I were at a service somewhat recently in which there have been two churches that had a history that was sometimes not always positive. And so the pastor who at this service was dealing with it said, it's great to be here with this church. You know, we have been sister churches for a long time. And sometimes we've acted like sisters. Well, everyone laughed, but it meant he could go on with great authority and power because he'd kind of name the elephant in the room, enables to say, I'm not going to be intimidated by this. I can say it. You can laugh about it. So let's deal with it now and move on forward. And so that willingness, I think at times, can be a very powerful aspect of humor. I'm trying to warn you both ways, right? I'm trying to say, humor has consequences if it doesn't have a purpose. There will be consequences of just being afraid of humor and never being willing to show your own goodness of heart in the pulpit as well. Scripture can have a purpose and strong power as long as it has a purpose. And that's the thing to keep tied together. If it's just anecdote for humor's sake, I would caution you strongly against it. A couple of other notes about humor and we'll just deal with it a little bit and then move on. Who is the only person that you can make fun of in the pulpit yourself? Who is the only person you cannot pat on the back in the pulpit yourself? You know, you and I both sat in those churches at times where the pastor will say something like, I and my wife have made a commitment that we will never go to sleep at night without having shared the gospel to at least one person every day. And you want to go, well, good for you, you just want to slap him, don't you? The idea of commending oneself. Now sometimes there's difficulty that you want to say something positive happened and you did something positive. If you did something positive though, who gets the credit? God must get the credit. The Lord enabled. So it's not saying you never did anything good, but it's always giving the credit to the Lord if you did. And if you say something positive about yourself, typically say, now I recognize this was not of me, and maybe even my high view of myself is not of God, I mean somehow you have to come back across self-compliment. Now think of the other, how easy it is to create humor that is damaging to people and you don't even know it, because it's just so prevalent in culture, it's just so out there. I remember I did it one time, I'd used an illustration about a sheriff who was getting older and he needed to qualify for his annual pistol target test to keep using his pistol. And so he went to take his test, but he had just gotten a new pair of tri-focals. Now for those of you who shoot, you know that this is really going to be a problem, because you have to get the target in focus, the same time you've got to get the front sites of the gun in focus, and you've got to get the back sites of the gun in focus all at the same time. And this guy's got new tri-focals. And so he ended up, you know, kind of doing this like that. And finally he said, you know, I've been doing this for 30 years. And so he just let his instincts take over and he said I know where that thing is and he just shot where his instincts told him it had to be. And the sermon I was preaching on is about Christians developing instincts about what is sinful, that at times they will not be able to identify the specific verse that pulls the sin into focus, but they have so long lived for the Lord that their instincts tell them when something is off-base. Now I thought it was a pretty good illustration. And then I shook people's hands at the door of the sanctuary later. And my favorite, one of my favorite people in the world, my senior elder came up to me and shook my hand and then held it and said, Brian, I never thought I would hear you make fun of older people. What did I do? I didn't mean to, but I took advantage of other people's age and life in order to be funny. And it was not appreciated. Who's the only person that you can make fun of in the pulpit? Now, work with me here a little bit. Who are people that we typically make fun of in the pulpit? Because even jellicle, suburban, middle-class culture accepts it. Who do we make fun of in our churches with impunity? Say again, we make fun of our own families. My wife, the other day you should see what... What does everybody do when you mention your wife? They look right at her. How is she responding? How is she reacting? And how dare you make fun of your own spouse in front of everybody? So if you tell something that puts your spouse in a bad light, what must you do? Or even a compromising light? What must you do even as you're telling the story? Tell them that you've asked permission. You must say that. You must say, I have gotten my talk to my wife about this and she said I could. So assume that they know because you are communicating compassion and if you will be willing even to bring your own spouse into embarrassment, who's going to go to you for counseling? They will laugh at the joke, by the way. They will laugh. They just will not trust you. Who else do we make fun of in our churches? Children? Who else do we make fun of? Politicians, particularly of which party? Well, depends on what church you go to, right? You know what, it was so awful for me to meet an older woman in the basement of my church one time. We were going down the hallway and she simply stopped me and grabbed me by the elbows and she said, Brian, when did our people determine to get so mean? Because we tell so many jokes about the president in this church, I cannot bring my own unsafe children here because they are not of the political party that is most appreciated in this church. Think about that. We just tell the joke, everybody laughs, you know, we all agree this is somebody to make fun of and as a result, unbelievers, people who do not agree with us politically, but certainly people who are not already part of the clan see no reason to sit here, you just make fun of people who disagree with you. Who else do we make fun of? Other denominations, other churches. Again, it's so easy, so easy to do and because we do it so commonly, we do not hear the offense of it to people who, again, not already part of the clan. But think of this, I speak because of my position in mainly PCA churches and I go to churches that are quite large, some very historic in the PCA and often that means because you got some outside person there, they have joint Sunday school classes. So all the adults get together, sometimes the kids and I will always ask the question, how many of you were raised in a Bible-believing Presbyterian church? Even in the most historic of the churches that I go to, if 15% of the people raised their hands, that's an exception. It's almost always 15% of the people are fewer. Now if you're just telling Willie Nilly jokes about other denominations, what do you know you are doing? You are just making fun of people and their families and their backgrounds, Willie Nilly, and they will laugh, but they will not like you and they will not trust you. Racial and ethnic humor comes out in ways we do not intend using dialects of other people. And the little old lady said this to me just by using a dialect other than my own, describing somebody by their race who is doing a bad thing. And this great big old Indian came into the store and he said, what did the fact that he's Native American have to do with the account or did he sound worse because you identified his race? You may recognize that you did that, but by identifying race to the subject, it is stereotyping in ways that you may never have intended. There's the only person you can make fun of in the pulpit yourself and you sometimes have to listen very carefully to recognize what you yourself are doing because of how commonly humor is used to demean others to elevate us. Now, having moved beyond that, other ways in which we sometimes use sermon introduction that was all on anecdotes is news or historical accounts, news or historical accounts told in contemporary terms, news or historical accounts told in contemporary terms. We will come back when we talk about illustrations, about how even if we're using historical accounts, we do not leave it 2,000 years ago. How do we tell those accounts in contemporary terms? But above all things that I have mentioned to you thus far, the most important and commonly used and on the midterm type of introduction is this, the most common and most important are H-I-A's, human interest accounts, human interest accounts, a human interest account is a story of an ordinary or extraordinary person, or that it's a story of an ordinary or an extraordinary person in an ordinary or extraordinary situation, experiencing thoughts and emotions, experiencing thoughts and emotions with which ordinary people can identify, experiencing thoughts and emotions with which ordinary people can identify, is making Mantle an ordinary or extraordinary person, extraordinary, is his life ordinary or extraordinary, extraordinary, but is a person who pursued the world's happiness all his life and came up empty is that extraordinary, very ordinary and everybody can identify. So an ordinary, extraordinary person, ordinary, extraordinary situation, but with thoughts emotions and ordinary person can identify with. Listen, if Princess Dye tells us anything, her life and end, how a nation was gripped by somebody that you say, nobody could identify with that, you know, here's a queen with a Cinderella story whose marriage goes bad, who's lived under the press and in the eye of the world and so forth, but what do we recognize, no matter what came her way, very unhappy. I've never gave her anything that made her happy enough and it was in a sense that unhappiness with which so many people could identify that made them long to hear so much about her, ordinary, extraordinary people and human interest account is the type of story that will over and over again pull people in and make them have to listen. If you think about what are marks of poor sermon introductions, if you begin to get a feel of the importance and even what goes into them, what marks poor sermon introductions, the first two are the most important that I will mention to you, the marks of poor sermon introductions. The first two are historical recap, historical recap, and number two, logical literary recap, historical recap first. The preacher begins by saying, now at this time in the life of Israel, they are 40 years out of the land of Egypt and they are about to enter the Promised Land. They have been in the desert of Sin, they have wandered to the negative and they have gone around the Moabite territory, but they're getting ready to go into the Promised Land where they would face a number of different people. There will be the Hittites and the Jebusites and the Gerizites and some of these will be more, what are most people now doing? You know, you just heard, you know, the channels switch or else the switch turn off. They sat down many of them thinking, I know the Bible was written 2,000 to 4,000 years ago, but I'm sitting here because he's going to say something that applies to my life and in the first 20 seconds you convince them they are wrong. You're only going to say things that apply to thousands of years ago. Now, is all that information about history important to say in the sermon? Yes, it has its place. The introduction is not the place. It is very important information, contextualization is very important, but this is not the place. Very similar to historical recap is logical literary recap. Now here we are in the 5th chapter of Romans and you may remember that over the last three weeks what we've been covering is how this chapter has had its development to this point. In the first chapter of Romans, of course we saw the consequences of the fall and how that affects all people and in the second chapter we recognize that that fall came through the life of Adam who was affected by original sin but also had consequences in his own life so that redemption would be necessary and in the 3rd chapter we recognize that redemption necessity applied to all people because all of them and what are people doing now. Again, you just heard the switches go off. Now is it important to give that logical literary recap? Here's what's led up to yes, we will be doing that, but it's not the place to begin. Often what is happening and we will cover it next time is people are confusing the sermon introduction with what we will call the scripture introduction. The scripture reading itself has an introduction which may have some brief contextualization so that people know what they're reading but that is different than the sermon introduction that has this high obligation of arousing interest and communicating compassion. So the sermon introduction we're dealing with today we will deal with the scripture introduction another time but you typically recognize great errors occur in terms of arousal ventris not errors of doctrine or fact but in terms of just communication those errors occur when people start with historical recap, logical literary recap. Now here's some quick additions to marks of poor sermon introductions and you'll come and sensically recognize them all. A third mark of poor sermon introductions is a porch on a porch, a porch on a porch. You start with a story that leads to what? Another story, you know the first one didn't really make hit the mark what you were trying to get to and but it did lead you to an idea that leads you to the next idea to get to what you want to get to. Okay so how many introductions are there to a sermon? There's just one. There's just one. So a porch on a porch. You already know the next one. Broad or simplistic assertions, sermons that begin with broad or simplistic assertions. We should sin less. Might as well not have said it okay it's too broad it's not going to be gripping in fact it's kind of all there he goes again sort of thing. All right highly impassioned or argumentative beginnings, highly impassioned or argumentative. I mean I'm going to tease a little bit here but I mean just do your own feeling of what would happen to say today I'm going to tell you those important things in the world you must listen to me. Now if I just start that way what is everybody doing get out of my face what are you doing you know you're kind of it too much too fast too early all right now are there places to be highly impassioned of course it's typically not right off the bat more difficult for us because it involves so much pastoral prudence is using inappropriate cultural references using inappropriate cultural references very soon you will discover the importance of a rousing attention and that will create a whole host of temptations for you because you will recognize there are easy ways to do it that are inappropriate pasturally and one is to say things that are on the edge of acceptability for instance I begin to quote or name scenes from a controversial recent movie that may have violent graphic content sexually graphic content or a lot of profanity in it. Now it may be very applicable to what I'm saying. I may even kind of like the fact that it kind of sets people's teeth on edge because they're kind of saying oh so he's seeing that huh that's one possibility it may be movies maybe music maybe books you know we are a pop culture dominated generation and there are aspects of generation region maturity all to take into effect in terms of what is appropriate for you to be speaking from the pulpit for instance profanity do the people in the pew not know profanity they all know it they're not expecting to hear it from their pastor they're not expecting their children to be schooled on it from the pastor in the pulpit now maybe private meetings yes maybe got you know I've certainly been in situations where single moms have asked me as a pastor will you please come and talk to my son he's in third grade he's hearing all of these words he's repeating a lot of these words he's not listening to me will you as a male come in and talk to my son of course and deal with some of those issues but that's maybe different than other things we our culture is changing rapidly recognize that until the 1960s so many older people in your church would be of this generation the word pregnant could not be used on TV I remember the very first time I used the word homosexual in the pulpit and my wife was frightened because she thought I would lose my job simply because I used the word and that's only 20 years or so ago that I did that things moving very quickly in our culture so there are things we will talk much more about when we are dealing with illustrations but I just want you to be aware of the powerful temptation of well I really want them to listen to me so I'm going to raise their attention by saying this thing that you know to be on the edge it is your obligation to exegy two things you have to exegy the text what else must you exegy the people and now we can say exactly what movies you can cite and what you can't write no we're back to that pastoral prudence God called you to the situation he gave you judgment understanding of people and understanding of his word with what he has given you what are you able to say to communicate God's word we can talk about struggles with anger we can talk about struggles even with addictive problems that we've had what's the one thing that our congregations typically will struggle to hear from us as a category of sin sexual sin now other cultures are not this way some are more this way but our culture very much struggles to hear from the pulpit the pastor's own struggle with past sexual sin and the reason is because we know the recidivism is so very high if you struggled in the past they know you probably struggle in the present and so for a pastorate with that particular subject in even the past is going to be a great difficulty without saying so many qualifications that you may not have time to say in a sermon so I will typically say if you feel like you must talk about past sexual struggle then the place is probably the men's retreat with a few people around rather than from the pulpit and with everybody around and you know and the kid goes home and lunch and says mommy what did the pastor mean when he said you know is that the place so it is I love the terminology it's not my own redemptive transparency hear that redemptive transparency if I never indicate as a pastor my struggle then people say you don't know what's going on in my line you can't I can't listen to what you say because I can't identify with you on the other hand if the way I am being transparent actually undermines my ability to share the gospel then that is no longer redemptive transparency that is selfish transparency now what's the line what what phrase am I going to use again pastoral holy spirit is very important the life of the pastor isn't it a holy spirit teaching us convincing us helping us think the thoughts after God so that pastoral prudence is a major part of our judgment as we move through life and say what's appropriate for this people at this time in this place Dan yes is Dan is asking is it dishonest in a humanist's account to use people you know but change names in places again when we get to illustration we'll talk about it but the answer is it is if you use the right words for instance if I say of someone there was a man who came to my office a couple of years ago I'll call his name Bill what did I just say to people his name is not Bill okay that's what I just just by using the phrase I said to protect this man I am changing the name so I'm telling a true account but I'm going to say just by using that phrase I'll call his name Bill what I just said was that's not his real name but I'm protecting him by not giving you his name now integrity is in place compassion is in place everything's in place just by learning some phrases like that which we will learn so sometimes it's even putting yourself in the third person I know a man who but it may be that you recognize if you would tell about yourself it would be seeming to be self aggrandizing so it's better say I know somebody else you know I know somebody who did something and never mentioned your own name as a way of keeping from praising yourself it's still telling a true account you know what we're going to do now we're going very fast right I've missed one thing on the marks of poor sermon introductions after appropriate inappropriate cultural references just a hint not using other scriptures in your sermon introduction then the scripture you're going to be preaching from not using other scriptures in the sermon introduction then the one you're going to be preaching from just think pragmatically for the second they just open their bibles to Philippians too and in the sermon introduction you would say something like and in first Thessalonians 4 it says now what's everybody going to do oh I thought we were going to include me I was in the wrong place so by citing scripture references other than the one you're preaching about in the introduction it just confuses people will we cite other scripture references in the sermon of course but not in the introduction it just confuses people how do you make others have to listen to these introductions remember the old line there are those you can listen to there are those you can't listen to and there are those that you must listen to how do you become one of those in your introductions first by recognizing it is important to arouse attention you already know that but I'll just say it you can just talk about little tales for little minds and make fun of this need but don't you want people to create something interesting when you hear a sermon so arousing attention but number two and even more important is include an identifiable fcf including an identifiable fcf why do I have to listen to you have you identified a burden in my life that makes me recognize the word of God will deal with me today in this message as you are preaching to personalize the fcf and when I say personalize I don't mean personalize it for you as the speaker I mean personalize it for the listener I know what's going on in your life and I'm telling you this today in such a way that you recognize this engages your life I've identified a burden that you have okay and that is clear in the message the marks of good sermon introductions they have an effective start I encourage you very much to think about that stand alone standard well the opening sentence capture interest if it just stood alone if you just heard that opening sentence would it be an effective start second efficient length efficient length introductions are not too long it is just typed out standard margins standard single spacing on a page if it's two thirds of a page long you are right at the max you it's getting very long it's two thirds of a page most of the time it's about a half page in length about a half page in length which means just the way things break down two minutes is a very long one two minutes is a very long one typical length 90 seconds next it bonds to scripture it bonds to scripture somehow it tentatively points out that this text will address this concern it tentatively points out that this text will address this concern and the fourth it flows into the proposition the introduction flows into the proposition in what two ways in concept and terminology the concepts you've been talking about in that introduction are what the rest of the sermon will be about so the proposition is about that concept and the key terms the terminology is getting ready so to fill in the blanks there the proposition is actually a summary of the key ideas in the introduction it's a summary of the key ideas in the introduction that springboard us into the sermon the introduction prepares for the proposition in concept and terminology I wish you could almost just in your notes highlight put neon signs around this next sentence there should be no key terms there should be no key terms in either clause can you at least underline either clause there should be no key terms in either clause of the proposition that have not been mentioned in precisely the same terms in the introduction and if you could underline precisely the same terms remember I use the word satisfaction in the Mickey Mantle story right and then the proposition had the word satisfaction I didn't switch him and talk about satisfaction one place and fulfillment in the next place precisely the same terms were echoing because I'm getting the ear ready for what that proposition will be let's let's go to page five page four will come back to next time but page five here's what we are hoping to accomplish in our introductions we are creating a chain and we recognize that the introduction has the obligation of arousing attention of introducing the subject of creating an identifiable fcf I used to say it becomes personal but I struck that out just to make a point for you because when I said the fcf becomes personal people always thought about often thought this applies to me personally as the speaker but you're making it personal for whom the listener for the listener okay so you create an identifiable fcf bond to scripture somehow you'll indicate this scripture will apply will deal with this issue and then you prepare for the proposition in concept and terminology we'll look at one here very quickly this is the example that's in the back of your books so as you're preparing your messages you might look at this and think of these things as my mother listened to Mary's brazen confession her worst fears and suspicions were sadly confirmed Mary had just declared that she was leaving her husband and pursuing a relationship with another man for some time my mother had been noticing her longtime friend Mary making frequent tips to visit the owner of a store across the street from her own business rumors were flying in the small town where they lived and my mother had finally decided to find out what was going on my mother's tentative questions were met with surprising candor by Mary it's all right she said god has led me to this new relationship and besides I'll be much happier with him my mother left their conversation dumbfounded she was afraid for Mary she knew that if Mary continued on her present course that god would judge her for her sin she knew that Mary needed to hear both the words of rebuke of god's word and the hope of grace in Jesus Christ from god's word she wondered how can I warn Mary that god judges sin and yet provide her with the eternal hope of biblical truth how would you respond in such a situation here's one of those questions right my mother's account reminds us that opportunity to proclaim the truths of god's word can arise at any time often in unexpected situations in his providence god continually places us in situation after situation where we can provide hope by carefully and faithfully applying the word of god fcf about to come but most of us struggle to speak up with clarity and conviction when god calls us to proclaim his truth despite our knowledge that god will judge what will motivate us to overcome our hesitation and fears and enable us to speak the truth of god's word in many different circumstances that we face the apostle Paul's charge in second Timothy do you hear the scripture bond the apostle Paul's charge in second Timothy chapter four answers these very questions Paul writes that because god will judge sin have you heard the language of judging sin because god will judge sin we must proclaim his word have you heard that language yes in every situation you even heard about every situation heard that too key words of both clauses of the proposition have occurred in the introduction now you've seen a couple in this class you've got more examples in your readings it is time to do one so here's your assignment for next time is that the bottom of the page write a sermon introduction if you've read ahead it's not a scripture introduction so write a sermon introduction and proposition on the text you previously outlined this sermon introduction must be a human interest account okay so not startling statement not provocative question it must be a human interest account and must directly lead into your proposition underline the key terms of both clauses of the proposition as they appear in your introduction so up here I had things bold faced right so that when you saw these key terms they were already jumping out at you I want you somehow to indicate to yourself the same thing and for me is a greater you either underline or bold face the key terms in the introduction that are going to be appearing in the proposition so I'll be able just to kind of check did you do that did you get these words ready up here and I'll be able to compare also see underlined the fcf in your introduction have you identified the burden and made it applicable to the people you're speaking to so identifiable fcf underline and then note in the margin each of the other key components of a sermon introduction using the model on Christ-centered preaching page 235 and 236 as a guide that looks like this so in addition to the things I just asked you to do you'll see these things in that introduction it will talk about arouse attention introduce subject key words are identified there's an fcf shows how it becomes personal bonding to scriptures indicated and finally the proposition is indicated that is already in your readings okay so if you're saying what's he looking for you've got the page numbers there to look it up in your readings and identify in the margins each of those components in addition to the things that I just said here item e come to class prepared to present your introduction we'll have some people just stand right up here and present their introductions who will it be I'll tell you that day so come prepared to present all written introductions and propositions will be collected for grading during that class so come prepared to turn them in and to present them so you've got different examples you got example in your notes you've heard me give some examples you got an example in your book and you've got the instructions here of what we're looking for if you just look a little bit higher on page five you see that six point criteria when you come the next day the next class I will put this criteria on the board those six things and we will ask those six questions about the introductions that we hear I will say does it arouse attention did it introduce the subject did it prepare for the proposition concept in term not so you know that's precisely what you'll be evaluated for so the instructions are here your question will be I think when do we get our papers back so we're doing the right thing they should be in your boxes Monday but you already know what you're talking about right you already have some idea what your propositions key terms are so I would encourage you to take the time over the weekend to start moving down that path and there should be in your boxes Monday the outlines and propositions you've already turned it