By now, you're getting assignments back in class, and I don't know that I've ever Formerly gone through particularly for these small assignments what the the grading marks mean But if it's if it's not obvious the basic thing is if you're if you're getting it You're saying wow that's really good. You got it things are great. Keep swimming don't change much Just keep going forward. That's that's a plus if it's Well, you kind of got it But you need that to review it and Add some things or correct some things then that's a check so it means you're getting the basic idea, but it needs refinement and If you get one of these which are rare if you get a minus that means you didn't get it and It needs major revision or addition or change and if you're You know somewhere in between then you get check pluses and check minus So this is kind of the in between. Okay, so this is a this is most common get a check plus or a plus and You definitely know if you're getting a check or a minus there is additional work that would need to be done on that Assignment prior to its final form and remember what we're doing is we're building that final sermon So keep changing this is giving you feedback on the things that you're doing So the hope is that you'll look at and say I'm okay or I'm not okay things need adjustment or I'm going pretty square And just keep moving along in that regard. So that's what those a different checks pluses and minuses mean and Remember they do not hugely affect your grade I hope you don't get overstressed about those things my goal is to give you feedback and keep giving you feedback So that what really counts for the overall grade you have lots of info on before it becomes critical to you Let's pray and we'll proceed today
Heavenly Father as we Come through the rain outside. We remember that as the rain waters the earth So your word Feeds your people We praise you that we can be part of that rain shower for others bringing by the truths that you would give Light and life to those whose lives are dead and hurting and Turned to this world's idols Would you even this day as we begin to have individuals speak to us of what you have given them to say Enable them even in these brief assignments to not only since the truth of your word But the beauty of being able to share it Grant we pray Father your goodness upon us for Christ's sake and the sake of your people. We ask this in Jesus name. Amen What I'd like for you to do is take out the introductions that you're going to be turning in and Again, my goal is to have you not feel that what you've got typed out there has to be just Perfect when you turn it in but rather I want you to think about making changes even as we go through the class today So this is the the first thing I'd like for you to consider Would you look at your introductions and Do this make sure that there is an FcF that is underlined now the FcF is the burden of the message It is always stated in the negative. It is something that is wrong So if your FcF is something that says People in the world today love Jesus That is not an FcF the FcF is people in the world today do Not love Jesus. Okay, there is something that is wrong So it doesn't I have to have the word not in it, but it's something that is negative All right, so if you would take care to underline an FcF now you say oh no, I didn't do it that way Fine pencil in make notes cross out a line, you know draw an arrow and put another line in I'm fine so Underline the FcF question in the back It Thank you. No, it need not have the word not in it So it's okay not to have the word not But it does need to be something that's wrong and that you've identified it is something that is wrong Not as an easy way, but it's not the only way so somehow you have identified a problem Now as you look at that problem you're saying the whole sermon is going to be directed at that problem All right, so the whole sermon is going to be dealing with that problem and you want your listener to identify with that problem So it's not just something that when we say an identifiable FcF It's not just something that applies to you You have worded it in such a way that it applies to your listener So typically with the FcF there is a we statement somewhere around it We all struggle with we understand that this is a difficulty So somehow there is a reach remember the handshake to the listener that you're trying to pull the listener in as well You're not just saying I have this problem. You're saying we share it in some way So the FcF is that mutual human condition that listeners share with those two or four whom the text was addressed So you're identifying that mutual human condition So if you would under make sure you have underlined the FcF first step Then make sure you have a proposition because the introduction was to lead into a proposition So there should be a proposition that has both a what is true and a what to do about it So in that proposition there should be a principle and an application Because God will judge sin we must proclaim his word in every situation. So there should be one of those We should we must you should you must one of those imperative statements within the introduction not just Because God is sovereign he rules tomorrow Both are true statements, but there's no imperative in there Okay, so there has to be a truth and an imperative together Then once you've looked at both clauses Something about in this case the truth was judging sin and proclaiming word in every situation Then look up through your introduction and make sure that the key words of both clauses So on both sides of the comma On both sides of the comma that the key words of both clauses have appeared in your introduction So for instance here's judge here's word word another judge is sin another sin Here's another judge another proclaim word Those sorts of things anybody see situation here situation Here is situation here is word So I am looking this is actually what's called expositional rain You're looking for the key words of your proposition To already be up in the introduction so that they will rain down the ears being prepared right the ears being prepared for what that Proposition is so you want to look at both sides of the proposition and say did I get words for both sides in that introduction itself and Then do this additionally if you haven't bold faced it would you underline the key words of both sides of the proposition and Then underline them in the introduction as well now you recognize that I and the greater will be looking at a hundred of these things And we may not read real closely, but we will definitely say did he use these words up there? So that's what you're doing you're showing us for our eye that the words that you're using in the proposition have already appeared in the introduction Now again if you didn't do it do it now Okay, just go ahead and write it and figure out a way to get the key words of both sides that doesn't mean all the words right It's the it's the words that are kind of carrying your point They're carrying the central idea the key words of both sides Make sure that they are underlined within the introduction itself Mike That's a that's a good question Is it does it have to be exactly the same word in the introduction as in the proposition? And the technical answer is no, but the practical answer is yes in other words if if you are using the word death In the proposition, but the word dead were appearing in the introduction. I would say that's probably close enough But if you were using the word mortal in the introduction and you use the word dead in the proposition I would say that's not close enough All right, so it's it's a little bit of a judgment call of what the ear can take right so dead and death are probably close enough mortal and dead are probably not close enough That's a great question. Am I looking for expositional rain only in the proposition or for the main points as well in the anchor clause I'm looking for it in the main points as well because that will stay the same in the proposition But the magnet clause I'm not so in the magnet clause the one that will be changing I'm only looking for the expositional rain to the proposition itself Now we will talk about internal consistency of main points later on and when we begin talking about how intrad-l Illustrations and applications are formed will look for Expositional rain within the main point, but we're not doing that yet. Okay. All we're looking for at this point is kind of the matching of the intro and the introduction itself I say that the introduction and the proposition itself You with me so far? All right, so you at this point you've underlined Fcf and you've underlined keywords in both the proposition and in the introduction itself Now the last thing you were supposed to do was to identify from the From the reading these elements in the margin where you are rousing attention introducing the subject Again, noting key terms Statement of Fcf where you're making it personal bonding description and proposition now I'm not going to give you a lot of time for doing that right now, but I am going to remind you this is supposed to be in your margin So if you haven't done these things yet if these things are not appearing on your page while we're now in these next stages of class make sure you get them in All right, so these things should be on your margin and somehow identified and you know if you don't have it typed out That's okay. My goal is that you see it and are identifying for us that you've done those things I'm going to turn this off now, so if you need to look on to somebody else's that's fine But my goal is that we all are turning in pretty much the same things as we go through the end of the hour
Okay, here's what we're going to do now. I'm going to call on some folks and ask them to begin to present their introductions and we will be evaluating them according to these six criteria We'll say would I be interested in this sermon having heard your introduction? Does it arouse interest does it introduce the subject with an identifiable FCF? Can we identify what the FCF is and do we identify with it? Does it prepare for the proposition in C and T what's C and T? Concept and terminology okay concept and terminology does the opening Senate stand alone would it if I just heard your opening sentence would I be interested in what follows? So what am I doing here? I'm working against your English teacher a little bit, right? I'm working to work away from those big general sentences and say do you have something of particular interest as you're starting so opening Senate stands alone Does it become personal for the listener and does the introduction bond to scriptures? There's some reference to the scripture as it will be dealing with the subject that you have said is the burden of the passage now as we're Getting ready just a few words about delivery as we begin We'll have a whole lot more about deliveries the course unfolds But let's just talk about a few things to get us oriented to delivery Remember Teddy Roosevelt's famous statement of how you do political affairs you walk softly and Carry a big stick. We're not gonna do that Neither are we going to talk softly and that's the beginning, right? The beginning is simply to talk at an adequate volume now People begin to question oh, what is adequate volume particularly if you haven't had a lot of public speaking experience It is not conversational volume We are socialized in North America to speak to those at nearest distance to us So just for the moment. I'm gonna turn off this PA To the person who is at nearest distance to me We train ourselves in public speaking to speak to those at greatest distance from us We raise our voice naturally to speak to those at greatest distance from us now There's a there's just an old communicators tool of how you do this your voice will Automatically and naturally modulate to where it ought to be if you will simply look at the people in the back row If I say I'm gonna turn it off here again for a second So the old communicators rule is that you would Look at the person most distance from you and speak at a volume appropriately for them And it's not just doing all those things of gauging the size of the room, you know and you know what knowing all that sort of thing You just automatically will do that If you don't the tendency is to let social convention control you I don't want to speak to those people over there. It will offend the people close to me It won't if we speak to those people at greatest distance from us The people nearest to us automatically forgive they understand what we're doing they know it's a public speaking situation So we are seeking to overcome social convention and actually do what is natural The greatest hurdle to overcome in public speaking is actually to do what is unnatural So that makes sense When when you remember We're getting a varsity letter or something like that at the athletic banquet in high school And you just had your meal of rubber chicken and they were inviting you up on the stage You know you have walked all your life But suddenly getting up out of your chair and walking up the stairs to the stage You know suddenly you felt like oh no everybody's looking at me and I you know I start feeling very unnatural Whereas the most natural thing in the world would be to slip your chair back get up walk up the stage in public speaking We are intimidated by everybody looking at us. So we'll start doing things like we'll get very Statuesque we won't know what to do with these big old hams at the end of our arms You know and and and so we'll start doing very unnatural things many of us will assume the Napoleon stance You know and you start doing this Some will do the fig leaf approach some will do. I'm afraid of you Which means I put my hands behind me where they stop working Okay, so the first rule was we look at the back and We speak to those at greatest distance from us. We're not worrying about volume We're simply speaking to those at greatest distance from us. The second thing that we do is we simply stand up straight Okay, speak to those at greatest distance and stand up straight the things that keep you from standing up straight Very even by gender in North American culture Here's what men do in this culture when they are nervous Watch it. You'll see it immediately What did I just do with my legs? I cross my legs and leaned on the pulpit Okay, this says to everyone I am nervous and And this is a form of crossing motion protecting myself So I get close to this thing and I cross these legs We simply stand up straight and the way we know to do that is we've you know have both legs not crossed And then you wonder what to do with these things so you don't lean on them You know the old you know joke is that the first place that wears out on preacher's suits is their elbows because they're doing this Okay When I do this I create a shell with my body Now what happens when I have to look at my notes?
Okay, see the shell I end up talking into the pulpit rather than to people when I stand up straight about six inches off of the pulpit Then what naturally happens is I look at my note, but the plane of my face Keeps going outward so I can look very easily at my notes and say this is what's here Thomas Chavin of Salas Varian is some art Nick Predacondi just read it off my notes But I didn't have to Create the shell the other things that create the shells are grabbing the pulpit Very easy to do because again. I don't know what to do with these hands. So I grab what are called the horns of the pulpit These are the greater horns. These are the lesser horns and when I do that I now lock in You know and now what happens you see people gesture with their shoulders Is that natural? That's not natural the natural thing is if I were to take a videotape of any of you at the lunchroom and Just kind of you didn't know what I was doing you would do something with your hands You would raise them again to conversational distance you would raise them between the sternum and your nose You would talk this way and Of those of you who you know were a very demonstrative you would do a lot of this But those of you who are not demonstrative all you'd still be doing this occasionally We raise our hands to where somebody talking to us in a conversation would be aware of our gesture We don't even think about it. We don't say and this is my first point You know down it and we don't lock in to Napoleon and we don't start twisting our wedding rings Very tendent, you know the tendency is great now. How do you keep from doing all that? Okay, rather than kind of saying oh, no, no, you know, he touched he touched the pulpit. Oh, no, you know It's actually the opposite the easiest thing to do if you were in speech class of number you've done this You would always be told drop your arms drop your man You just feel so exposed and you know just feels awful down there the easiest thing to do is to rest your hands on the front of the pulpit Just rest them right here easy no problem now. Where are they available to you? Why would they need to be? They're just right there to gesture all the time and you stop even thinking about it after you've been through this talk We're now you're going to be so conscious of it, you know But if your hands just instead of grabbing you know grabbing onto the sides where they stop working if they just rest here Now that that's where your notes are going to be right It's not at all wrong to kind of put your finger on where you're going to start in your notes Because now your hands going to move and when you want to they'll just be natural to talk to people and That's the goal the The tendency and something like a homelike its class is to think that I will add something to your delivery that will make it better Actually, my goal is the opposite. It is to subtract from your delivery. What is unnatural? It is to subtract from your delivery. What is unnatural? It is it is not natural to speak to people like a statue Okay, it's not natural to talk to people whom you respect and put a shell over yourself and look down The natural thing is to just stand up straight and talk and that's what we'll do So the two basic ideas are How do you govern where you how loud is your voice Speak to those it's first thing to do is I mean it sounds so it sounds so easy But it's hard to do because we're socially trained out the first thing to do is I would encourage you who will speak today Look at your notes take a breath and your tendency is going to be look right here and just kind of say what Look at the back Okay, first thing to just look at the back And your voice will naturally pick up to where it ought to be and then the second thing to do is to stand up straight Now I've done this for so that you're not kind of blown away about I've done this probably for about 20 years now and even though I give this little talk before the introduction time Probably two out of every three people who talk will inadvertently still cross their legs It is just you know, we don't reckon by the way females don't do that males do this females cock one leg And you think wow where do we pick at that in our culture? I don't know But it's just it just when we're feeling kind of the pressure the moment and we just kind of do those things But it signals to everyone I'm nervous now Listen, you're going to be nervous Right anybody would be it be foolish not to be You know people are looking at you. You're going to say things You're going to wonder if you're going to say it the right way or not Listen the mark of great speakers is not That they fail to make mistakes It is that they are poised when they make mistakes Everybody makes mistakes absolutely everybody So the mark of great speakers is not that they fail to make mistakes It is that it doesn't bother them Okay, and then everybody's at ease, right? It's when we go oh no, I messed up Oh, you know, then then everybody gets real nervous for you But if you say ah everybody messes up sometimes Then we're entirely at ease and we don't mind a bit and we're just ready to roll Everybody's going to make mistakes everybody's going to cross their legs sometimes Okay, so don't worry about it, but just you become aware of it over time Okay, ready Andy pick a number between one and five Okay, see this why I will blame you and they won't blame me from hero to zero Is this Christian loser a winner or not That would be the headline in the local newspaper the day after the homecoming game was over John Hamilton was a starting wide receiver on the football team and this would be his last game With only a couple seconds left to play he would encounter the greatest test of his young career Now he has spent four years at this southern university and he had decided that this was a difficult place to be Growing up in a Christian home he was suddenly encountered this culture that was so difficult Temptation and evil were everywhere and so John from the very first day of practice four years ago Got into the habit of kneeling and asking God the same thing every day Lord help me be a man of integrity Help me to be separate from the world Help me to separate myself from evil And now the greatest test of his career would come Hamilton's team was down by five points with only five seconds to go in the fourth quarter With only one play remaining the coach called in the play the quarter back announced it to the team And Hamilton realized that this was his last chance as famed to be remembered as a star athlete Hamilton ran his route and ended up in the end zone The quarterback through the past straight to him the problem was it was just a little bit low Leaving his feet Hamilton dough for the ball and landed on top of it He looked up and the referee held up his hand signaling a touchdown And suddenly Hamilton was in the center of attention Surrounded by his teammates who were streaming and looking into the eyes of a crowd that had almost rose to a deafening roar Hamilton suddenly had a problem With all this celebration going on he knew in his heart that he had trapped the ball Trapping the ball simply means that it hit the ground before he caught it And while the celebration continued Hamilton snuck out of that intimate little gathering of teammates And quietly he approached the referee As the referee then approached center field Everyone became quiet 50,000 people stared at the referee The referee announced that the ball had been trapped That Hamilton's confession led to the touchdown being recalled Hamilton's Touchdown was no longer good and his team lost the game From hero to zero Is this Christian young man the hero or not The test took place in a matter of seconds What would you have done such a difficult question would you have held the ball up? Would you have kept it as a trophy would you have accepted this victory and the applause and praise of the crowd? Or would you and I have gone to the referee and looked them in the eye and said there's a problem Would we for the sake of our witness as Christians being separate from evil Would we have told the referee? I'm sorry, but you made a mistake. I trapped the ball Hamilton's behavior is so very different from what we encounter every day in this world and sometimes from even how we act in this world The Bible reminds us in second printing six that we every single Christian every single day Are supposed to separate ourselves from evil Since we as Christians belong to Christ We must choose to separate ourselves from evil
We're doing great aren't we? Very fine. Okay, let's let's talk a rouse interest. Would you be interested? Oh every red-blooded male would be Yeah, good football story. No, that's that's certainly helpful Introduce the subject. What will the subject be?
Integrity honesty, okay? So say again Choices to make that are difficult. Okay. We've probably different ways of saying it Of course the proposition is going to have to tell us which of these things it is ultimately, right? Because when we know it could be various things Some point we got to have the arrow to say this is it and the proposition is that arrow but recognize the general subject of integrity is there fallenness coming into view something that's potentially wrong here Britain what's the possible problem?
It is implied throughout the story and it that probably troubles us at some point because at some point we got to have a direct statement Fcf it does come but it may have come a little late so we'll talk about it So we know that it's going to be problems with integrity problems of keeping your witness when pressures around So we know that general subject but pairs for the proposition in concept and terminology What do you have for a proposition? since we Since we belong to Christ we must Did it was it choose to separate ourself from evil? Was there a choose in there Stephen? Okay, I thought so we must choose to separate from evil was there language of separate from evil in there? Clearly Was there things about choosing to do so was there language of what would he choose to do was that in there? Clearly we belong to Christ was that language in there I'm getting head shaking Steve. I you may have mentioned it. I'm looking for you. Where are you? Stephen was there belong to Christ language in the introduction anywhere?
Okay, well fine Your assignment will still be a plus But isn't it interesting that our ears knew it wasn't there and the reason is when it came it surprised us We hadn't heard that language So you see how your ear is kind of trained that you're telling me what that subject is In the introduction so when I get the identification of the subject and it's not the wording that I'm expecting My ear picks up automatically. Whoa. That's not what you said we'd be talking about So good. I think good that it's there in writing and it even gives us a good example to talk about So concept and terminology of both clauses Is there at least in writing opening sentence stands alone. What was the opening do you remember?
Now that's just really right on. I mean we we know that that hero to zero language that you know What would the headline say you know we are ready to hear what the rest of this message is about So in that opening sentence stands alone just very good The fcf becomes personal for the listener now this requires you both to identify what the fcf is and then say did he rope me in How did he do that did he do that Britain you had some questions about whether he wrote us in On the fcf What he said was he said the football player what he did Now again Steven is I think rightly making a choice It's more important than I communicate than I follow word for word what I write in my notes But he said what Steven did is different from what we see in society and different from the Way we act So he said that the trouble is now the it is a long way of what what is what is the it? So if he said something like what Steven did acted with integrity Is so hard and so different from the way we can act now I've suddenly got the fcf identified. It's hard and different from the way we act But the it is integrity and difficult situations So Steven is probably all there in writing But I think it's you know we kind of wonder what is the exact thing we're talking about and did you say it's my problem You with me So you want to make sure that fcf is stated question
Very good. It is a way of getting it getting us in as those analytical questions right what would you do Would you find this difficult? You know all of that kind of pulls us but at some point we got to know what the specific thing is Okay, again, it is the burden of the sermon the negative thing that the whole sermon will be addressing With obviously redemptive truths. It's a negative thing because there's the gospel to deal with it So that's going to be there Okay delivery eye contact Oh the ends as major Very very good could you hear him back there Andy? Michael could you hear okay Not at times you're saying Okay Certainly is my greatest tendency. I will tell you when people kind of tell me they can't hear me It's because I do what men in this culture do we back away from strong statements in the new sense. I really mean this We drop the ends of statements when we're trying to say something with emphasis because we're we're trained not to offend people So we kind of back away from power and that's just something that we have to learn our way out of it times And just kind of keep the volume up at the ends of sentences who's got the name sheet. Oh gestures. How are they? Easy and you if you ever notice when gestures are naturally disappear You don't even notice it then and that's the way it's actually supposed to be that the best speakers are transparent to their message So you're not you're not even a witt and I was watching him because I'm kind of trained to do it But but he was just he was just very natural and as a result we know he really think about it if he'd done this You know we would have been very aware of it if he'd done this we would have been very but he just had his hands here and occasionally He would gesture at the right we didn't even think about it just because it was so natural winning. It's just a piece of cake At least that's how people some people look at Lance Armstrong He's a six-time to the France champion And may I add that he managed managed to do that in consecutive years Armstrong is truly one tough guy to be Even tougher than the bike race itself No one of some newspaper headlines named the race after Armstrong Because the race to the lands without a doubt one needs a lot of preparation to participate in such a race proper diet physical conditioning and drills indoors and outdoors Well outperforming competitors in a race is tough enough Armstrong will tell you that the toughest guy to bid is he himself Because the race is more of a test of will than physical strength To win one has to fully concentrate at all times Life is like a race Only those who pay full attention and full concentration to the goal can ensure victory But sometimes when the race gets tough We may be overwhelmed by the obstacles And being dragged down by our weaknesses Github seems to be attempting ease the way out Very often to strive in success of the role model Can motivate us to go on prominent figures like Armstrong Everywhere Iranates From Michael Jordan Kirk Warner Even to a guy named Jared in the Subway commercial Who are the MVP's you look up to in life In the book of Hebrews the author draws out attention to some well-known factors in the Old Testament Another and some heroes in the church history Simply point out the fact that we are not alone Because just like these Christians who finished before us We are called to participate in the tough spiritual race We must run with full concentration
Well, I am most impressed with the folks who are working Past language and culture and still doing exactly what we're asking Yeah, so that's that's so tremendous are you interested Sure, I mean talk about using the language of this culture not only picking up an event like lands Armstrong But who are your MVP's did you hear that you know kind of like what a great way of of pulling us in What will the subject be what will the subject of this message be
Running with concentration overcoming obstacles to do so something like that. So running the Christian race with concentration
What's the FCA Philip? I think said it just right it is when the race gets tough We tend to get overwhelmed by the hurdles That's a pretty direct statement of the FCA that and that's just exactly right When the race gets tough is not people out there it's we tend to get overwhelmed with the hurdles and wonder if we could sheep could keep going and we lose our what We lose our concentration So and then he even said language like we are sometimes help by other examples and role models Is that with this tech and when you start thinking about it's not just using the terms But the concepts is this Hebrew's passage going to be about other role models that keep us you know it is So we're getting not just the bare terms The Introduction has the concepts of not just the message, but the passage already echoing in it Opening Senate stands alone. Did you get it? Winning is just like what winning is just a winnings piece of cake especially for Lance Armstrong Again very good thought very good way of getting us in Becomes personal does he pull you in what again are the means of doing that What are ways that he pulls us in to say this burden of the message you have this burden to we already know he said We sometimes struggle in the race to keep going Here's some of the questions who are your role models Who are your examples do you struggle he's asking questions to pull us in as well bonds to scripture does he mention the text? Sure he does and we're ready to go. What's the proposition?
Philip you're trying what is it?
Okay, because we are called to run in its tough spiritual race We must run with full concentration. Have you heard about full concentration in the introduction? Have you heard about running a race in the have you heard about we are called to run the race? I'm not sure I heard that piece that struck me as kind of new information in the proposition. I wasn't ready. Oh, we're called What where do we talk about that if if you simply said because Christians run a tough race I'm ready for that But the calling language may be significant enough that it may have thrown my ear a little bit Okay Let's have pause and I've asked you to do some things. I've asked you to look at your Introductions and your propositions and make sure the key words of the proposition both clauses up here within The introduction itself Would you trade your paper with the person next to you and show them Here's both clauses and here's where the key words of both clauses appear and person that they're giving it to be brave enough to say I don't see these key words in that introduction Okay, are you ready for the next step? Okay, continue to look at the other person's paper and identify the fcf and again with courage and boldness and great love Said to the other person does it say what our problem is? Not what somebody out there does it I did does it relate the fcf to us So is it a problem a negative and does it say we all deal with it? So those two things the problem and rope us into the problem
Okay, would you give it back to the person now? And I'm gonna give you about two minutes to correct whatever you need to just in writing if there's not a we all struggle with this problem If the proposition does not have a principal and application if there are key words missing Take care of it right now. Let me give you about two minutes to just fix it in writing I'm being asked um, did I give guidelines for time and the answer is yes I did remember I said you go beyond two-thirds of a page. It's way too long So uh, so you're you're basically looking at if you've gone all the way across the page half a page But an introduction usually goes a minute and a half to two minutes and two minutes is a real long one Okay, so a minute and a half about average And it is interesting our instincts kind of tell us You know, I don't we're just kind of accustomed to how long these things take and we're ready to roll And part of that is because our even gelical Whatever it is expectation that sermons are roughly 30 minutes long, you know That if it's taking me 12 minutes to get to the first main point we know that's a real problem You know, so we somehow we have an instinct of how long these introductions take
Yeah, right What what I what I can only do is kind of do it both ways to say Under normal typeface, etc. It's about a half to two-thirds of a page if But if you've done other kinds of margins, which of course you did a little bit today because I ask you to put things in the margin Then I can only do it by the time length and there you're talking about 90 90 seconds to two minutes and uh and adjust accordingly But if you've got about four pages, that's way too long
Yeah, question Yes When when we get to the lectures on illustration we'll talk about advantages and disadvantages of different types of of analogies And basically you can do anything But not always Okay, so I mean the great temptations of course our guys who got a lot of sports background so every illustration is about sports Guys from military background so every illustration is about their military background or the guy who really loves his dog You know every illustrator, you know So, you know you you can do lots of different kinds of illustrations, but variety is the spice of life here You know, so I think variety of from lots of different Not just episodes of life, but even eras of life some biblical illustrations, some historical illustrations Some contemporary, you know the things that you kind of reach different places Typically works best that there's that degree of variety But sports illustrations are not wrong Unless they're the only kind you're using then that would be a problem Let's go to lecture seven again. Let's go to lecture seven and there's a piece which was on page four That we skipped for the moment And we need to come back to it lecture seven and page four
Now some of of our preaching just needs to deal with practicalities of a public presentation Of a scriptural text Now if I'm saying to people Look with me in your Bibles at first Thessalonians four versus one to four And now I just start begin to begin reading brothers. I would not have you ignorant concern Now what happens if I just start after I've announced the text what's happening Everybody's going wait wait wait. I'm not there yet. You know, and they're trying to they're trying to turn to their Bibles They're trying to get there. So you have some choices You can just ignore their trauma And you can just keep reading you know Or you can have this embarrassed long silence And just kind of wait for everybody to get there while you're saying nothing Now curiously preachers don't typically do that You go all the way back to the 13th century and there is this unusual name coming out of the history of homolytics his name is Thomas Chabin of Salisbury Thomas Chabin of Salisbury who in a in a Approach to homolytics called the summa de Arta pretikandi which is the highest art of preaching Okay, so he just says Here's ways to do things And he began with what he called the pro Or the anti now not a NTI is against but a NTE as in before the pro or the anti theme That is something that is introducing the theme of the sermon Prior to the reading of the text in modern terms. This is known as the scripture introduction And the scripture introduction is where we give just a little bit of background to the text Before people read it now. We're doing it for two reasons One is so that they will have the context of what they're reading so we give them a little background You know at this point Paul is in prison, but he hasn't lost his hope And that's why he talks to people of their hope. Let's read what it says now. I'm giving a little background But what am I just practically doing at the same time? I'm stalling that's right Mike said that's kind of well. I'm stalling in the sense of I'm giving people time to get there Now what am I going to do when they get there? Recognizing that everybody does this First, Thessalonian my Thessalon. I wonder where that is in the news. Oh, yeah It's the teas are all together. So it's Thessalonians and Timothy and how it's okay. All right. I got it got it Now I bumped my neighbor in the ribs and I go what do I say to my neighbor What first did he say? Right don't you know you do it too, don't you know now you got it and you say now what verse did he say now everybody else is doing that too So in order to keep this conversation going throughout the congregation what does the pastor do again? He re-announces the text okay, so I announce the text today We're going to be looking at first Thessalonians the fourth chapter verses one through four Now what's happening here is Paul is in prison and he recognizes he has to give people hope But the hope is in the face of life's greatest challenge death itself. How can you have hope in the face of death? Paul's going to tell us look with me again first Thessalonians four Verses one to four. I may even say it again. First Thessalonians four one to four And I'm giving people the chance to get there to locate it and then read with me If I don't give them the opportunity to come and long and read with me, what will they do? They will give up We are in a highly biblically illiterate culture And if you don't allow people to get there and follow with you even if you give them that time many people will not Now you know, I speak in a great many churches And I will tell you that no matter what time I give and how solely I do it probably 25 to 30% of the people will not look at the text in almost any church. They will not look at the text. Where will they look? They'll look at me Now how important does it be is it for me to keep ladling with my eyes Right just to record if I just become a shell and look now at the text even though I'm reading I need to keep reading out to the people Okay, so that's for everybody's sake, but I'm also giving people time to get there West
Oh great question. Is there ever benefit to not reading along and the answer is yes, of course There are times that you want to say I just want you to hear how this passage goes. I want you to feel it I don't think that's the norm But certainly there are good times to do that And most of the time we want because we're going to be preaching on the text we want them there So that we can do a pattern we'll talk about here shortly Which is state place proof I'll state a truth then I'll place it look with me at verse three Then I'll prove it it says and I'll read the portion in the proof so that state place Prove for an expositor is very very important I want to be able to say this is what the text says look with me and you'll know I'm speaking with the authority of the word of God because you got your bibles open and you see I'm simply saying What it says so for those reasons now what goes into this Pro theme what goes into this scripture introduction a couple of things number one As you think of the purpose of scripture introductions number one you are contextualizing the text You're contextualizing the text explaining key words or concepts so the text can be understood I mean maybe people in your congregation everyone knows what the Levites are And maybe very few know what the Levites are so you may just say This is the priestly tribe of Israel the ones who led in worship Now you're not going to say a whole lot But you're going to say enough that they know what that text refers to The second thing is you're trying to create a longing for the content of the passage so the text can be heard Now that's the one to star and underline and put highlights around and everything else It is the beauty and yet the slight disadvantage of learning preaching in an academic institution That everyone will do number one contextualize at this point Paul is in prison at this point Israel has already been wandering for 40 years Okay, everybody knows to do that But to develop those pastoral instincts where you say Have you ever wandered and for a long time wonder when God was going to get you to the goal These people wondered how did God speak to them To do something that says come with me into this text Particularly in this culture where people do not understand that the text applies to them with meaning Okay, very now various congregations. I know we will very greatly But we are dealing with the notion of this wasn't just some remote thing long ago This has meaning for you today and seek to pull people in to the scripture reading Because the great tendency sadly is to think you know what even me I have to get through the scripture reading so I can get to the really important stuff My sermon Instead of saying This is the word of God. I want you to hear this. I want you to know. It's important to you And if all we do is that contextualization Israel has been in Wandering for 40 years Paul has already dealt with the subject of justification now he's going to deal with sanctification Now if we only do those kind of literary historical recap things We're pushing things away from people instead of pulling them in And don't you need to know that now that's your God's things can get better Don't you want to know that? That's what this passage says So you're doing it now you're doing it very quickly In the example that was given to you Do you remember in your readings? Excuse me in your lecture notes the the sample sermon that's there Let me find it here The scripture introduction is usually only three to four sentences It is not another sermon in itself You're trying to be very brief
This is actually a fairly long one Paul's second letter to Timothy was written at the very end of the apostles life And he concludes this letter to his young protege with some final words of direction and encouragement When Paul is writing these lines he realizes that his death is near That his race is almost over and so therefore He is handing the baton of his ministry to Timothy his faithful But timid young disciple and friend the charge that Paul gives to Timothy in this passage will encourage us And help us understand how we are to proclaim the truth of God's word in the diverse situations we face every day You see that little tag at the end to pull us in Now I think you could strengthen it But at the same time you're saying I'm not just talking about Paul's context. I'm talking about our context When you hear me begin to evaluate your sermons. I will call this the c and the c contextualization and creation of longing contextualization and creation of longing when you do your scripture introductions Does it have the c and c contextualization do I know why we're reading this kind of where it is historically Biblically Again, it's not a whole sermon Recognize a lot of people are even hearing you at this point right you're giving them time to get to the text But at the same time you're trying to pull them into the text And that's the creation of longing component too. So those are the two most important things contextualization creation of longing I have an assumption and it's the Thomas Chabin of Salisbury's assumption It is that the scripture reading is going with the sermon. Is that true in all of your churches No, in some of your churches the scripture reading goes much earlier in the service Now you may be helpful to have a scripture introduction even there But my assumption is that this is what's happening there is a scripture introduction There is a scripture reading There is a prayer for illumination And then there is the sermon in production And I won't try to defend all that and say, you know, this is the only right way This is all the law isn't there's a certain practicality to how this unfolds Do you ever find preachers who want to pray for the scripture reading before they read it? Of course Sometimes they can be very strong readings even theological readings to ask for the blessing of the Holy Spirit before you even read the text The difficulty of doing that is you have now separated the reading from the scripture introduction You were trying to get people in So you get them to turn to it and now you stop and pray and now you've kind of lost why they were reading it So there's just kind of an order that preachers have adopted that has both strengths and weaknesses But that's a fairly standard order Now those first two are the most important of the C and C's Number three, what else are you doing? You're allowing pause You're allowing pause Number four, you may slice out the portions of the text that will not be dealt with You may be reading versus one to thirteen and telling people I'm read, have you ever heard pastors say we're going to read the whole thing for context But I'm only going to focus on verses two and three. Have you ever heard a pastor say that? They do it in the scripture intro. They know what they're saying We're going to get the whole context but we're really going to focus right here And that happens in the scripture intro And then we'll get into it in another semester or so won't do it now But just in your notes you may be providing narrative summary in the scripture intro narrative summary Some narratives and scripture can go how long Chapter upon chapter so I may be using the scripture intro to say now What's happening in the life of David is this there's where we find him Now let's hear what he says just at this moment and we may just read three or four verses But I may have to summarize three chapters So my scripture intro can often be a place that I summarize a lot of material To focus on something fairly narrow and read it All right at the bottom of your page You just kind of see a standard order for presenting the components of the message and we'll do more of that later For now, I just want you to recognize that there is the scripture intro That is separate from the sermon intro and serves a different function One of which is largely pragmatic Just give people time to get there Whereas the sermon intro is very much saying come with me into this message and deal with a problem that we all know God needs to deal with today in our lives And that's what the sermon intro is accomplishing We'll talk more later would you on your way out leave your assignments on that back window again And read ahead now for next time to the next lecture of material See you next time great work today guys