2 Timothy 4:2-4

Speaker 2: Thank you for that, Miss Alicia. Thank you, Bibles, if you have them and turn to the book of second Timothy, Second Timothy chapter number four is where we're going to be tonight starting out. Second, Timothy, Chapter four. And we're going to read verse number two as you find your place. You wouldn't mind standing in honor of reading God's word. Second, Timothy, Chapter four, verse number two. The Bible says this, it says preach the word

Speaker 5: be instant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long

Speaker 2: suffering and doctrine. The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine after their own loss shall heap to themselves teachers having itching ears.

Speaker 5: They shall turn

Speaker 2: away their ears from the truth and shall be turned onto fables. Let's pray God, we asked you to help us now as we look into your word. I pray that you give me the words you'd have me to say. You'd help the folks that are here to listen and apply to hear their lives. For us in Jesus name, I pray.

Speaker 5: Amen. Thank you. Maybe seen it. All right,

Speaker 2: so you're the Wednesday night crowd.

Speaker 5: Pretty good chance,

Speaker 2: and as I look around, I'd say

Speaker 5: stands, it stands true that for most of you

Speaker 2: here tonight, this is your third preaching service of the week. You were here Sunday morning. You were here Sunday night and now you're back on Wednesday night. You are.

Speaker 5: Messed up. No, I'm a glutton for punishment. No, that's not it, either.

Speaker 2: You sit through a lot of preaching, don't you?

Speaker 5: It's OK, I'm not going to defend him. Yeah, he seems

Speaker 2: a lot longer than it actually is. If you want my honest opinion.

Speaker 5: When you think

Speaker 2: about our services here at the Baptist Tabernacle, when the Baptist Tabernacle assembles.

Speaker 5: There's really nothing else that trumps

Speaker 2: preaching when it comes to the time allotted

Speaker 5: to it.

Speaker 2: Prayer, you know, we we open in prayer. We pray for the offering, we pray for the message. We pray to close the service on Wednesday nights. We still spend time praying for different needs.

Speaker 5: But we don't spend

Speaker 2: a whole lot of time in prayer together.

Speaker 5: Right.

Speaker 2: Singing even I mean, we'll usually sing three or four songs, the service, we'll have a special, we'll have an offertory.

Speaker 5: But even the singing

Speaker 2: we start at seven o'clock, we prayed. We sang

Speaker 5: an offering. It's only seven twenty. You know, you're

Speaker 2: not getting out of here before eight o'clock. So what does that say about how much time is going to be spent preaching?

Speaker 5: It's more. OK. Now. Is the amount of preaching due to some narcissistic move on the part of preachers everywhere, the preachers just like to hear themselves talk? Would you like?

Speaker 2: I don't know how to answer this, what do you want us to say? Yes, I think you do.

Speaker 5: You think it's right that we spend

Speaker 2: this much time on this one activity?

Speaker 5: OK, you don't have to answer that one. I just want you to think, is that right? Is it is it

Speaker 2: appropriate for us to spend this much

Speaker 5: time giving ourselves too preachy? I mean, 40 minutes. I thought it was interesting.

Speaker 2: I was reading some articles about studying preachers and how long they go.

Speaker 5: The number one most

Speaker 2: popular length of sermon is twenty five to twenty eight

Speaker 5: minutes.

Speaker 2: Now this is Preacher reported. They're reporting that their sermons are twenty twenty twenty five to twenty eight minutes. Now, if you ask their congregations, I don't know if that would hold true.

Speaker 5: The second most popular length is forty five to fifty minutes. I'm like, what happened to the 30 minute group where they go? You know you're either

Speaker 2: below 30 minutes or you're over 40.

Speaker 5: But, you know, I I do think preaching is primary to our means, we

Speaker 2: say out in our failure that we believe in the necessity

Speaker 5: of fellowship and what. Teaching, teaching from God's word. There are a

Speaker 2: lot of very flowery definitions of preaching that if you went to Bible college or seminary, they would make you memorize.

Speaker 5: But at its most basic preaching is the

Speaker 2: transfer of

Speaker 5: a message to a group of people taking the message

Speaker 2: and transferring it, communicating it to a group of people.

Speaker 5: The word that is

Speaker 2: that preaching the word preaching is based on throughout the New Testament is the word Caruso, which is a word that was used to refer to a

Speaker 5: a herald or a town crier.

Speaker 2: If you're using King James as I am, then that same word is also translated in the Bible to mean publish

Speaker 5: or proclaim and so preach, publish, proclaim. All of these things have within them the idea of communicating a message to other people.

Speaker 2: Now, you know that preaching is almost always an audio event. I'm making noise with my mouth and you're listening to it.

Speaker 5: But preaching is not supposed to be exclusively an audio event, is it? Thanks.

Speaker 2: I mean, who really wants me to just like hide down here underneath the

Speaker 5: pulpit and I'll

Speaker 2: just have my notes and I'll talk to you and you can't see me or my face or anything like

Speaker 5: that. Look, I can still see me. I. That's weird. Nobody wants that.

Speaker 2: That's why we don't put audio only sermons on our website anymore, we got videos on there because that way if you missed a service, you can go back and you can at least see kind of what was going

Speaker 5: on while the message was being delivered.

Speaker 2: Visual communication is necessary

Speaker 5: when communicating with someone. Hand gestures, sometimes visual aids, facial expression.

Speaker 2: All of these things work

Speaker 5: together to communicate a

Speaker 2: message, and if preaching is taking a message and transferring its other people,

Speaker 5: then don't you think we should probably

Speaker 2: engage all the different types of communication that we have at our disposal? There's another form of learning, not just audio or visual that is kinesthetic learning, kinesthetic learning has to do with muscle memory and repeated motion and teaching the body how to do different things. It's essentially practicing or acting out what you've been shown and taught.

Speaker 5: Now it is my responsibility

Speaker 2: to work on my audio

Speaker 5: delivery. It is my responsibility to work on my, my visual, my body communication. But when it comes to kinesthetic learning,

Speaker 2: actually putting things into practice, that's a part of preaching that I have very little control

Speaker 5: over because it is mostly due to you. It's up to you to take what you hear, to take what you see and actually. Do it and act upon it. I need a volunteer for a visual aid. Everybody are.

Speaker 2: Stand up at once. All right, thank you, Mick, I was hoping you'd raise your hand. Thank you.

Speaker 5: Or the Britney, raise your hand. No. OK. Yeah, come on up here. All right, so Prejean takes

Speaker 2: to two

Speaker 5: parties, the audience, you have the speaker, we have a

Speaker 2: message we're trying to transfer to

Speaker 5: somebody else.

Speaker 2: That means preaching is a transactional

Speaker 5: event if no one's listening. I'm just talking

Speaker 2: to an empty room. We did that. We lived through COVID, you know, I mean, there was nobody here. That's not not any fun.

Speaker 5: And so if if I'm

Speaker 2: going to be a good preacher, I'm going to have to make sure that I can get my

Speaker 5: message to my

Speaker 2: audience. All right. Come this way. I just want you to hold that for saying, you know what you're getting into, OK? Oh, you're not surprised. What is that? It's a tennis

Speaker 5: ball filled with babies. All right. So as a transactional event, the first person is

Speaker 2: vital to this. The person that actually carries the message

Speaker 5: has the message. I have to be able to

Speaker 2: get that message across to my audience

Speaker 5: if I stink at it. Why didn't you catch the ball?

Speaker 2: OK. Well, that didn't work.

Speaker 5: OK.

Speaker 2: Oh, that's no good, either, pick it up off the ground.

Speaker 5: Okay, all right.

Speaker 2: So you see, so far, things have been my problem and the transaction, I'm at fault.

Speaker 5: OK, now this time

Speaker 2: I need you to repress your star athlete

Speaker 5: baseball skills and don't catch it. OK. Don't catch it. Just let this heavy tennis ball.

Speaker 2: Just let it hit you right in the face. OK.

Speaker 5: Now, was that a catchable ball? Probably. But if he doesn't catch it, if he doesn't grasp the message that was at least adequately delivered to him, well, then whose fault is it? It's it's you see an order for this to work.

Speaker 2: Me and him both have you can you can get this.

Speaker 5: We both have to do our part.

Speaker 2: I have to get

Speaker 5: him the ball and he has to at least receive it. OK, now what did he do after he caught it? Is there a vaccine? What would you call that? Feedback. You know, I love feedback,

Speaker 2: I like when you nod or laugh or smile or at least stay awake, you know? That way, I know you're maybe you're listening. All right.

Speaker 5: And so if we can both do our part and we can go back and forth, this is a lot more

Speaker 2: fun and works a lot more effectively than

Speaker 5: if I don't do my job. Or if he

Speaker 2: decides he is going to do his part,

Speaker 5: that's that's what it

Speaker 2: takes for preaching to work.

Speaker 5: It takes a speaker to deliver the message.

Speaker 2: It takes an audience to receive the

Speaker 5: message and then we can actually get something done. You did a great job.

Speaker 2: Thank you, rhythmic. Give me a hand.

Speaker 5: You say, OK,

Speaker 2: OK, I'm getting this a little bit. So what you're saying is that preaching is essentially like a motivational speech.

Speaker 5: You're just trying to get people to take

Speaker 2: some action to do something. Is that what you're saying?

Speaker 5: It's just this. You're just like a motivational

Speaker 2: speaker that would rent a conference room, you know, down at the Holiday Inn Express, print out some fliers hanging them up at the community college and try to get an audience to come and pay 500 bucks to hear how to, you know, dig up the champion that's buried down deep inside. Is that what you're saying?

Speaker 5: No, that's not what I'm saying. Take your marbles

Speaker 2: if you still have them and turn to second or First Corinthians Chapter two. First Corinthians Chapter two.

Speaker 5: First, No. One.

Speaker 2: First Corinthians two, verse number one, the Bible says,

Speaker 5: and I brethren, when I came to you came not with

Speaker 2: excellency of speech or of

Speaker 5: wisdom declaring unto you the testimony of God very

Speaker 2: determined not to know anything

Speaker 5: among you saved

Speaker 2: Jesus Christ and him crucified,

Speaker 5: and I was

Speaker 2: with you in

Speaker 5: weakness and in fear and in much trembling in my speech.

Speaker 2: And my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and a power

Speaker 5: that your faith should

Speaker 2: not stand in the wisdom of men. But in the power of God.

Speaker 5: OK. Motivational speaker is trying to drum up something within you. A preacher is not trying to empower you. I should not be interested, my goal should not be to make you feel better about yourself. To connect you with some suppressed part of your being that if you would just tap into it, well, then you could

Speaker 2: be a really successful human

Speaker 5: being that is not or should not be my my goal. My goal

Speaker 2: ought to be instead to connect you with a power that is outside of

Speaker 5: yourself. What did he say in verse number five that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in what? The power of God. You see, we are

Speaker 2: not trying to build ourselves up, we're not trying to strengthen our egos or our self esteem. We are trying to get better connected to the power of God.

Speaker 5: Does that make sense? Don't you think that

Speaker 2: sounds more like a biblical motivation for preaching?

Speaker 5: You know, we've

Speaker 2: talked about different things in this series. Christian music being a welcoming church, what happens when church members leave all these different things? Well, if we were going to put a title on this one,

Speaker 5: it would be that we want to have biblical preaching, not just motivational speaking, but Bible preaching and Bible preaching. I don't know if you've read your Bible all that much this week, but it's kind of like over and over that humans are going to fail. And if there

Speaker 2: is going to be any success in our lives, it's going to have to come from outside

Speaker 5: of us if we are going to change and become

Speaker 2: more like the human beings that God wants us

Speaker 5: to be. It's only going to happen as we allow God to do a work that we

Speaker 2: can't do for ourselves. This is evident in the subject matter of a Bible preacher, look back at the passage that we were just reading. You can see it in verse number two. Determined not to know anything among you. Save Jesus Christ and him crucified verse number for my speech. My preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power over and over and over. Throughout the New Testament, we see that a preacher, a Bible preachers message is going to be. In what's the word, inextricably?

Speaker 5: Nope. Yep.

Speaker 2: You can't separate it from the preaching of the cross.

Speaker 5: You can't get away from the gospel. Forty eight

Speaker 2: times in the New Testament, Paul is recorded as preaching Christ or

Speaker 5: preaching the gospel. When he talks about his preaching and his message, the content of his message, it's Jesus Christ and the gospel. That's what he was telling people about it

Speaker 2: that I shouldn't say. The essence of the gospel is what Jesus

Speaker 5: did and what we could not do. If you go back to second,

Speaker 2: Timothy, where we were just reading before you see that people are going to keep to themselves

Speaker 5: speakers who have what. Eighteen years, you would think

Speaker 2: that the teachers would not be the ones with 18 years, you

Speaker 5: think it would be the ones in the

Speaker 2: audience to have a genius? Right, because I mean, you're supposed to be the ones that are listening. I'm supposed to be the one that's speaking.

Speaker 5: I speak with my mouth, not my ears.

Speaker 2: Despite how large they are, they don't actually send out messages. You know, it's not like radar, digital

Speaker 5: utility,

Speaker 2: you know, sending out signals.

Speaker 5: That's not the way it works. My mom always told me

Speaker 2: you have two years and one mouth, what does

Speaker 5: that mean?

Speaker 2: Listen twice as much as you speak.

Speaker 5: So why did the why

Speaker 2: did the teachers have it in years when their teachers like to be told they're doing a good

Speaker 5: job?

Speaker 2: Teachers like to get positive feedback. I feel to say I've never heard that before. Somebody is saying to you, I've never heard that before, and they're talking about the Bible. You might want to check your message. It may not be biblical.

Speaker 5: You know, we're not trying to.

Speaker 2: And I know you're not under the illusion that this would be the case,

Speaker 5: but we're not trying to wow anybody with our cool presentation. We're just trying to get you to look at the Bible. I mean, you come here tonight, if you're like me, you're a sinful human being. You've got vices, you have addictions, you've got sin that's so easily be set you, you know, maybe you're not

Speaker 2: putting different substances in your body, but you've got a problem with gossiping. You've got a problem with bitterness.

Speaker 5: You've got it against your brother. I don't know what your skin is, but listen, I believe that even though I can't address everyone's

Speaker 2: individual sin every night, if I will just point you to the Bible

Speaker 5: and you will get a

Speaker 2: love for the Bible and you'll spend time reading the Bible, that God has a way of using his word to correct our faults. I'm glad you agreement. Joe, thank you. You see the goal of our preaching,

Speaker 5: yes, is trying to change the way people act. But I can't just change

Speaker 2: the way people act without addressing a

Speaker 5: deeper issue. If all I do is

Speaker 2: deal with the symptoms,

Speaker 5: then for a while the symptoms go away. But if you don't deal with the root cause, eventually they come back.

Speaker 2: We're not just trying to change the way people act. More importantly, we are trying to change the way that people think. Right, thinking will lead to right actions, don't you agree?

Speaker 5: That's one

Speaker 2: of the reasons for the clearance, and I've talked about this, and it's something that I fully believe

Speaker 5: if you tell

Speaker 2: a teenager enough times that they are rebellious, that they're good for nothing, that they're on a path to destruction. Eventually they're going to listen to you and they're going to fulfill what you say about them.

Speaker 5: Why?

Speaker 2: Because that's what you've taught them to think about themselves.

Speaker 5: The same is true for adults. How we think will dictate how we act.

Speaker 2: Paul emphasized the power of right thinking many times some of the more well known ones, if you want to turn over a few pages, Second Corinthians 10. Second Corinthians 10. First, number four. Bible says for the weapons of our warfare are not

Speaker 5: carnal, but

Speaker 2: mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations to imagine where do imaginations live? And you're thinking processes.

Speaker 5: It's a battle for the mind.

Speaker 2: Casting doubt imaginations in every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge

Speaker 5: of

Speaker 2: God. Where do you know things?

Speaker 5: Your mind?

Speaker 2: Bring it into captivity every thought. I know this is redundant, but what do you think?

Speaker 5: Your mind?

Speaker 2: To the obedience of Christ. Are you seeing some similarities here to what we've been talking about on Sunday morning? And just this past Sunday, thou shalt not kill. Well, I've never murdered anybody, so I guess I'm good. Yeah, but have you been unjustly angry at your brother

Speaker 5: or is that unjust

Speaker 2: anger reside?

Speaker 5: And yeah, we talked about, you know,

Speaker 2: saying Rocca about your brother and saying he's a worthless fellow and and murdering or assassinating his character to whoever will listen.

Speaker 5: When you talk

Speaker 2: about saying is him doubtful?

Speaker 5: That's not always

Speaker 2: something that necessarily comes out of your mouth, sometimes it's something that lives just in your heart. Exists only in your mind that you look at and think of that person as a fool. See, God is concerned about how we

Speaker 5: act, God understands

Speaker 2: the way we were made because he made us, and he knows that how we think and how we are on the inside is the root cause

Speaker 5: of why we act the way we do. Just a heads up.

Speaker 2: This coming Sunday, I don't know if you read the next few verses in Matthew Chapter five. But adultery is not just the physical act of adultery. Hey, this is a fun topic to talk about, I can't wait to do it on a Sunday morning. Philippians, four, eight. Passage that are wanted kids memorize, especially as they get up into the older grades. The Bible says, finally, brethren whatsoever, things are true whatsoever, things are honest whatsoever, things are just what sort of things are purer whatsoever. Things are lovely whatsoever. Things of good report. If there be any

Speaker 5: virtue and if there be any praise, what? Think on these things. So, yes, I if you got sin in your life, you you're a violent, angry temper

Speaker 2: tantrum throwing person. Yes, we want to change the way you act. You're constantly cursing and swearing at your family.

Speaker 5: Yes, we want to change the way you act. If you've got

Speaker 2: addictions in your life, yes, we want to change the way

Speaker 5: you act, but we believe that the best way to do that is to change the way we think. The think on things that are pure things on things that are true and what is gossip

Speaker 2: so many times, but spreading a story about someone that we haven't even

Speaker 5: confirmed. Then gone, things that are true now, things that might be not things we assume to be.

Speaker 2: We need to change our thinking so that it corresponds to the principles of scripture.

Speaker 5: You see, we don't want to be guilty

Speaker 2: of what so many people are guilty of in our in our society of trying to conform the Bible to our standards,

Speaker 5: coming to the Bible

Speaker 2: with a preconceived notion and then trying to prove that preconceived notion in order to make ourselves feel better about ourselves.

Speaker 6: Right.

Speaker 5: I mean, people can twist the

Speaker 2: Bible to say just about whatever they want it to

Speaker 5: say. If you want to

Speaker 2: use the Bible to try and defend your position on abortion, you'd be perverting the scripture. But I've seen people do it.

Speaker 5: You want to twist the

Speaker 2: Bible to defend your your belief that homosexuality is no big deal to

Speaker 5: God, you'd be perverting the scripture, but you could do it. How does that happen? What happens is we try to twist the Bible to meet what we want it to say.

Speaker 2: Rather than conforming our standards and our thinking to what the Bible says. As a preacher or in a preaching time, the preacher is supposed to direct our thinking to what God's word says, we want it to say or think it says,

Speaker 5: but what it does say.

Speaker 2: Well, you know, interpretation is tricky thing, brother Boyd. What one verse says to you might not say the same thing to me.

Speaker 5: You're talking about the

Speaker 2: interpretation of scripture. Bible says no scripture is of private interpretation. There is one right interpretation. Now there may be a multitude of applications. But there is only one interpretation. That makes sense.

Speaker 5: I am not

Speaker 2: telling you that I've always got the

Speaker 5: right one.

Speaker 2: You'll have to check the Bible and make sure that I am doing the right one.

Speaker 5: We want to have right thinking about who we are. But who God is? I say this a lot.

Speaker 2: I'm afraid a lot of us have a skewed caricature image of God.

Speaker 5: What we think he's like is not at all what he's like.

Speaker 2: That's why worship is so important. Spending time in worship reminds us of who God really is. Now, what the world tells us is. We have right thinking about who we are and who God is, then we can have right thinking about our relationships with him. Our relationship with ourselves. Our relationship with

Speaker 5: others. We want to promote

Speaker 2: in in the preaching time here at the Baptist Tabernacle,

Speaker 5: a grace based life, not a

Speaker 2: performance driven life.

Speaker 5: If you just

Speaker 2: check all the boxes, then your godly,

Speaker 5: if you would just

Speaker 2: do this much more than what you're doing right now. Well, then God could really bless you.

Speaker 5: And if you really want to prove your fealty to

Speaker 2: God, then you will do X, Y and Z things that I made up. Is not what we're trying to promote. As Baptists, don't we believe in the priesthood of the believer?

Speaker 5: I don't know what that means means you

Speaker 2: have just as much access to God and his word as I do. You have just as much ability to study God's word and understand it as I do. And you're going to be accountable for how you apply that word to your life. You know, we're trying to promote right thinking, we're also trying to take a

Speaker 5: book that is

Speaker 2: thousands of years

Speaker 5: old and apply

Speaker 2: it to a modern

Speaker 5: context. I mean.

Speaker 2: It was written a long time ago, wasn't it?

Speaker 5: Not only was

Speaker 2: it written in a whole different period of history,

Speaker 5: but it was written to a culture that is so far

Speaker 2: different than our own culture. I mean, it really is like comparing our culture here in America to the Middle Eastern cultures.

Speaker 5: I mean, some of you have

Speaker 2: been in the military, you've been over there, you know how different it

Speaker 5: is. Don't you? I mean. That's that's a little bit of a task.

Speaker 2: To try and take something that was written to people in that culture and apply it to people who live in this world.

Speaker 5: But think about this. Do you realize

Speaker 2: that chronologically we are actually closer to Paul than Paul was to Abraham? I just found that out today.

Speaker 5: As far as the years go, we are living closer to Paul

Speaker 2: than Paul was to Abraham. And yet if you go to Romans Chapter four verse number three, who

Speaker 5: does Paul refer to? He says, for what? Say it scripture? Abraham believed God. And it was counted on him for righteousness. All us wasn't

Speaker 2: sitting there saying, well, you know, Abraham, he lived a long time ago and well, I mean, it was a different world and I mean, Israel didn't even hardly really exist back then. So it's really this

Speaker 5: is

Speaker 2: really no bearing on what Abraham went through and what we're going through here in the very modern and contemporary world of ancient Rome.

Speaker 5: All didn't do that.

Speaker 2: Well, the clearance was upset the other day he came to me here. He talked to some of the teenagers and one of the questions he had asked them was this

Speaker 5: does the Bible have any

Speaker 2: relation or does it have any bearing

Speaker 5: on your life today? What's written in the Bible, does it have any insight, any application to your life today?

Speaker 2: He said there were multiple of our teenagers who said.

Unidentified: No. It doesn't. What happened?

Speaker 5: We'd be real honest. Based on the way we live. There might

Speaker 2: be some people in here right now

Speaker 5: who

Speaker 2: though intellectually, you would not agree with the statement that our teenagers are much more bold in expressing your life says that the Bible has no bearing on your life. I say that clear enough, I don't know if I did.

Speaker 5: By the

Speaker 2: actions you take, the lifestyle, the habits that you have, you are saying, though you wouldn't actually say it, that the Bible has no bearing on your

Speaker 5: life. It's an ancient book.

Speaker 2: You really don't even know what it's actually saying, we don't even really know if what's written there is actually what was said.

Speaker 5: I mean, you don't know if you trust it or not. Yeah. I mean, you've got. It written in black and white, and Paul, who though he may have had access to books like Genesis, most likely didn't

Speaker 2: have his own copy of

Speaker 5: Genesis. And yet he says, Hey, remember Abraham? He believed God. And it was counted on to him for righteousness. And none of you live in her own Chaldeans. Most of you have not been asked to move to a

Speaker 2: whole nother country and start over.

Speaker 5: But are we not

Speaker 2: expected to

Speaker 5: believe God the same way Abraham was?

Speaker 2: Can we not extract the biblical principle from Abraham's situation,

Speaker 5: though he lived almost 4000 years ago and say, You know what, if Abraham, who was a very normal human being? Well, we're talking about the guy who lied and said his wife was his sister. And then went out, you know, in the fields and was like, you know. Being his wife, being her, you know that. Yeah, that sporting. And if they'd

Speaker 2: understand, I was saying it's such an antiquated word, you know?

Speaker 5: I mean. That's part of what preaching is. We may

Speaker 2: not have the same circumstances, but there is something that we have in common with every human we read about

Speaker 5: in the Bible. And if it's like Abraham, we learn, Hey, yes, we have to have faith

Speaker 2: in God, we have to believe

Speaker 5: him.

Speaker 2: Biblical preaching points us to the biblical principle that was exercised in an ancient world and helps us practice that same principle in the modern world. I'm sorry I wasn't going to do this, but take your Bibles and turn to Matthew. Five. Verse twenty seven. You can catch me there. You've heard that it was said by them of old time, thou shalt not commit adultery, but I say to you that whosoever looks on a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart.

Speaker 5: Is there a biblical

Speaker 2: principle

Speaker 5: there?

Speaker 6: Yes.

Speaker 2: Is the world in which that was first spoken to a little bit different than the world in which you

Speaker 5: and I live? Yes. Very different, but

Speaker 2: biblical preaching says, Hey, let's take the principle here and apply it to where we

Speaker 5: live today.

Speaker 2: You can go back even further to the oldest book in the Bible. Jobe was the one who said he made a covenant with his eyes. Wherefore then should I look upon a made? That's as old as it gets. And when we can pull out the biblical principles and apply them to our life today, that is how we learn how to biblically address issues in our day that we're not present when the Bible was written.

Speaker 5: This goes back to

Speaker 2: what we say about parenting.

Speaker 5: You don't parent your parent, your kids just so that they'll be loyal to you, just so that they'll obey you. You're not trying to make disciples of Levi. You're trying to make disciples of Jesus. Not trying

Speaker 2: to raise three little boys will be disciples of

Speaker 5: Gary Boyd, trying to raise three little boys will be disciples of Jesus. How are they going to know what Jesus wants for their life? Someone's got to point them to the Bible.

Speaker 2: If we believe the Bible has the answers.

Speaker 5: We ought to be able to present them. You know,

Speaker 2: all throughout the Bible, there are examples of preaching the Old and New Testaments are filled with

Speaker 5: preachers. Noah.

Speaker 2: Was a preacher of righteousness. Moses preached and delivered messages to the Israelites. Joshua, Samuel, Jeremiah or Jeremiah? Ezekiel, you talk about using visual aids.

Speaker 5: Go read, some of

Speaker 2: it equals visual aids. There were graphic. You move you would walk out the back door if I started acting like Ezekiel up here.

Speaker 5: Jesus, Peter, Paul, John the Baptist. And there's all kinds of examples throughout the Bible of preachers. We learn

Speaker 2: a lot from the examples of the these

Speaker 5: people.

Speaker 2: We see their reliance on God. All these people, they didn't come up with their own message, they had to preach what God put on in there on their heart.

Speaker 5: Even Jesus is

Speaker 2: this popped into my head as our esteem statement, Jesus said in John 12:49 for I have not spoken

Speaker 5: to myself, but the father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say and what I should speak. Even Jesus got his message from God.

Speaker 2: You see their reliance, but we also see the reception they received from the people they preach to. So many of the preachers that I mentioned before were met with stubbornness. And a refusal to listen, I believe it was Jeremiah that was told don't look at their faces. Is there going to be set against you? So sometimes I want to take my glasses off and not not see what your faces are doing. Be a little fuzzy blobs all over. Others like John the Baptist or Isaiah were met with opposition and persecution. The Bible in Hebrews talks about the different heroes of the faith being torn asunder. History tells us about different of the prophets that were wrapped in in wet sheepskin and sent out into the desert as the sheepskin dried it, squeezed them and crushed their bones until they suffocated. You know, from my

Speaker 5: standpoint.

Speaker 2: I can't control how you respond. All I can control is how I deliver the message.

Speaker 5: How I communicate,

Speaker 2: transfer the message.

Speaker 5: It's then up to you as to whether or not you're going to try and receive it. And you know what?

Speaker 2: I can tell you anything you don't already know. I'm going to throw a few down by your shoelaces.

Speaker 5: You know, I'm going to throw a few, maybe a little too high.

Speaker 2: You may have to take a step over to your right to catch one every now and then. Or maybe I'll throw one behind you.

Speaker 5: You going have to move a little bit. I mean, I do my best. I promised

Speaker 2: you when I became the pastor here, I'd put as much time and effort into our Sunday night and Wednesday night messages as I do to Sunday morning,

Speaker 5: and I've tried to do that. And some of you have taken up that same

Speaker 2: that same mentality is why you're here tonight.

Speaker 5: So you know what is

Speaker 2: going to put the effort in and

Speaker 5: I'll be there.

Speaker 2: Well, it's a two way street.

Speaker 5: I'm not Charles Spurgeon. Or Kenny Baldwin or any of these

Speaker 2: other guys that are just, you know, dynamite preachers.

Speaker 5: But I'll try to get you the ball

Speaker 2: in a place where you can get something out

Speaker 5: of it. And hopefully,

Speaker 2: those that are interested in receiving the message, it'll be somewhere in the

Speaker 5: vicinity

Speaker 2: that you can grab it, take something home. Preaching is an audio event. Or a message is delivered to a group of people. Its goal is to move towards a response. Yes, to change your actions, but more importantly, to change your thinking. There are examples of preachers and audiences in the Bible that we can learn from.

Speaker 5: I'm supposed to get my message from God. That's the way

Speaker 2: Jesus did it, I'd say that's probably the way I should do it to. But you also have to avoid the mistakes of those who disregarded God's messages in the past. Preaching is an essential part of the Christian life

Speaker 5: and of the Ministry of the local church.

Speaker 2: March 16, 15, the Bible says this. He Jesus said under them,

Speaker 5: go ye, into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.

Speaker 2: It's been the history of this church. By God's grace. That'll be our our future as well. Pray everybody, father. Thank you for this day and for the good attention of the folks that are here. But I pray that you would help our church to always be a Bible preaching church. Lord, that our

Speaker 5: loyalty and fealty

Speaker 2: would be to your word, to the message that you have delivered to us, God, that whoever stands behind this pulpit would be. Serious and sober minded and.

Speaker 5: And dedicated to digging

Speaker 2: into your word and extracting those principles that apply to our our modern life or the folks that gather here on a weekly basis, Sunday nights and Wednesday nights God that they would come ready to receive the message,

Speaker 5: ready to catch the

Speaker 2: word that you have for them and apply it to

Speaker 5: their life.

Speaker 2: What I have no doubt that if we would give more attention to your word than you would do that work that we cannot do, you would change it from the inside beginning, beginning with our

Speaker 5: thoughts

Speaker 2: and moving out to our actions. Lord, we love you so much. Thank you for this time. We've been able to spend together. It's in Jesus name that I pray.

Speaker 5: Amen.

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