The Purpose and Function of Sermons

Welcome back, I’m excited to dive back in with you guys. This week we really start to begin the crafting process of sermon development and we are going to be a little more interactive than we were in our first 2 sessions as we begin to shape and mold our sermons. The last time that we were together we talked about how to approach a text and how to select the text that we are about to preach. We also started to lay some of the ground work when it comes to Christ-centered preaching . What we are going to do today is look at what I call the purpose and function of sermons. What is the purpose behind the preaching event? I think of Paul’s words in Romans 10:14-15

Romans 10:14–15 NASB95

How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? How will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good things!”

We preach so that God would be glorified and that people would hear the good news of the Gospel. The purpose of our preaching is so that we would draw out of the text what God has placed into the text. How do we know then what is in the text? How do we know what the primary emphasis of the sermon should be? That is what we are going to talk about this afternoon: How do we identify what the text says and how do we make sure that what is said there is what is represented in our sermons? Once we talk about that, we will talk about how the content of our sermons is connected to the context of our biblical passage. No sermon is truly ever preached in isolation. We are doing a disservice to the Word and our listeners if we don’t have an idea of the context that our passage is situated in. After that we’ll talk for a bit about how to faithfully preach Christ in the Old Testament and we’ll touch a little on how to preach Christ in the New as well. At that point, we are going to divide up into groups of 3 and I’m going to give you a passage of Scripture and I want you all to work together to put into practice what we will talk about today. After we do that, we will talk about how to illustrate the text so that our listeners can understand clearly and maybe even appreciate more the things that we say in our sermons. Let’s open up in prayer and then we will get started on finding the purpose in the text and in the sermon.

How Do We Explain the Text?

How do we explain the text appropriately? Sure, anyone can explain a text but that doesn’t mean that the text is being explained correctly or that they are doing a good job doing it. What’s important for us to emphasize at this point is that Scripture does have an intended meaning. The Lord did not give us the Word of God so that we might speculate as to what God has spoken. This book isn’t given as a book where we get to decide the meeting. This isn’t a decide your own adventure book. We as expositors are convinced that God has spoken authoritatively and where the Bible speaks, God speaks. The best way to explain the text is by finding the main point of the text or the main point of the passage. This is what we can call our MPP, the main point of the passage. Scott Pace writes, “Determining the point of the passage involves identifying the text’s primary truth and adopting it as the main idea of the sermon.” Why do we need to find the main point of the passage? Because if we don’t find what the main point of the passage is, we are at risk of inserting something into the text that isn’t actually there. We have a greater risk of inserting our own ideologies and interpretation into the text when our purpose as expositors is to bring out and explain what God’s intended message to the people is. If we get the main point of the text wrong, there’s a domino effect. Main point is wrong, sermon is wrong, congregants get a misinterpretation of Scripture. Now the big question then is, how do we identify what the main point of the text or passage is? How do we know that the point is the main point? Well to do that we obviously have to study the text. We talked about this last week. We want to be in prayer as we look at the text, we want to be researching as we study the text, we know from last time that if we compare with other faithful preachers and teachers of the Gospel and we come up with an interpretation that is way out of line with what other faithful men have said or what is clearly stated in Scripture that we have not discovered the main point of the passage. A lot of what will guide our understanding of the main point of the passage or text will be discovered as we do background work on the passage and look at it in its context, which we will talk more about later. To find the main point of the text, we need to look for an assortment of context clues within the text. Is there anything that is repeated? Is there anything that is a clear and explicit statement in regards to why the author is writing what he is writing? Is there an objection or a question that is being responded to in the text? So, let’s just take a short passage of Scripture and try to find what the main point of the text is. We won’t do the sermon that I did today, let’s do the sermon I did 2 weeks ago on 1 Peter 1:6-12. Peter writes:

1 Peter 1:6–12 NASB95

In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ; and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls. As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful searches and inquiries, seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you, in these things which now have been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven—things into which angels long to look.

So, what is the main point of those 6 verses? Well after praying over the text, studying the text, researching the text, listening to what others taught about the text, I found the main point of the text to be that Peter is writing to encourage his listeners to endure through temporary trials with the eager expectation that the Christ whom they cannot see yet will more than make up for the things they endure now. The Gospel was foretold of old and the Gospel is so miraculous and wonderful that even the angels long to look into it. Once I found that, it becomes substantially easier to begin writing the sermon because I see the guard rails that I need to stay within. If we take some of what I mentioned earlier on finding repetition and patterns in the text or questions within the text, we can look at 1 Peter 1:6-12 and see that Peter is addressing a particular concern, he’s addressing the trials that the believers are going through. How does he address these temporary trials? By pointing ahead to the fullness of joy that comes through Jesus Christ and the Gospel, this Gospel that prophets pointed ahead to and angels long to look into. Now of course I cheated, it isn’t always going to be that quick to find the main point, I had the benefit of having already done the work in preparing that sermon but you see it’s possible to take any text and see that there is a main point within that passage and to be faithful expositors, we have to teach that point. If 1 Peter 1 is about enduring through trials, I’m not going to preach about something that isn’t in the text. If 1 Peter 1:6-12 is about the glory of the Gospel, I’m not going to preach on false teachers. Is there a way to connect a false gospel to the true Gospel? Sure! But that isn’t what Peter is pointing to. Once we find the main point of the passage, we take that into the main point of the sermon or the MPS. The main point of the sermon is what will typically become our summary statement or big idea of the sermon. In a sentence or 2, you should be able to summarize what the entire sermon will be about and that is your main point in the sermon. Really what the main point of the sermon will do is take the main point of the passage and apply it to our listeners. How would we take the MPP of 1 Peter 1:6-12 and turn it into the main point of our sermon? It would be something like: In light of what Christ has done on our behalf, we can endure any trials with the eager expectation that God has a greater glory ahead for all that believe the Gospel. The MPS is what we really want our audience to walk away with. This is the message that we want sticking in their heads, and really the statement that we hope comes back to them time and time again. When we think about the Main point of the sermon, we can think about how to develop it in light of the fallen condition focus that we talked about a few weeks ago. When we develop the main point of the sermon, we are asking where it connects in redemptive history. Tony Merida writes, “Practically, you may ask three questions (in any order) before you articulate an MPS with a redemptive focus: (1) Why is this text important and needed for fallen people? (2) What concerns do my listeners share in common with the original audience? (3) How is the redemptive nature of God displayed in the text?” Again, let’s take 1 Peter 1:6-12 and work through these 3 questions that Merida mentions. 1. Why is 1 Peter 1:6-12 important and needed for fallen people? We live in a fallen world filled with various troubles and trials, many of which are brought about by the sinful actions of fallen people. If there is nothing to address that issue, if all this life is is suffering with no hope for the future, life is ultimately meaningless. Why then is this message important for fallen people? Because fallen people need rescue and they need hope. 2. What concerns do our listeners share with the original audience that Peter was writing to. Well at Crossroads, we aren’t suffering persecution like the Christians in Peter’s day but we are in a world where it seems to be harder to live life as a Christian. Every single person in these seats is facing some sort of trial or some sort of difficulty and needs to be reminded of the sure hope that can only come through Jesus Christ. 3. How is the redemptive nature of God displayed in the text? That at the right time, Jesus Christ suffered and died the death that we could not so that we can have peace with God and life eternal. In some ways, we’ve just written the skeleton outline of our sermon. We start with the problem, we find the connection, and we present the solution all while staying true to the text and preaching a Christ-centered sermon.

Connecting Context and Content

We’ve talked a lot about the context of the passage when identifying the main point of the text and the sermon but let’s now take a little bit of time and see how the context of the passage connects to the content of our sermon. When I talk about context, I have a few ideas in mind. The biblical passage has a biblical context and it also has a historical context. When I say we need to be aware of the biblical context, I mean that we need to recognize how the text relates to what is around it. I would say that in order to preach Romans 3 well, you need to know what Paul talks about in Romans 1 and 2. When you are creating the content that comes in your sermon, study what is happening before the verses and read slightly past the verse. I would even encourage you to read the entire book to get a better idea of what is going on in the book. Imagine jumping into the book of Galatians without knowing why Paul is writing Galatians? In order to understand the fullness of what God is saying, we must recognize that the Word of God is a historical book. It is a book that addresses times and seasons, kings and kingdoms, days and years. All of that is connected to the content. Everything that the human authors are writing about is regarding a historical situation or addressing a real issue. We can cheat a little and even good study Bibles like the MacArthur study Bible will often give some historical background on what was happening when the letter was written. It won’t be a complete historical study but it can help to lay the ground work. When we read, we should be looking out for the clues as to what that might be. Julius Kim writes, “As you are reading, keep these preliminary questions in mind: What is the main idea that the author is emphasizing? Why does he seem to be emphasizing these ideas (or what issues and problems, either explicit or implicit)? How does this all connect with the gospel of Jesus Christ and my hearers?” The main idea is going to be influenced by the context that the text is in. As we keep looking at the context, we need to also be aware that the original authors wrote not with our dictionary and understanding but with their “dictionary” and understanding. When Paul says in Romans 1:16 that the Gospel is the power or dynamis of God for salvation, he isn’t saying that it has the explosive power of dynamite because dynamite wouldn’t be invited for another 1800 years. I don’t expect any of you to be proficient in Greek and Hebrews. I’m not proficient in Greek and Hebrew. What I can do is use something like a lexicon or software on Logos to look at the original languages and see how we get to the English rendering. That’s an important contextual step for you all to take. I can’t even begin to tell you how many sermons of mine have been elevated because of word studies and seeing the original meaning. Or even take a verse like John 1:1, if you’ve ever talked to Jehovah’s witnesses, they love to add a little greek participle to say that the Word was a god instead the Word was God. But what does the Greek really say? Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος, καὶ ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεόν, καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος. (In arche ain ha logos, kai ha logos ain, pras ton theon, Kai theos ain ha logos). In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. Nowhere in there do we see “A god.” And just like that, we see the extent of my Greek. The original language, even just a quick glance at a lexicon or a Koine greek to english dictionary can be helpful. Let’s get back to English though. When it comes to identifying what the context of the passage is, David Allen stresses looking at the linguistic context as well as the historical context. What Allen means is that we need to analyze the sentences and clauses within the paragraph of text or verses that you are preaching on. What I have done in the past is print out the passage of Scripture that I’m working on and then with a bunch of pens and highlighters, I just mark up that text as much as possible. I look for the verbs and the nouns, I look at what people are present in the verses if it is a narrative, I look for references to other passages of Scripture, I identify the main clause in the text, and I see how each sentence connects to one another. All of this Allen includes in his 12 steps for preparing a text-driven sermon which I can send to you if you’re interested. Allen recommends looking for the key phrases in the passage, this is something that we sort of already talked about. He recommends everything from diagramming to doing word studies on significant words in the text, all of which can be extremely helpful as you continue to grow in your abilities to preach. Another part of the context that will be helpful is identifying what genre the passage of Scripture is. Is it a psalm? Is it a parable? Is it a narrative or an epistle? Is it apocalyptic? Every piece of Scripture is some sort of genre and that genre will impact the delivery of the content. Take something like the Psalms, there are so many different genres or sub-genres in the book of Psalms and that is going to impact how you preach a psalm. Is the psalm a Messianic psalm? Is it a psalm of praise or is it a psalm of lament? The way you preach a lament is going to be different from the way you preach a psalm of ascent. So identify the genre of the passage that you are preaching. Finally, one of the most important contextual clues that we have to pursue is finding where in God’s redemptive story does the passage fit. How does the text connect to redemptive history? James Hamilton writes, “In broadest terms, the Bible can be summarized in four words: creation, fall, redemption, restoration. This sequence functions as an umbrella story encompassing the whole canonical narrative, but it is also repeated countless times on both individual and corporate levels.” As we do this, we see another reminder of how helpful the fallen condition focus can be. How is this passage connected to God’s created order? How did the fall impact this? How does Christ redeem this? How does this connect to the restoration that can only come through Christ and will ultimately come when Christ returns? Now I know that was a lot and to be fair this section is in my opinion the hardest section to do and also the hardest section for me to teach. Let’s take a couple minutes for a restroom break and then we will come back and start looking at something maybe a little more practical, more hands on, and that is on the different methods that we can faithfully preach Christ throughout Scripture.

Methods of Preaching Christ

Before we dive in to the methods to faithfully preach Christ from all of Scriptures, let me just give you 2 resources that I would recommend. I actually have taken a lot from these 2 books and credit where credit is due, it what we are using right now. The first book is Preaching Christ in All of Scripture by Edmund Clowney. It’s not very academic but it is helpful in showing us how to remain faithful to the context while still preaching Christ. Clowney writes early in the book, “You must preach Christ as the text presents Him. If you are tempted to think that most Old Testament texts do not present Christ, reflect on both the unity of Scripture and the fullness of Jesus Christ. Christ is present in the Bible as the Lord and as the Servant.” Christ is God eternally. He isn’t just the God that is found in the New Testament, the entire canon of Scripture is triune. The second resource is an older one but I still think it is a great resource and that is Sidney Greidanus’ Preaching Christ from the Old Testament. In that book, Greidanus writes about 6 ways that one can preach Christ from the Old Testament: Redemptive-historical progression, promise-fulfillment, typology, analogy, longitudinal themes, and contrast. Let’s sort of quickly walk through those 6. The first is the redemptive-historical progression. What do we mean by that? Greidanus says that these are events that are linked to Christ from the Old Testament which find their climax in Him. One of the examples that Greidanus uses is God’s promise to Abraham in Genesis 12:3 “And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”” Where is the climax of the blessing to all the families of the earth? It’s in Christ. Not only does that work back into the Old Testament, we can also use it when we preach Christ from the New Testament. When we preach something like 1 Corinthians 15 and we preach of the future resurrection, we preach that in reference to Christ being the firstborn from the dead. To preach in this first method means that we take Christ as the person or event in which the text is ultimately pointing to. The second way that Greidanus mentions is regarding promise fulfillment. What are the promises that God made that have been fulfilled or are awaiting fulfillment? Take a chapter like Isaiah 65. In verse 17, God promises to create a new heavens and a new earth. Later in Revelation we see that same promise being pointed to when Christ returns. If we preach a text like Isaiah 65, I think that it is safe to preach it in light of what Christ will do when He returns. We see a great promise that is centered in the finished work of God. Look at the times in the Gospels where the Gospel writers say that Jesus said or did something in fulfillment of a certain prophecy. We see this time and time again in the Gospels. So, when you look at the Old Testament, is there a promise in the passage that is fulfilled in Christ or will be fulfilled in Christ? A third method that we sort of talked about a few weeks ago is typology. Remember typology is this pattern that we see repeated in Scripture that is God-ordained, it is intentional by the human and divine author where we see God teaching and revealing through patterns. Think of it as similar acts of redemption so if we look at an event like the Exodus, we see that pattern of rescue and salvation time and time again in Scripture. We see Jesus as the greater Moses, the greater Passover Lamb, the greater Aaron and high priest. If God is the author of Scripture, nothing happens in Scripture merely by coincidence. The fourth method that Greidanus mentions is the method of analogy. Greidanus writes, “The use of analogies between earlier and later events and persons enabled the Old Testament writers to emphasize both the continuity and progression in God’s dealings with his people.” One of the examples that Greidanus uses, and I think is helpful is by looking how in the Old Testament God related to Israel and the relationship that exists and connects to Christ and the Church. These analogies show that God’s redemptive plan continues between both the Old and the New Testament. In Jeremiah 2:2 the Lord speaks of Israel as like his bride and in 2 Corinthians 11:2, Paul speaks of the church as the bride of Christ. The fifth method that Greidanus uses is the way of longitudinal themes. What this means is that the Bible gradually develops themes as God reveals more and more of Himself and His redemptive plans. Think of a theme like the sacrifices in the Old Testament. Gradually these sacrifices would find their fulfillment in the once and for all sacrifice of Christ on the cross but the theme of sacrifice doesn’t even stop there. Instead, we see in Romans 12:1 that we as the church need to present ourselves as living sacrifices to the Lord. There is an ongoing development that centers upon what Christ has done. Finally, Greidanus mentions the method of contrast. Believe it or not, we can preach the negative examples found in Scripture and center it upon Christ. Look at the failure of the nation of Israel in Scripture and you can preach Christ from that, you can preach the greater Israel which is the church. Connected to typology, we can preach someone like Pharaoh or Ahab and preach that as a contrast type of Christ. Let’s quickly walk through 4 examples from the Old Testament and then I’ll have you guys break up into groups and try some of this on your own. Let’s talk about 4 major sections of the Old Testament: The Law, the narratives or historical, the Psalms, and a Prophet. How would we preach Christ from a chapter in the Law like Leviticus 7? In Leviticus 7 we see the role of the priests in offering sacrifices. Moses talks about the holiness of the guilt offering, what is required of the priests when and where they burn the guilt offering. He mentions the peace offerings and thanksgiving offerings, and maybe most importantly he talks about how those that offer the offerings must be consecrated and set apart. How do we preach Christ in light of the Old Testament sacrifices and regulations? Well we could take our fallen condition focus and ask what those sacrifices were needed for in the first place. We can ask about the number of sacrifices that would be needed. We could talk about the role of the priest in the offering of the sacrifice, we can look at all sorts of things. We can talk about how because of sin, there needs to be a sacrifice. Without the shedding of blood we know that there is no forgiveness of sin. Just look at what the sacrifices address: we are guilty, we need peace with God, we should offer thanks to God, we need all those things but on our own we can’t do anything about it. Luckily in Christ we see both the perfect sacrifice and the perfect priest. We see He that sets us apart as holy because we can’t do it on our own, that’s how I would preach that passage. I’d present the why of the sacrifice, present the shortcomings of the sacrifice, present the fulfillment in Christ, and show how that applies to our greatest need. What about a narrative or a historical book or passage? How about we take Ruth 1. Do you remember what happens in Ruth 1? We’re introduced to Naomi and her husband Elimelech. They have 2 sons, they lived in Bethlehem in Judah, there is a famine in the land and they move to Moab with their two sons. Over time Naomi’s husband and sons die. Naomi is left with her daughter in law’s Ruth and Orpah. Orpah goes back to Moab but Ruth clings to Naomi and says where you go I will go and your God will be my God. How do we preach that passage in a Christocentric way? We can talk about how God used the events of Ruth 1 to get to Matthew 1. We can talk about how God would go on to bring this family from Bethlehem to be the descendants of King David and how King David would be a descendant of the King Jesus Christ. The only way to get to Matthew 1 is by going through Ruth 1. We can talk about how God is able to use the bad to bring forth the greater good. We can talk later on in Ruth about how God is able to restore what was lost and broken. We can even talk about how our greatest need is the same as Ruth’s greatest need. The God of Naomi needs to be our God as well. Ok what about the Psalms. Let’s take a hard one like Psalm 88, the most depressing Psalm in Scripture. Psalm 88:1 starts out with “O Lord, the God of my salvation, I have cried out by day and in the night before You.” and then Psalm 88:18 ends with, “You have removed lover and friend far from me; My acquaintances are in darkness.” How do we preach a Psalm like that? Despite the theme, the psalmist still holds on to his trust in the Lord. All around Him is darkness, all around Him is abandonment, His friends have abandoned him, he’s all alone and he feels as if the wrath of God was upon him, still he will trust in the Lord. What’s the message from God to His people in this Psalm? Well let’s look at it like this: Centuries later there lays Jesus in a garden. In that garden and in what is about to come He will find trouble, He will be forsaken, He will feel the wrath of God and men, will be crushed by God and stricken by man, all this in total darkness. How do we preach Christ in Psalm 88? By preaching that Christ Himself lived out Psalm 88 and therefore even in our absolute darkest days and deepest trials, God is still the God of our salvation. I love how Derek Kidner in his commentary on the Psalms said that the reason that God includes Psalms like this in the Bible is because God knows how we speak when we are desperate. We can preach this text but showing the audience that God understands us when we are hurting, he understands why we say the things we say, and He provides an answer to all of it. Last one and then I’ll have you guys try: look at the prophets. In Isaiah 2 we read of God’s universal reign. Isaiah 2:2-4 says,

Isaiah 2:2–4 NASB95

Now it will come about that In the last days The mountain of the house of the Lord Will be established as the chief of the mountains, And will be raised above the hills; And all the nations will stream to it. And many peoples will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, To the house of the God of Jacob; That He may teach us concerning His ways And that we may walk in His paths.” For the law will go forth from Zion And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And He will judge between the nations, And will render decisions for many peoples; And they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, And never again will they learn war.

What part of God’s redemptive plan does this fall into? It looks ahead to the final restoration and the making of all things new. In these verses we see the state of the world until Christ comes and sets up His kingdom. Everything now is leading to that day. We can preach on the fallen condition of the world, how there is still weapons, violence, and war but we know that a day is coming when the King will be on the throne and we will know nothing but perfect peace. That’s how I would preach Isaiah 2. Now it’s your turn. For about 15 minutes, I want you guys to get into groups of 2 or 3 and I want you guys to show me how you would preach Christ from these passages of Scripture.

Narrative- Genesis 50:12-21 (Joseph and his brothers- God meant for good).

Law- Numbers 6:22-27 (Aaronic Blessing)

Psalm- Psalm 1 (The righteous and the wicked)

Prophets- Hosea 3 (Hosea purchases his unfaithful bride)

Gospel- Mark 2:1-13 (Healing the paralytic)

Epistle- Ephesians 6:1-4 (Family relationship)

Knowing what you know now, do your best to come up with the main point of the text, what would be the main point of the sermon, and then what the Christ-centered focus would be. Maybe it’s something negative, maybe it’s something positive but take 15 minutes and work down and then we’ll share.

How Do We Illustrate the Text?

One last thing that we’ll talk about today is how to illustrate the text. What’s the purpose of illustrations? It’s purpose is to make the text clearer, not change the meaning of the text. I’m pretty sure that every pastor will use illustrations when preaching but that doesn’t mean that they use good ones. To use a good illustration, the illustration has to be connected to biblical truth. The intention is to speak clarify what you have already talked about in the sermon or point to what will be revealed later. What type of illustrations do we use then? Pop culture can be used sparingly, I reference movies and songs all the time because movies and songs have an ability to capture the imagination of the audience. I think that there are very few sermons where I don’t make a reference to something like Lord of the Rings or a Disney movie and I use these because these are things that people know. The amount of times that I’ve quoted Finding Nemo in a sermon or an episode of the Office is more than I would like to admit. People already know these things, they recognize them and when you bring them into the sermon and connect it to biblical truth, the truth shines a little brighter because people can visualize it. Bryan Chapell writes, “By grounding biblical truths in situations that people recognize, illustrations unite biblical truth with experience and, in so doing, make the Word more accessible, understandable, and real in ways that propositional statements alone cannot.” Now of course we need to be careful with illustrations as well. The sermon shouldn’t be one long illustration. You also shouldn’t use too many in a sermon. In fact, I would say illustrate that which needs the most illustrating and illustrate the thing that you want them to remember. If you over illustrate, you end up with like a Jackson Pollick painting or something ridiculous. Tony Merida writes, “Our goal is to explain and apply biblical truth, not tell a bunch of stories. When you do this, you lose credibility from many hearers, and you end up diluting the thrust of the passage.” Also don’t use super vague illustrations that are only familiar to you. Remember the purpose is clarity, not additional confusion. Sure, if there is a story that has happened in your life that fits the occasion use it but don’t let your illustration be something overtly complex and something only you understand. We are looking for illustrations that are largely universal. I would also say don’t use too many of the same types of illustrations. If you make constant references to your family, change it up. They’ll appreciate not being your sermon illustration for a bit too. Maybe it’s your job or a hobby. The more people listen to you, the more people will start to catch you repeating similar illustrations and then you lose them. Use appropriate illustrations. I try not to use illustrations that come from inappropriate places. It’s really hard though to not talk about Fight Club even though I know I probably shouldn’t use a scene from Fight Club in my sermon. Use illustrations from history. People love illustrations that are real. Look at some of the great Christians in history like Martin Luther, David Livingstone, Charles Spurgeon, Billy Graham, show your people the Christian life in action. Last thing that I would say is this: don’t let the illustration be the shining light of the entire sermon. The purpose of preaching isn’t that people would walk away with good stories and good illustrations, the purpose is that they would be humbled and stand in awe of the God that we serve. I know that today was a little bit longer but before we’re done, do we have any questions?