Musings on Spiritual Matters

A sermon that preaches to the Corinthians must realize that the Corinthians are dead.  Yes, dead, and since the gospel is for the living, just preaching the same lesson that Paul preached or wrote seems kind of a waste of time.  The Roman’s cannot repent.  But this does not mean that we do not go back to the original meaning of the text, as this is what guides us into the message for Castle Rock or Little Rock, but if we stay within the realm of of the past, we miss the message for today.  The word of God is living and active, and that same message that was once preached is the same message that will be preached today.  But here is how to do this.

Happened.  The first step in a sermon is to go back to the beginning and discover the original intent of the author, through the Holy Spirit.  You do this through looking at the context and the original language of the text.  What is Paul saying to Corinth?  After this study, you develop a statement that will be rooted within the minds of the listeners.  For an example, in chapter 3 of Romans, one would be “all men have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”  This might be not that good, but you are to look for the truth that will be preached.

Happens.  Most preachers stay in Rome, and never go to Little Rock or Castle Rock.  So you in this step take the biblical truth and create a universal truth from the biblical truth.  It is a truth that will be true no matter the culture, the situation, or year.  For an example, from Romans 3, “Sin destroys the glory that God intended for man.”  Once again, not great, but you see the point.  The truth is a little more personal as you bring home the element of application.

Happening.  The final step, is the statement of truth that applies to the congregation within the time frame of the here and now within the current culture of the congregation.  It might be a specific issue that is in the congregation, or a problem in the culture.  But you hone in on the application, with a strong sense of sticking the truth statement into the minds of the listeners.  So once again, here we go from Romans 3.  So with the truth of the text, you create this maybe “Never act like a saint to sinners.”  So this line has to be sticky, that means they will remember it for a while.  This line means, do not act holier than thou because you are just like those who you see as worst sinners than you.  Do not be prideful in Christianity, we are all sinners.

Well, hope you all enjoyed another lesson in preaching.  This style of sermon is from invitation to Biblical preaching.   You could also us this approach in a three point sermon, going from happened, to happens, to happening.

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This entry was posted by Matthew on Thursday, December 15th, 2011 at 3:24 pm and is filed under Church News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.