So we're in Acts 17, and we get in verse one, read down to verse number six. We'll launch from here and then look at some other verses together to help us to draw some understanding about this topic of how to publicly teach more effectively. Acts 17, I'll begin reading in verse one. Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where was a synagogue of the Jews. And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures, opening and alleging that Christ's must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead, and that this Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is Christ. And some of them believed, and consorted with Paul and Silas, and of the devout Greeks a great multitude, and of the chief women not a few. But the Jews, which believed not, moved with envy, took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, and gathered a company, and set all the city on uproar, and assaulted the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people. And when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying, these that have turned the world upside down are come hither also." So let me start this way and then we'll get back to Acts 17 here in a few minutes. When it comes to doing the work of God, and the focus tonight is, because there's different aspects of the work of God, but the focus tonight is the teaching of God's Word. That's the focus in that work of God we're talking about. So when it comes to the work of God, the work of God requires human instrumentality. Now not because the Lord is unable to do it without us, but because He has chosen to do it through us. So this is especially true when it comes to preaching and teaching the Word of God. Again, this does not mean that we can do it apart from God. It's not like we have some great gift or some great ability and God is contingent on us because we have all the power. It is God has chosen to use us. So it's not that we can do it apart from God, but that God has chosen to do it through us. This is how He has chosen to work. I'm trying to emphasize this because I don't want us to get the big head or get arrogant and somehow thinking that we're up here and God is down here and we're calling the shots. That is not what I'm trying to imply. So hold your place in Acts 17. Go with me to Titus. Titus chapter 1. We'll just show some verses here just to confirm what we're talking about. Titus chapter 1 verse 1. Paul, a servant of God and apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect and the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness, in hope of eternal life which God that cannot lie promised before the world began. That's a powerful verse right there if you're thinking about the gospel. Some people think the gospel is somehow, you know, God tried the law, and God tried this, and God tried that, and nothing worked, so now he does the gospel. The gospel has always been God's plan. It's plan A, and there is no plan B. so in hope of eternal life which God that cannot lie promised before the world began but notice verse 3 but hath in due times manifested or shown or brought forth his word has manifested his word through preaching this is what he's chosen to do which is committed unto me Paul speaking according to commandment of God our Savior one more place Romans chapter 10 so the point here is that this is what God has chosen to do God has chosen to use people to preach and teach his word Romans 10 verse 14. How then shall they call on him whom they've not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? As I've said often, that's not pastor-preacher, that's just anyone who's teaching or proclaiming God's Word. That's the idea of someone standing up and proclaiming the Word of God. That's all it means. You could be in the Sunday School class, you could be a mom standing before her kids, anyone who's teaching or proclaiming God's Word. And how shall they preach, except they be sent? In other words, this is what God has done. He sent us to do this. As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things. Now often we use the term preaching only in the context of a sermon. That's not how he's using it here. He's using anyone who's proclaiming God's Word. This is the broader meaning, to proclaim or publicly herald God's Word. So it doesn't mean just pulpit preaching, it means proclaiming God's Word. When we were back in college and we had the bus ministry up to Chicago, typically on the way back from church, because it's 45 minutes to an hour each way, we would stand on the bus preaching to these kids. So it wasn't behind a pulpit, but we were proclaiming God's Word. And we do it in Sunday School classes, we preached in bars, we preached on street corners, any way you could proclaim God's Word. So that's when we think about preaching, someone who's proclaiming God's Word. So it's not talking about just preaching the aspect of pastoring or pulpit ministry, but just proclaiming God's Word. Now in our text, back to Acts 17, this is where we started, we see Paul doing this. So he says he goes through Amphipolis, whatever, and Apollonia, and he comes to Thessalonica, and there's a synagogue. And as a Jewish person, they would go to synagogue on the Sabbath, on Saturday, that's the Sabbath. And he's done this now for three weeks, three Sabbath days, three consecutive Sabbaths, three weeks. And he reasoned with them out of the Scripture. Now, it wasn't this type of a ministry where he's behind a pulpit. It was in a synagogue, and often they're sitting there, and someone would just kind of volunteer, I guess. I've heard different explanations of it, but they would just stand up, or sometimes sit, and they would just kind of, you know, talk about the Word of God. And Paul was using the Scripture to tell these Jewish people about the Lord. Now, we know that because that's what it says, opening and alleging that Christ must needs have suffered, and this Jesus whom I'm preaching to you is Christ, so he's preaching about Jesus. So in our text this is a pulpit type ministry, but later we see other people who are also doing this who's not in a pulpit ministry, and this is what I'm calling a pulpit ministry, someone standing on a pulpit doing what I'm doing, this is a pulpit ministry, but this is not the only way of preaching. Acts 18, if you will, just one chapter over, So two other people show up, next chapter over, verse one. After these things, Paul departed from Athens and came to Corinth and found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, lately come from Italy, and his wife Priscilla. This is Aquila, Priscilla, somewhat famous in the New Testament. Because at Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome and came unto them. So Paul now joins up with them. And because he was of the same craft, same type of work, he abode with them in Rot, for by their occupation they were tent makers. And he reasoned, Paul, in the synagogue every Sabbath and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks. So he's still doing what he's doing in kind of a pulpit ministry type situation, but we see Aquila and Priscilla now joining up with him being a part of this. Down to verse 18. This is still chapter 18, 1818. And Paul after this tarried there yet a good while, and then took his leave of the brethren and sailed thence into Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila. So he's leaving and they're going with him, having shorn his head in Sancreia, for he had a vow. And he came to Ephesus and left them, them would be Aquila and Priscilla, left them there, but he himself entered to the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews. When they desired him to tell you longer time with them, he consented not, but bade them farewell, saying, I must by all means keep this feast that comes in Jerusalem, but I will return again unto you, if God will. And he sailed from Ephesus." Now, so they travel, Aquila, Priscilla, and Paul go to Ephesus. Paul leaves, Aquila and Priscilla is still there, and they're going to be teaching God's Word. Look at verse 24. And a certain Jew named Apollos, born in Alexandria, an eloquent man and mighty in scriptures, came to Ephesus, where Aquila and Priscilla is. This man was instructed in the way of the Lord, and being fervent in the Spirit, he spake and taught diligently to things of the Lord, knowing only the baptism of John." He didn't have full understanding. And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue, whom, when, here we are, Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto them and expounded in him the way of God more perfectly. And when he was disposed to pass in Achaia, the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive him, him being Apollos, who when he was come helped them much which had believed through grace, for he mightily convinced the Jews, and that publicly shown by the scripture, that Jesus was Christ. So, Paul goes with Aquila and Priscilla, they go to Ephesus, Paul goes on, Aquila and Priscilla stay there, Apollos shows up, and now they're teaching him the Word of God. Not necessarily in a pulpit ministry, but they're teaching him, explaining. So much that Apollos grows and gets better, and then he leaves and he begins now his own ministry. So what my point is, is that it's not limited to a pulpit ministry. Preaching is any type of heralding or proclaiming God's Word. Now, this would include preaching in the context of soul winning. Now, when you get to the book of Acts, and you look at it, a lot of the preaching is pulpit ministry, because that's the emphasis. The book of Acts doesn't tell us what every believer was doing during the time of Paul. It tells us what Paul was doing in the time of Paul. Paul becomes really the main character in the book of Acts. Early on it's Peter, soon it becomes Paul, and the rest of the book of Acts is about Paul. It's teaching us some things through the life of Paul. But it doesn't mean that Paul was the only one who was ever teaching the Word of God. There's others teaching the Word of God, that's why I pointed out Aquila and Priscilla, but there's others as well. So other people are teaching the Word of God, not just in a context of a pulpit ministry. So it includes a context of soul winning, but also includes preaching in the context of any type of proclaiming God's Word in any type of ministry. Now let me show you one more place. Acts chapter 8. Now I'm belaboring the introduction, I know, but I'm trying to make sure we understand the whole idea of this publicly teaching God's Word is not limited to a certain group of people and everyone else is not obligated. Every believer has a responsibility to teach the Word of God. It's one of the things we're called to do. Not everyone's in a pulpit ministry, but everyone's supposed to be teaching God's Word. Acts chapter 8, verse 1. And Saul, this would be the Apostle Paul before he was saved when he was still the bad guy, and Saul was consentient to his death, him being Stephen, and at that time there was a great persecution against the church was at Jerusalem. At that time there's only one church and that was a church at Jerusalem. Saul persecutes it. That means he's arresting them, he's even consenting to their death, he's putting the pressure trying to stop but obviously the Lord's behind it and it's not going to be stopped. And they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria except the apostles. Everyone leaves Jerusalem, not everyone, but a whole bunch of them except the apostles. And devout men carried Stephen to his burial and made great lamentation over him. As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, that church in Jerusalem, entering into every house and hailing men and women committed in the prison. therefore they that were scattered abroad to these believers who in the church in Jerusalem who are leaving Jerusalem because of persecution therefore they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word now this is not just a pulpit ministry they're leaving Jerusalem they're going down to the whatever you're going down to I don't know They're going down to Illyria, whoever's next city, they're going to some other city. And they're scattered, and when they're there, there's no church there, there's only one church, that's the church in Jerusalem. They're leaving, there's no church there, so they begin, now, maybe some are maybe standing up and preaching it, but they're doing it some way where they're gathering people and they're teaching them the word of God. Not always in a pulpit ministry, because there's men and women both involved. Now what is the result of this? Acts chapter 11. What's the result of these people scattered and preaching and teaching God's Word? Acts chapter 11, look at verse 19. Again, I'm belaboring the introduction on purpose to get us the context that this publicly teaching of God's Word involves everyone, it's not limited to a pulpit ministry. Acts 11 verse 19. Now they which were scattered abroad, what we just read about in Acts 8, upon the persecution that rose about Stephen traveled as far as Phoenice and Cyprus and Antioch, preaching the word to none but to the Jews only. And some of them were men of Cyrus and Cyrene, which when they were come to Antioch, spake unto the Grecians, preaching the Lord Jesus. Now they're not just the Jews, but the Greeks as well. And they hand the Lord as with them, and a great number believed and turned unto the Lord. So this preaching that all these people were involved in, not just Saul winning, just the idea of standing up and proclaiming, publicly, heralding, and proclaiming God's Word. The result, now here's what's key, the result wasn't simply converts, even though that's what happened. The result is multiple churches started. So it wasn't simply they were out winning souls. They were actually teaching people, discipling them, and starting and building and growing churches. So they understood that they had this responsibility. Even though they left Jerusalem, they were no longer in the First Baptist Church of Jerusalem. Now they're over here in Antioch, but that doesn't eliminate their responsibility to teach God's Word. So that's what they're doing. So there is a responsibility for every believer to teach God's Word. So therefore, we have to understand, if that's my responsibility, then I need to do it the best I can. I can't just be lazy about it. I just can't just say, well, whatever. No, the Lord wants us to accomplish this. Now, during the prayer time, both in the prayer request and the praying itself, it was mentioned, I think in the praying itself, it was mentioned about the election. and how it turned out. And I said it's prior to election, I'll say it's after election. I'm glad who got voted and got voted in. Maybe you're not, but I am, okay. It went the way, and what I'm really glad, I'm really glad who got voted in. But in addition to that, it wasn't so, you know, edgy edgy where everyone's, you know, it's only one vote difference between the two people, okay. So it was very clearly who won. So if people want to complain, it's like, no, he had the majority vote and all the different ways. I'm glad for that. But it ain't going to change America if Americans don't change. America's problem is not the government. America's problem is we got the government we deserve. Somehow we think this, we think if God loves us he'd give us a better government. Maybe if we love God we'd have a better government. And so if we're going to really help America, it's about us doing our job. And part of our job is to preach and teach God's Word in any opportunity we get. If you get a chance to do an essential class, you get to do it maybe around the holidays. Maybe someone's going to say, hey, you go to church, you know, could you pray for us? You know what? You can do some good sermons in the midst of prayers. It may be a little longer prayer than they want. So any opportunity you get to give God's Word, you ought to take advantage of it. And we ought to want to do it the best we can. Now, some of the things I'm teaching tonight, you can't necessarily apply to the prayer before the Thanksgiving meal. You might find yourself being escorted out of the house while they're eating. Now, even though pastoring and pulpit ministry are reserved specifically for men who are called of God, the public proclaiming and teaching of God's Word applies to all believers. So if we're going to publicly teach God's Word as we should, then it would be wise to learn how to teach it as effectively as we can. Now some things do require, and this is not just teaching, this is true about all areas of life, some things do require talent or natural finesse. Some people just have a certain finesse or certain natural talent to do things. And that is true. But often, now watch this, The failure or the lack of accomplishment has nothing to do with talent or natural finesse. Because most things can be compensated, now watch what I say, most things can be compensated by character and hard work. Now, this is not, I'm not trying to brag, I'm just telling you what people say and if you disagree, I don't blame you because I would disagree too. But there are people who have come to me and said, oh, you're just a natural teacher. You know what, to whatever level I succeed or don't succeed, I have had to learn how to teach. I did it for, because I taught in a Christian school, I had to learn how to teach. Much of what I do is things I learned how to do. And I really, when I taught in a Christian school, whether I preached behind the pulpit, or I was in junior church, or on the bus route, all those things taught me how to do certain things. And some of the things I'm going to share with you are some things I learned from Scripture. Too often our excuse is, well I'm not just good at it. And really, it's not that you're not good at it, and this is, okay, this is going to hurt a little. The problem isn't I'm not good at it, the problem is this, I'm not willing to do the work to be good at it. So I want to give you some lessons that I've learned through Scripture, whether my own study of Scripture or others who've taught me the Word of God, some things I've learned to publicly teach more effectively. Now again, I'm not claiming to be good at it. I'm just saying I've learned some things, some of these things seem to work, and I'm trusting as we look together we'll learn some things together. Now the lessons are not conclusive, not everything, but there's some important things here that I want to point out to you that I believe can make a big difference. Now what are these things? Well let's go back to our text, Acts 17, Not everything comes right out of our text because this is more topical than textural, but the text itself does begin us in the right direction. So Acts 17 verse 2, let's notice the first thing what Paul does. And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three Sabbath days, in other words, three Saturdays consecutively, reasoned with them, watch this phrase, out of the Scriptures. It just wasn't him talking, he was using the Scriptures and reasoning with them, speaking to them, trying to convince them. So that brings us to our first big thought. Number one is this, teach what the Bible teaches from where the Bible teaches it. Now this is maybe not the most practical, I think point five is the most practical, but this may be the most critical. Prayer is taught in the Bible, but you ought to teach prayer from where the Bible teaches prayer. The text should be the fences by which we stay within. So teaching the Bible effectively begins with teaching the Bible properly. Don't come up with a lesson and then try to find out something in the Bible you can, you know, what verse can I use to support this? Maybe you ought to go to the verse first. Now watch this statement. No amount of shouting, theatrics, or emotional manipulation can replace the clear reasoning of the Scriptures. Now this is a problem in our churches because a lot of people go by how well the speaker speaks and not how well the preacher actually teaches the Word of God. Just because you can tell a funny story, and you can be exciting, and you can run around, and you can do somersaults, and you get everyone, whoo! Now, there's nothing wrong with being emotional. God gave us emotions. What's wrong is when we're guided by the emotions and not the Spirit of God as the Word of God is being revealed to us or taught to us. So when we think about the power of God, which is what is needed as you teach the Word of God, the power of God's Word is not the ability within us, but the truth within it, it being the Word of God. The power of preaching does not come from me, it comes from the Lord, but He does it through His Word. Often I preach, and when I pray before I preach, I'll say, Lord, speak to our hearts through Your Word. It's His Word that has spirit, His Word that has life, His Word that has power. It is His Word that changes lives. Look with me at Romans 1. The reason we teach it from where the Bible teaches it is because it's the power of God's Word that convinces people, that reasons with them, that changes their thinking. Because what you find yourself, you're arguing against His Word, and you say, well wait a minute, let God be true and every man a liar, so I better agree with God's Word. Romans 1 verse 16, For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it, the gospel, is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. In other words, just give out the gospel. I do not try to convince people of the gospel. I simply give the gospel. If you don't want to believe it, you're going to die and go to hell. So I don't do it callously or carelessly or flippantly, but I don't get in a big argument with them. I don't try to put them in a headlock and give them a noogie until they say, okay, I'll get saved. That's not the way you go soul winning. You need to do it clearly, you need to do it passionately, fervently, regularly, often, but then it's the gospel that's going to convince them. If people don't believe the gospel, their argument is not with you, their argument is with the Lord. The gospel is of the Lord, not of me. I didn't come with the gospel. The gospel is from the Word of God. Hebrews 4, look at verse 12. I always chuckle sometimes when I read the Bible, what I think the words used to mean before I understood, because today's English and English of 1611 is not exactly the same. You know, and this is one of them. Verse 12 I'm at, Hebrews 4. For the word of God is quick. I always thought, man, God's got fast words. That's not what it means. It means alive. There's an old phrase, the quick and the dead, it means the alive and the dead, the living and the dead. For the Word of God is quick, it's alive, there's life to the Word of God. Now watch, and powerful, and sharper than two-edged sword. It's the Word of God that goes in and pierces, even to the dividing of the soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. You can say what you want, the Word of God goes out and reveals to you that your heart is wrong and your mind is wrong. The Word of God is right. So the power of God's Word is not the ability within us, but the truth within it, within the Word of God. So it is a work Let me back up for a moment. So we teach the Bible from where the Bible teaches. So whatever the Bible teaches something, we want to teach it from where it teaches. It is the work that is put into understanding what the text teaches. So I have a text, I'm reading it, I'm trying to understand it. For example, I preached Sunday morning about how do you know how to get answered prayer. It was from Matthew, and we also looked at Luke briefly, but it's what we typically call the Lord's Prayer, but it's the Lord's lesson on prayer. So as I'm preparing that, I'm reading the verses saying, okay, Lord, what are you saying about prayer? What do I need to convey to them about what you're saying? It's not my thoughts, it's not my ideas, it's what is the Lord saying? So it's the work that is put in understanding what the text teaches, and then, watch, figuring out how to explain it at the level of his listeners, because I'm teaching the kids versus adults. I always got to dumb it down for the adults. Just kidding. I know. So I gotta understand it and say, okay, how do I convey this to who I'm explaining? That often determines the success of one's teaching ministry. So it's my understanding of it first. So then I understand it and I seek the Lord for understanding, then I say, Lord, how can I convey this? There are ways to hold a listener's attention, things you can learn, and how to convey it clearly. there are techniques okay if you talk like this the whole time it's kind of hard to keep people's attention because pretty soon they're all sleeping ok so there are things you can do but if you learn all the techniques but you're not teaching what the Bible says who cares so there are ways to hold the attention ways to convey it but it does not matter if what we're saying doesn't align with the Bible says who cares how well you can tell who cares how well you can preach error It's the preaching of truth what we want to do well. So we teach what the Bible teaches from where the Bible teaches it. One of the jobs, if you're going to teach the Word of God, is to read the Bible and convey to people what the Bible says from where the Bible says it. Now, I emphasize that because we have been lacks, and that's a mild word, lacks in doing this. We've taught, I've been in churches where what's been taught is exactly true according to the Bible, but it has nothing to do with the verses they're using. And because a rational, reasonable person can say, wait a minute, what you're teaching, what the Bible says there does not line up, it makes what you're saying suspect. And that's not the Bible's fault, that's your fault. So we've got to make sure that what we teach aligns up with where the Bible teaches it. That's the power. It's not how well I can say it, it is what the Word of God says that is the power that changes people's thinking, people's lives. Big number two. Go with me to Acts 2. Now we're going to look at another place. Instead of Paul, we're going to look at Peter, and Peter's preaching, so we're going to draw something from his preaching that we can learn. We're at Acts chapter 2, and we're going to look at verse 36. This is the day of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit has fallen in power and in fire, and now Peter stands up and preaches, and this is where the 3,000 get saved. Acts chapter 2, verse 36. And we're jumping right into basically the end of his sermon. Acts 2 verse 36. This is Peter now speaking. Now when they heard this, they, the listeners, these unsaved Jews, were pricked in their heart and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, repent and be baptized everyone you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of Holy Ghost for the promises unto you and your children all that are far off even as many as the Lord our God shall call and with many other words the testifying exhort saying save yourselves from this untoward generation then they that gladly received his word were baptized same day we're adding to them about 3,000 souls that brings us to our second thought number two is this Start your lesson with a clear understanding of what response you are seeking. A lot of times we get in trouble because we just kind of meander through a lesson. There's got to be a point to it. Now, typically, the title should reflect that. I'm not really good at my title. Some of them are good, some of them are, you know, they're just really dry and boring. But I try to at least make them reflective of what my title is. So at the end, if I'm getting ready to teach, at the very end, before I ever write anything, before I ever stand up and say anything to anyone, I say, okay, when I'm all done and the final amen is said, what do I want them to decide to do? Because they said to Peter, What shall we do? Now Peter already knew what he wanted them to do. Why did he even preach on the day of Pentecost? Because he knew what he wanted. He wanted them to come to Jesus Christ. He knew exactly what he wanted. But you cannot start if you don't know where you're going. You've got to know where you're going when you start. If you go somewhere, most of us today, we take our phone, even if it's in the store, we put it in the GPS. I need to walk next door to the neighbor. How do I get there? When you do your GPS, not only you've got to put in your location where you're starting, but you've got to put your location of where you're trying to get to, and then it'll map it out, which is the same thing in teaching. I need to know, I cannot know how to start and get there until I know where there is. So I've got to say, okay, what am I seeking to accomplish in this lesson? What am I trying to convey to people from the result of this? The first part, now those who've heard me speak along this line or not would be very familiar with this part here. The first part of a lesson that is to be written is the conclusion. That's probably one of the biggest mistake people make. They start with the lesson and they get to some point and they say, okay, well how do I end it? Well you should have known how to end it before you started it. Because you're not ready to write it until you know how to end it. The conclusion is the first part. Seems opposite, but that's the way it works. If you don't know where you're going, now you know how to get there. The conclusion, now here's why the conclusion's important. The conclusion answers the question, so what? Years ago, we mentioned Ida a little bit ago. Years ago, this would be like 2007 or something like that, first year of the church, second year of the church. And I was preaching, and I forget what I was preaching about, but I said, you know, the purpose is to answer the question, so what? And I know it has something to do with the message. And Ida brought me, the next time we had service, he brought me a stamp. He said he had it already in his office. It was sitting on the shelf. He never used it. It was one of these, you know, like you, that type of stamp. And on the stamp it said, so what? I still have it in my office. It says there, so what? So that is, when you're teaching, everything is said and done, people have a right to ask you, well, so what? I just spent 30 minutes listening to you, so what? What am I supposed to do? What am I supposed to get out of this? What action are you calling me to do? What change are you seeking from me? When I look at Scripture, there should be a hook here, something that's saying, okay, now this is what you do. So that conclusion answers the question, so what, in regard to what has been taught. Now, if you've been in church a lot, this statement will probably, you'll probably think of this, probably an occasion when you've seen this happen. Those who don't have a purposeful conclusion will often not have a purposeful direction, and then struggle on where to land the plane. It's like they're circling the airport, and they're ready to land. You're like, okay, the sermon's over, and they keep going. Okay, here's the airport, here's the landing strip, and they go right by it again. You're like, I keep seeing the landing strip. It's ready, okay. Sometimes I've done this. I've sat in church, and I have my hand like this, my finger, and I keep just drawing circles. It's like, when are you gonna land this plane, guy? When are you gonna land this plane? Now, typically, why that happens is because you didn't start. You're the pilot, you know where you're going. I'm going on that landing strip right there. I'm gonna take you there, and then we're gonna land the plane, and we're gonna be done. That is an effective way to teach. But you know the so what. What are you wanting people to think, to do, to change, to respond? The so what of it. We see that in Peter. Acts 18. Let's look at another. We glanced at this earlier as we're looking at Aquila and Priscilla and all that. We'll come back to it. Acts 18, look at verse 4. We won't review everything we just said earlier, but we'll just jump right into it at verse 4. Acts 18, verse 4. And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks. And when Silas and Timotheus were come from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in the spirit and testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ. Now, the Jews don't like this. They don't want to accept Jesus as a Christ. And to this day, they still don't want to accept Jesus as Christ. They're resisting it. Now, notice what he does. But he's pressing the spear. He wants this. He knows this is true. He's excited. He's motivated in this. Verse 6, and when they opposed themselves, which is an interesting phrase, and blasphemed, he, Paul, shook his raiment and said unto them, Your blood be upon your own heads. I am clean. From henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles." The Jews don't want him, maybe the Gentiles will want Jesus. That brings us to our third. The lesson must excite the teacher before it can excite the student. There's an old adage, what do you do about people who fall asleep in church? And the answer is always the same, wake up the preacher! That's what you do, you wake up the preacher. I know what you're thinking, well, I've seen people sleep in this church, I know. I know, but I try. So the lesson has to excite the teacher before it can excite you. If you're not, if I stand up and go, all right, we're gonna talk about how to publicly teach the word of God. And I don't know, I guess we should try to do it good. I don't know, it's kind of hard. You'd be like, don't you care? You'd say, why should I care if you don't care? You're the one teaching it, and if it means nothing to you, why should it mean anything to me? Now, if one thing is teaching the Word of God, for me it's easy to get excited. Try that when you're teaching like third and fourth grades about multiplication or commutative property of addition over multiplication. Try to get excited about that. That's a little bit more challenging. But you have to, the teacher has to be excited before you can ever excite the student. Now, the excitement just isn't in physical movement, but it may be. But typically it's exciting in verbal pronouncement. It is the job of the teacher to be excited about the truth being taught before he ever teaches and to be more excited when he teaches. Now, let me say this. This is a Wednesday night crowd, a little bit more better looking and more advanced than our Sunday morning crowd. You're welcome. I just preach the truth, man. Take it as it is. Now, I totally forgot what I was gonna say. I started giggling about that. That's not good. I have no idea. I shouldn't crack myself up. That's point four, don't crack yourself up. So it's the job of the teacher to be excited about the truth being taught before he ever teaches. Oh, I know what I was gonna say. And so, for us, I hope, I trust, I pray that you are reading the Bible for yourself. That's what should bring excitement. For me, excitement doesn't come from a bottle. It doesn't come from a pill. It doesn't come from an injection. It doesn't come from something I'm puffing on. The excitement, you know what the word... The excitement comes from the Lord Jesus Christ inside of me. And as I read the Word of God, He enlightens me in what the Bible says. I'm going to tell you, to me, the most exciting thing is when I read the Bible and the light comes on, I'm like, Well, duh, of course that's why, how come I never saw that before? That's so clear in scripture. Man, that's good. And that type of excitement you want to convey to the people you're teaching. You want them to be excited, but it's got to excite you first. Now, this type of excitement will be shown in how you're preparing, your preparation, and your delivery. Now there's a lot to be taught about teaching, about outlines and such, but really what an outline is, the outline I have in front of me on this piece of paper is really to convey to me what excited me when I studied it. So it's just to help me to get back. So I'm supposed to, just like when I was studying this and thinking about this and oh, this is good, then my, the goal is to now convey to you as the Lord impressed upon my heart. Now, let me give you something practical. I'll give you the point, and I'll explain it. Additionally, the teacher should learn how to stir himself up. As a believer, you've got to be able to do this. We are way too dependent on everyone else encouraging us. There's a God in heaven who can encourage you. The Bible says David encouraged himself in the Lord. We've got to learn how to encourage ourselves in the Lord. The teacher should learn how to stir himself up as he teaches so that the lesson isn't just about teaching the outline from his study, but the delivery of truth from his heart. So I'm going to give you examples to try to make it clear what I'm saying. I think soul winning is a wonderful thing to do as a believer, to tell someone else about the gospel of Jesus Christ. and prayerfully, hopefully, to see them get saved, to accept Christ for themselves. Now, when I want to get excited about soul winning, I don't just read a verse, I think about things the Lord has done in my life, and it stirs me up, it encourages me. If I want to get excited about someone getting saved, all I've got to do is go to my mind and remember early on in my Christian life, and I think I told this recently, when I In fact, sometimes all these sermons seem to run together in my head. Might have been Sunday morning, might have been Sunday night. I think it was Sunday night we spoke about this. When I went to witness to my grandfather, was that Sunday night? And I witnessed my grandmother. Okay, good, Sunday night. Now, if I stop and think about that and how I witnessed to her, how she sat there with tears down her eyes and said, thank you, I needed to hear this. And what I did not know, she was dying of cancer. I did not know that. I went off to college. She died not far from that. Didn't tell anyone. She had breast cancer. She had a big hole in her chest. Not telling anyone. Let me tell you, she was happy to hear the gospel. Tears down her eyes. Now, that may not be, everyone you knock on the door may not be dying of cancer, but they're dying. And they need Jesus. And that warms my heart when I think about that. That stirs me up. I'm thinking if you ever want someone to Lord, there's stories you can reflect on that would encourage you. So it's not dry and boring. This is real. This is life. This is how the Lord works. When I think about being thankful as we get into the Thanksgiving season here, if I want to be thankful, there's a lot of things to be thankful for. But often what I think about is my mom. My dad died when I was seven. I had a couple different stepfathers, a couple different live-ins. But in period of times, it was just me, my older sister, my younger brother, and my mom. And I remember my mom was always there, seemingly, but yet I knew she worked full time. So when we got ready to go to school, she would make us breakfast, she would send us off, and then she was gone. We'd come home, typically before she got off work, we had like an hour to have some chores to do, which we waited until like the last five minutes, because that's how kids are. And we hurry up and got all the chores done, and then my mom would come home after working all day, and then she would fix dinner, and the house was always clean, and I'm very thankful. for my mom's labors. I never doubted to this day that my mom loved me. She cared for us. I'm very thankful for her. That warms my heart. That's how I stir myself up. You have to know things that the Lord has done. That's how you encourage yourself in the Lord. You don't encourage yourself in the Lord like this. You stop and realize what the Lord has done. When I think about answered prayer, we spoke Sunday morning about prayer. Typically, if I want to get excited about prayer, I think about specific answers that the Lord did, that I knew God did. I told you some of those stories before when I was back in college, and I was hungry, I was on the bus, the bus was parked in front of Burger King, and I looked at Burger King, and I said, I don't want, to this day, I still say, I don't want Burger King, ugh, ugh, Burger King, ugh. But down the road was George's. George's was just a greasy little cockroach-infested joint, but they had the best quarter pound cheeseburgers, and fries, and a Coke, and man, that's just, I'm just going to tell you what happened. You can believe it or not. I'm on the bus by myself walking up and down the aisle saying, Lord, I want a quarter pounder of cheese, a Coke, and an order of fries. That's what I want. Can I have it, Lord? I had this much money. Nothing. I don't even got lint in my pocket. That's how poor I was. Bill Sprague, he was on the bus, says, hey, Denny, how you doing? I said, I'm doing okay. You hungry? Yeah, whatever. And he said, let's go to Burger King, get something to eat. I said, no, Bill, that's all right, I don't want anything. He said, I know, I'm gonna take you down to George's, I'm gonna get you a quarter pounder, fries, and a Coke. Exactly what I was praying for. I don't know. There's more money in my head, that's all I know. Now I think about another situation. This is when I was getting ready to get hired on. Not even to get hired on. I was at Beacon Baptist. They were going to start a Christian school. He contacted me. He said, hey, I know you started one. Can you come and kind of give us some insight? So I was there for a meeting. The whole time in the meeting, I mean, it's like this pressure. I knew the Lord wanted me to go there and start this Christian school, and I knew I didn't want to. So I'm talking to the pastor, and the whole time I'm talking to him, I'm saying to the Lord, it ain't me, Lord. You've got the wrong person. I don't know how you did this, but it's not me. Now, I'm not saying this to the pastor. I'm saying this to the Lord. Finally, the Lord is just, mm, mm, mm. I said, okay, Lord, here's the only way that I will believe that you want me to come here. We're going to leave this meeting, we're going to go out to the door, he's going to open it, he's going to get ready, he's going to put his hand on the door to say goodbye to me, and before he opens the door, he's going to say, he's going to take me to another place in the building. That's the only way I'll believe this is your will. I'm thinking, I got it made. It ain't going to happen. I've never done this before. In fact, I would counsel you, don't put out fleeces like this. If the Lord wants you to do it, just do it. But I don't want to do it. I'm fussing with the Lord. I don't want to do it. Meeting's over. We walk out his office, there's a little hallway, you take a turn, big foyer, he walks right up to the door, I kid you not, I'm not lying to you, he put his hand on the door, because it's like one of those push bars, and he goes, hey, by the way, has I ever shown you how we fixed up those bathrooms? And I said, I didn't say that to him, I said that to the Lord. I said, Lord, that's not fair. Now that's the direct answer. And so, what I'm saying is, when I want to think about these things, these are the things how you excite yourself. What has the Lord done? Encourage yourself in the Lord. Now, number four. I've got to go quicker. Let me give you two practical things. Those are a little bit more philosophical, but these are more practical. Go with me to Isaiah 58. Isaiah 58. Now, I've tried to add some things that aren't just in the teaching, like encouraging yourself to the Lord and things like that. Whether you're teaching or not, that's how you encourage yourself to the Lord. But I've tried to tie it in with the idea of teaching. Isaiah 58, verse one. Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins. Lift up your voice like a trumpet. That brings us to number four. speak to the back of the room. Now, I keep saying this, and especially in our auditorium class for Sunday school, we seem to struggle with this. If you're going to teach Eric, you got to speak to Eric like he was sitting back by Joe. So Eric, this is what I need you to understand. And what we do is we tend to, for some reason, rely on a PA system. when God gave you a voice and a diaphragm. The PA system, if you mumble, or you whisper, or you are unclear, it ain't gonna help you. You sound louder, your unclearness is louder. It doesn't make your unclearness clear. So you speak to the back of the room. Now, if you spent time studying the Bible, preparing a lesson, and your heart is stirred, why would you want to mumble or whisper through it? Speak up, speak clearly, speak passionately. Now, this does not require you to yell. In fact, I'm not yelling, I'm just pushing my voice. This is not, this is yelling, I'm not yelling, I'm just speaking to Job. Job, can you hear me back there? Alright, so I'm just speaking to Job. I'm not yelling, I'm just pushing my voice through, I'm using my diaphragm to push my voice through my vocal cords, which gives it some volume. So this doesn't require us to yell, just talk loud enough so those in the back room can hear you like they're sitting on the front. I want Joe to say, I might as well sit in the front because he's already yelling at me now. All right? Except you don't get spit on when you're back there. Now, there's different ways to do this, other than just lifting up your voice. One way to do it is by walking closer to them so your voice is projected further back. Sometimes it's good. Now, I don't do that. I'm 60, okay? I don't do all the things I used to do when I was, you know, in my 30s preaching. Back at Victory, our pastor was gone, there was two assistants, me and another guy, he was preaching Sunday morning, I was preaching Sunday night, and I said, if you'll stand on the Lord's supper table and preach Sunday morning, which he did, that was our agreement, I said, I will preach as I walk across the pews Sunday night, which is what I did. I just started walking across the pews like this, preaching to people. So, now I don't do that as much, but the reason you sometimes want to go closer is so that your voice is projecting, and you get closer. So there's different ways to project your voice, but there's not like a fence here. Get closer to them. If you're in a Sunday School class, walk down the aisle. Walk closer. This is what I used to do often in a Christian school. Okay? Let me tell you. Let me borrow your pen. Oh, mine's in my pocket. No, I got them all up there. I have one. They're just up there. Don't criticize me. Don't judge me, man. Don't judge me. Let me tell you what third graders do. The whole time I'm teaching about the multiplication table. So here's Johnny. Okay, that's what they do. So what you do is this, thank you, Eric. So what you do is, while he's doing it, you walk by and say, now, let me tell you, do you know what, and they're like, do you know what two times six is? Oh, 12, good job, okay. I helped you with that, just in case. But you want to project, you want to speak where you can be heard. All right, a little quicker, because we're running out of time. It's your diaphragm, not the PA system. We mentioned that. Here's the last thing I would mention. Teaching isn't a conversation. For some reason, people think, well, I'm just going to talk to them. It's not a conversation. You have a passion to get across something to people. Some people want to teach like this. It's not just a monotone of their voice. They're just like they're talking to someone sitting beside them and they just talk like this. If you believe it and want them to get it, you raise your voice. You get enthusiastic about it. Speak to them. Here's the fifth one, the last one. Maybe the most practical lesson. Acts 8. Acts 8. Acts 8 verse 30, And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, which is Isaiah, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest? And he said, How can I? Except, now watch this phrase here, some man should what? Guide me. This is often overlooked, well he needs to explain it, but you need to guide them. That's an important phrase there, that some man should guide me. And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him. So this brings us to our fifth point. Number five is this, teaching requires you to lead the people through the lesson. Often when I'm thinking about teaching, I'm thinking about standing... I've never been on one, I've only seen them on like on TVs or movies, but they have those tour buses where someone's in front of the tour bus, and on our left you will see, blah, blah, blah, blah, and on our right you will see, and they're just taking a tour and they're pointing out things. And we did have one that used to be at Cedar Point when they did the boats, I'm not sure if they still do the boats or not, and they always had someone's corny jokes, but they would point out things and tell you different stories about the park and about different aspects of it. It was kind of like a little tour. and they kept your attention. That's really what teaching is. The Torah is the text, and I'm taking you through the text, and I'm pointing out things. I'll refer you back to Sunday morning, because that's more of a textural-type message, and it was like, okay, here's what it says. Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And we read the whole text, and we said, okay, first it's His name, His kingdom, His glory. So in our tour bus, the first thing we see is God's, it's all about God. So I'm just taking you through the text, pointing out different things that's in the text, and explaining it to you. That's all I'm doing. So teaching requires us to lead them through the lesson, point out the things, explain it to them. A successful tour guide doesn't sound like the old McDonald's drive-thru speaker. You're like, um, number one combo? Medium? You're kind of guessing what they're saying. A tour guide speaks up, points it out. I'm trying to hasten a little. A teacher who leads well, the idea of teaching and leading, a teacher who leads well through the lesson differentiates the points, like one to differentiate the various sites on a tour. Not everything's the same. That differentiation also necessitates that different parts of the lesson would have more value and require greater emphasis. I know I'm being wordy, but just follow me here, okay? When you're teaching, you gotta say, what am I teaching? Not everything in a text is of equal value. It's all valuable, it's all God's Word, but it's not all the, okay, we were working in Morgantown, I guess we'll do one more time going in that area and working for a couple more days. We happened to be driving through, we were going to go somewhere, so I went the long way around, which is, kind of wherever you go in Morgantown is a long way around. But we went the long way around, and I took him by several things, and I said, here's where the old drive-in was, and here's this and here's that, and I went by a store and said, okay, this is where we used to go shopping, now it's all closed down. But in a previous time, I took him to the church where I was as a kid. We stopped, we went in, we looked at it, we talked about it, because that church means a whole lot more to me than where the drive-in was and the store that's closed down. All those things are true, but this has more priority, more value, because it means more to me. And the same thing is our text. Not everything in the text is of equal value and equal priority. It is your job as a teacher to study the text, find out what's the most important thing, and then convey it as if it's the most important thing. You prioritize, you value. And not everything is of equal value. Monotone is not just voice. Monotone is if everything in your lesson is equal value, that's still kind of a monotone. Not everything has equal value, equal priority. You've got to decide what has the priority, what has the emphasis, what has the value to it. Now how do you know that? You study and find out. The lack of differentiation means that there's a lack of study. Look to the Word of God. What's the most valuable thing He's saying here? What's the most important thing? What's the priority of the text? and make it a priority of a lesson. So teaching requires you to lead them through the lesson, explaining to them, pointing out things, guiding them, helping them understand those things. That's the purpose of the lesson. Now again, it's not conclusive. A whole lot more could be said, but this is it for tonight. One of the greatest and most humbling opportunities for a believer is to teach the Bible to others. It is both challenging and fulfilling. That's why you ought to take advantage of it. You say, well, I don't know if I can ever stand in front of people and teach. Good, you're a good candidate. Because if you're like this, yep, that's me, put me in front of them, I'll take care of it. No, no, you sit down. You're too full of yourself. But it's both challenging and fulfilling. Now, there may be reasons that you can't publicly teach the Bible effectively right now. Maybe you just recently saved. Maybe you haven't been in church for a long time. Maybe you've been saved a long time, but you haven't been in church in a long time. You're not really biblically literate yet. Okay, that's understandable. There's a growth process. Maybe you've been saved, been in church, but whatever church you went to didn't really teach you the Word of God. Okay, still, you kind of say, okay, those are understandable. But at some point in time, in a church like ours, when we're trying to teach the Word of God, you ought to say, okay, I know enough, I need to start teaching others. I'm all for people coming and learning. But somewhere along the line, you've got to say, okay, am I just going to be like that little baby bird all the time going, feed me, feed me, feed me, or am I eventually going to get out of the nest and start getting some food for others? So there's, I think, no greater and no more humbling experience than it is to teach the Bible to others, challenging and fulfilling. Now let's kind of go full circle and where we started. You may not be good at it, okay, but are you willing to work to be good at it? That's the question. All right, we'll pray and we'll be done for the night.