Alright, well welcome to lecture number two for homiletics. Good to have you here with us as we work through the session today. Now, what I'd like to do is we're just going to open in a word of prayer and then I'm going to ask whether you would like to share a blessing or two out of your textbook readings for last week, but let's have a word of prayer first. Dear Father, we thank you for this day, for the beauty of it, Lord, and for the reminder of your goodness and your faithfulness to us. Lord, we look to you now to put your hand of blessing upon this class. Lord, we thank you for the wonderful privilege of being called to the proclamation of your word, Lord. There is no greater privilege than to be a preacher of the Scriptures, the Word of God. We thank you for revealing your Word to us. Help us to be faithful students of your Word. And then, Lord, use us mightily to declare your Word to others, Father. We pray for the salvation of souls and for the building up of your people. So help us, Lord, equip us as we study these things. And above all else, we pray that we would just be committed to the Scriptures and that we might have your Spirit's enabling and power as we seek to declare your word. So we ask your blessing now upon our class this morning as we meditate upon these things together in Jesus' name. Amen. Okay, so you should have read according to your schedule some chapters out of the Preacher and his preaching and then out of the other textbook as well Anointed Expository Preaching. I just thought it might be a nice way to start the class this morning. Could you just think of one particular quote out of your reading? It could be from either book. If that was a blessing too, you'd like to share. Starting with Paul. Specifically, I just found it really interesting. It just said, we cannot divorce the preacher from his preaching, bringing through the character of the preacher in his preaching. And then it went on to say, for the preacher, the Word of God is the work of God. Just simply. That's the whole work there is the preaching the Word. Yes. It just brought through, I guess, for me personally preparing to be a preacher, just how much we have to centralise the Word of God in our lives as individuals because we can't separate from the preacher from his preaching. to applying that to the Word of God and just showing how personal it is that the Word of God has to be just planted deeply in our own lives. Yes. Yeah, I mean, that's right. And actually, that ties in with just a devotional thought that's been on my mind the last couple of weeks in relation to this class. And in Mark chapter 3, when Christ called the disciples together, it's interesting in verse 14, it says, And he ordained twelve, that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach. Do you notice the order there? He ordained twelve that firstly they should be what? With Him, and then that He might send them forth to preach. So there's the man in the message, there's the preacher in his preaching. So our private devotional life with the Lord, being with Him, is first priority, and then from there we go out to preach. I just found it very interesting that firstly the Lord ordained those twelve men to first be with Him and then send them forth. So our public ministry needs to be an outflow of our life and devotional life with the Lord. Emmanuel, any blessings from your reading you'd like to just share briefly? Yes. First of all, our preaching should be the love we have for Christ, the love of Christ. And nothing more, nothing less. And I thought this to be a blessing because if we base our calling on any other thing, our desire to preach on any other thing, we are going to fail. But if we just keep on focusing on the love of Christ, we shall never fail. and then I learned that love is measured by the sacrifice made on behalf of the one loved and that was a blessing to me in particular and also we should also pray to Christ to make us the models of the gospel we are going to preach because if we don't we are actually going to give others the opportunity to blaspheme the name of the Lord. Yes. And then we should also...Christians should not take Christ with them where they go, but they should rather follow Christ where He leads them. I saw that as very touching and embracing, because I realize usually we try to fit Christ into our plans as Christians, rather than affiliating ourselves as waiting vessels for Him to use us to accomplish what He wants to accomplish with us. So these were the blessings, the major blessings I got from my reading, especially from the first, what is it, Evanescence? No, the first, it's the preacher and his preaching package. Mmm, I mean, that's wonderful. No, praise the Lord, they're wonderful thoughts there, and so true. Alright, well, we're going to go back to our notes now, to page 10. Last week we got up to page 9, and I particularly mentioned I wanted you to take note of these four skills that need to be mastered by the preacher. in order for him to be as effective as possible. And those four steps were sound selection. In other words, we need to discern what the law wants us to preach. Then the next step was sound study. And that has to do with how do we now go about understanding the passage of Scripture and looking at those tools of study that will help us to properly interpret the message God has for us, and then structuring, sound structuring, that's where we now take the message that God has given us and put it into a workable outline, a workable form, and then finally speech, which is the delivery, a sound speech, delivery of the Word of God. So, good to keep those four steps in mind. Well, now we're up to page 10 and point number 5, some further terms that are relevant to homiletics. And I'm going to try and just get through some of our notes this morning and we'll see how we go. So, the following terms, the notes say here, will likely crop up in any study of homiletics. Point A, hermeneutics. Hermeneutics is the science of biblical interpretation, and this involves the application of several established laws. Now, you would have been through this, in essence, in your Bible interpretation course, so this is just a review, but there's a few rules we need to bear in mind when it comes to interpreting the Scripture. Firstly, the golden rule of Bible interpretation, which is we always need to interpret Scripture with Scripture. Okay, the Bible is a self-interpreting book. And you might like to write next to that, 1 Corinthians 2.13, very important verse of Scripture. on correct interpretation. And the verse reads, which things also we speak not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. So how does the Spirit of God teach us? Well, he compares one spiritual thing with another. And so we need to learn to compare scripture with scripture and to allow the Bible to interpret itself. It's not up to our imagination to just attach any sort of meaning or idea to any particular verse. The Bible interprets itself. There are symbols in the Bible, and there are figures, but the Bible itself provides the key to interpreting those things. Number two. Two foundational rules of Bible interpretation are a. The Bible must be interpreted grammatically. All right, and we have here several laws under that. The law of direct statement, if the plain sense makes common sense, seek no other sense or it will all become nonsense. Okay, I think you had that phrase in your Bible interpretation course. So, in other words, we need to just take the Bible literally and plainly. Again, if there are figures or symbols, the Bible itself will provide are the keys to interpreting those, and even those symbols are still intended to communicate a literal truth. So even though you may have something that is figurative, like a metaphor, it's still designed to convey, at the end of the day, a literal truth that we need to take home. Then we have the law of context. A text taken from its context becomes a pretext. So we've talked about that, the danger of taking a verse of scripture, wrenching it out of its context, and making it say anything we want. The cults are masters at this. I was talking to a lady with Brother Seth when we were out door-knocking on Saturday, last Saturday, and she was a Jehovah's Witness. and they are a classic example of taking a verse out of context and making it a pretext. They just grab a cherry-picked verses from here to there, rip them out of context, and it's just, you know, you can make the Bible say pretty well anything you want to. if you don't adhere to context. So, when it comes to context, we need to look at the immediate context, which is the verses immediately before or after. That will help shed light on the verse. But we also need to look at the broader context as well. So, it's helpful to look at the overall theme of a book. So, for example, again, the Jehovah's Witnesses will take verses out of Ecclesiastes to try and prove their doctrine that there's no life after death, basically. They believe in the annihilation of the wicked, so there's no literal hell, and they don't believe in the truth that we have an eternal spirit, that once you die, that's it, until you get resurrected later. So they take a verse out of Ecclesiastes that talks about the dead know nothing at all, and they build their whole doctrine on that verse. a consideration of the broader context of the book of Ecclesiastes disproves the point they're trying to make because Ecclesiastes is all about life viewed under the sun from man's perspective and the vanity of life without God. Its primary purpose is not to teach us about you know, the truths of the afterlife, okay? Plus, even within Ecclesiastes itself, it talks about the spirit of the beast when it dies, goes downward to the earth, but the spirit of God, sorry, the spirit of man returns to God that gave it. So there are even verses within Ecclesiastes that would disprove what they're trying, the point they're trying to make there anyway. So, consideration of broader context. What's the immediate context? Verses before, after, and then what's the broader context of the book and even further afield then the whole of the Word of God. If you come up with something or an interpretation that puts you in conflict with a lot of clear scripture, then you probably need to go back and revisit your interpretation and see whether it's correct. Thirdly, the law of language. Words should be understood in a literal sense unless such an interpretation involves a clear contradiction or absurdity. So, basically, we approach the Word of God with a literal method. We take the Bible at face value and, like I say, where there is a figure or a metaphor or a symbol, the Bible itself will provide the key for that interpretation. Alright, so the golden rule, interpret scripture with scripture, then two foundational rules. A, the Bible must be interpreted grammatically. B, now the Bible must be interpreted historically. Using the five-point question rule helps to determine the correct historic setting of a passage. One, who is speaking or writing. Two, to whom is it being spoken or written? Three, what is being spoken or written? Four, when is it being spoken or written? And five, why is it being spoken or written? Okay, so we want to understand the historical context as well. Okay, point three there under A, hermeneutics, is five particular laws of Bible interpretation. A. The law of first mention. The first mention of any given subject gives the key to its subsequent meaning. This is very important. So, for example, on the subject of tongues, you go back to the first occurrence of tongues in the New Testament, which is Acts chapter 2, and that provides a very important foundational understanding of the whole subject that we'll then carry through. So that's the law of first mention. And when you look in Acts chapter 2, it's very clear tongues are languages. Tongues are languages. And you can see how the Word of God uses the word language and the word tongue interchangeably and goes on to mention the Jews that were from all these various parts of the world. So that's the law of first mention. When you're studying a subject, try and find its first occurrence or its first mention in the Bible, and it seems that that provides a working definition that will carry through. So for example, again, in the book of Daniel chapter nine, where we come to Daniel's 70-week prophecy, What does the week refer to there? Well, if you go back to the first mention of week, or a similar use of the word week, you go back to where Jacob was serving seven years for Rachel. And you remember how that Laban deceived him and gave him Leah? And then when Jacob complained about that to Laban, Laban said, that's okay, fulfill her week and you can have Rachel as well. So a week is seven years. So that provides a key right there, the first mention of the word week, that then works for Daniel chapter nine. So we know that a week in that context is referring to seven years. So the Law of First Mention. Then B, the Law of Progressive Mention. Revelation concerning any given subject is made increasingly clear as the Bible narrative unfolds. So that's the way it works. The Word of God unfolds things progressively. Then C, the Law of Full Mention. Revelation concerning any spiritual subject vital to man gives the full mind of God on the matter. Okay. D, the Law of Application. Scripture must be correctly interpreted before it can be applied. There is always one interpretation, but often many applications. And I believe that's correct. So, one main interpretation, but there are many applications. So, we need to understand that. You could have two preachers come to the same text, they should both get the same interpretation of the text. but as far as how they apply that text will be largely determined by the leading of the Holy Spirit in the preacher's heart, the preacher's own gifts, and those different dynamics the law will use. Then the law of illustration. For most biblical truths, God gives at least one classic illustration of that truth in his word. Number four, there are also specific laws relating to these things here, Bible prophecy, parables, promises, types and illustrations, the Psalms, numbers. And we don't have time to go into all that, obviously, in this course, but just to be aware of these central laws that will help us in interpreting the scriptures. Okay, then, so we've looked at A, hermeneutics, now B, exegesis. And this refers to the interpretation of scripture. The word exegesis comes from the Greek preposition ek, meaning out of, and Hegesthai, okay? Ek, hegesthai. So ek means out of, and hegesthai, to lead. So it means to lead the meaning out of the scripture passage. Bible preachers need to be there for good exegetes, and we need to develop that skill. So, very, very important. That's our job as preachers, is to draw out of the scriptures what the scriptures are saying, and then present that to the people. Now the opposite to that is eisegesis, so you need to be familiar with those two words. Exegesis is where we go to the Bible and we get what the Bible is saying, deliver that to the people. Eisegesis is when we read something into Scripture. So we maybe go to Scripture with a preconceived idea, I've even, sometimes you think, I'm pretty sure the Bible says this about that subject. And there's been times where I've thought, I'm pretty sure the Bible has a verse on that. And you go and find, no, it doesn't actually quite say that. And it's almost disappointing sometimes, because you're hoping for some support for that idea. But it's like, well, no, hang on a second. Nevermind about my idea. Let's just, what does the Bible say, okay? So eisegesis, this is from the Greek, the Greek preposition there, eis means into. X means out of, ace means into. You can see the two different approaches to the Bible. We need to be very, very careful that we come to the Bible and allow the Bible to dictate to us what the truth is and what we are to believe, as opposed to coming to the Bible and trying to make the Bible fit what I already believe. Alright, that's a mistake to read in Scripture. And then we need to be familiar with the word exposition, and this refers to the explanation of Scripture. So we exegesis is where we go to the text, we seek to understand the text, and you know, get out of the scripture what it means, and then the exposition is where we now deliver that to the people, okay? Now this word comes from the Latin word exponere or something like that, meaning to set forth or display, okay? So we go to the word of God, we study it, we seek to understand it, and then we set that forth or we display it for the people. So, an expositor is one who expounds or simply explains the scriptures. You there? Yes, Pastor. I could hear you when you were saying you'd lost him, so I was shocked. Oh, that's strange. No, that was eisegesis. No, that's fine. All right, so let's look at some examples here of exposition. Let's just look at one there, Nehemiah chapter 8, please, for a moment. And Nehemiah 8, and we'll just look at verse 8 because it gives us a very, it really gives us good preaching in a nutshell, I believe. Could you read that out for us, Paul, please? Nehemiah 8, 8. So they read in the book, in the law of God distinctly and gave the sense and caused them to understand the reading. All right, so they read in the book of the law distinctly, the law of God distinctly. Number two, gave the sense. Number three, caused them to understand the reading. Wonderful, wonderful verse on good preaching. Okay, read the Bible, read the scriptures clearly. That's step number one. Read it distinctly. Now, it's very, very important. It's more important than I think sometimes we give it credit. that we develop in our skill of reading the Scriptures publicly. I personally have a problem where you have preachers that say, oh, you know, you kind of hear things like this, we'll just, we'll skip over, you know, I'll just read one or two verses here so we can get to the message. All right, so it's like, well, hang on. God may or may not bless what you have to say after the Scripture reading. But what we can have full confidence in is God will always bless His Word. So do not rush the reading of the Word of God, so that you can get to your message. The first priority when you start the message is to read reverently, at a comfortable pace, the Scriptures, because God can even use that before you even start saying anything. Now, of course, I understand there might be certain contexts where you have a time constraint and you have to be considerate. You're not necessarily going to read 10 chapters before you start preaching. So there doesn't need to be wisdom there. But if you're preaching maybe five or six verses out of a chapter, you might like to read some of the verses before and after so people can get a bit of a feel for the context. You might like to read the whole chapter. But whatever, do not underestimate the importance of that first step of just reading the scriptures publicly. And don't forget what a privilege that is. You know, we're talking about the words of the living God. Whenever the word of God is read, that's God's voice speaking. That's God speaking directly to us. So they read in the book of the Lord distinctly. They gave the sense and then caused them to understand the reading. So then that's the exposition side. OK, gave the sense and help the people to understand. So that's our job. Read the Bible, read the scripture, read the scriptures clearly and then help the people to understand what we've read to them. That's good preaching in a nutshell. Good expository preaching in a nutshell. All right, now we come to point number six now, the primacy of preaching. 1 Corinthians 1.21 says, please God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. 1 Corinthians 1.21. The notes read here, in the 21st century Baptist churches, in 21st century Baptist churches, sound Bible preaching is increasingly being pushed aside by inferior substitutes. Actually, before I get into this, just back on the public reading of Scripture, it's probably a wise idea before you preach to read the passage out loud in your own time, once, twice, several times even. So that when you come to read that passage of scripture for the message, you're not stumbling over it, you're not getting all tongue-tied on it, you read it nice and clearly and crisply. So I've read that before, by men of God, that it's wise to practice reading that passage out loud even a couple of times before you come to the pulpit. Now, I don't always follow that religiously, but I can see the wisdom in it. Just because, again, you want to be familiar with that passage of Scripture. In fact, that can be a part of your study even, just reading the verses out loud and meditating on them that way. Alright, so the primacy of preaching. Preaching is increasingly being pushed to the side, even in our churches. And you can see that de-emphasis on the Word of God. So people are taking away the pulpits and replacing them with these little glass things, or no pulpit at all, and the preacher sits up there almost like a bartender on a stool and has a talk. and that's unfortunately the day in which we live. So it says here, in the assemblies focus has shifted toward music, methodology, ministries and multimedia. And I like this saying here, in some instances preaching has been reduced to that of happy how-to sermonettes for clock-watching Christianettes. And that's true, you know, there's just so much It's such a whole scale shift today away from the preaching of the Word of God. We have people comment regularly who visit our church here that one thing that stands out to them is the preaching of God's Word, that the Bible is opened and preached. Now it's sad because you know you think That should just be normal in a church. You should go into a church and at the very basic level the Bible should be opened, read and preached. But it's just not there. We have a lady coming to our church here who said her previous pastor did a six week series on relationships and didn't refer once to the Bible. Now I'm thinking, how could you not use the Bible as your textbook for a subject like relationships? Husbands, wives, children, parents, friends, it's all in the Word of God. But that's what we have today. Or you might have, you know, this little sermonette thing with a verse or two thrown in there and a lot of jokes and psychology and all this sort of thing. And it's happening amongst independent Baptists as well, and the whole emphasis on, you know, all this about this, you know, strong emphasis on music, and, you know, we're going to reach people through music, and music's a precious part of the worship service. Absolutely. But God has chosen the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe, and we can't do better than God's method. You just can't, you can't improve on God's methods. So God has given us not only the message, but he's given us the methods, the methods that we are to employ in delivering that message. So don't, I know for us this may seem basic, but we do need to constantly come back to the promise of preaching that, or the centrality of preaching, that it's got to be central in our churches. In the study, pastors too often are being consumed with executive business of the church, directing staff, and in some cases, online time-wasting, leaving little room for serious study and message preparation. So, we have to be very careful about that as well. There is any number of things that can occupy the preacher's time. And we have to learn to prioritise, I think I spoke about this last week, and make sure we give the time that is necessary to diligent preparation of the Word of God. It's really no different to feeding a family, if you think about that as an illustration. If all you ever feed your children is junk food, packets of chips and lollies, they might enjoy that and it might give them some temporary satisfaction, but long term they're going to be very unhealthy and ultimately unhappy children. In spiritual matters, we need to feed our people well. If all we're feeding them is hamburgers and chips, then their spiritual lives will be weak and they'll be subject to all sorts of disease, spiritual diseases. So we've got to take this so seriously to heart. Preaching the Word of God is a high privilege. There is no high privilege in all the world. To be called to the office of pastor or to the ministry is the highest calling that there is. and we need to approach it with that spirit, okay? And give our time diligently to the Word of God, make sure we give the people the very best that we can with the Lord's help, and that the church will grow and thrive when it's being fed properly, okay, on the Word of God. So now we come now to the duty of a preacher. So we're looking at the primacy of preaching, and now A, the duty of a preacher. Sorry, just I forgot to read the paragraph above there. The student must develop a firm conviction that preaching is paramount. Other matters may be important and always pressing, but without sound, solid Bible teaching and preaching, God's work does not get done. So God's work doesn't get done without preaching the Word of God. You've also got to see it this way as a pastor. You have many ministries in the church. You have different people serving in those ministries. And the preaching time, particularly on a Sunday morning or Sunday night, is an opportunity to refill the tanks of God's people, so to speak. They need their batteries recharged spiritually because if they're giving out and serving, they do need some refreshing, they need some encouragement from the Word of God. Now for us as preachers, we have a bit of a challenge in that we don't often get the opportunity to sit under preaching as much, particularly when we're in the full-time work of the Lord. So we have to take other steps to listen to preaching and CDs or audio messages and things like that just to keep our own hearts fresh. I find scripture memory is another way that's helped me with keeping my heart fresh as well. So the duty of a preacher. Preaching and teaching is a pastor's primary tool of trade. Acts 6.4, but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word. And I mentioned, didn't I, that really out of your Bible college training, the prayer courses and the preaching courses need to be high on the priority list because that brings us back to those two central things that we are to do. Same for an evangelist, preach the word, be instant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine, but watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. Now, I don't believe that Timothy was an evangelist. I believe he was in pastoral ministry, and that's why it says, he doesn't say you are an evangelist, but he said you need to, as a pastor, to do the work of an evangelist, okay? Alright, point B, the goal of a preacher in training. The personal goal of every God called preacher should be as is recorded in Acts 18, 24-25. And a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man and mighty in the scriptures, came to Ephesus. This man was instructed in the way of the Lord, and being fervent in the spirit, he spoke and taught diligently the things of the Lord. So we have two goals here, to be eloquent, that is a skillful and effective communicator, and then two, to be mighty in the scriptures, a Bible student, ever learning. I've added number three here, to know God's power and anointing, because without that, eloquence in and of itself can actually be a problem, because Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2 that he didn't come with excellency of speech or of wisdom. but he spoke in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. So I understand what we're saying here, that we do need to learn to be skillful communicators as best we can, but the Lord can use a man who's maybe not as polished in his speech abilities But if he has God's power, God can use him. My understanding is that when Jonathan Edwards preached that very famous sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, he basically read it off a script in a fairly monotone voice. But so mighty was the conviction that people were crying out in the service. calling on God for mercy, they came under such conviction. So, first and foremost, we need God's hand on our lives, we need to have a message from the Lord, and when all the preparation is done and we've done our very best, we just cast ourselves on the Lord. When it comes time to step into the pulpit, we cast ourselves on the Lord and we leave it in His hands. We're not perfect vessels, we're not always going to get it right, but God can use it. Often when I'm on the platform on Sunday mornings, I'm like, Lord, between here and the pulpit over there, I need you to do something before I get to the pulpit over there, because we're just so dependent on the Lord. And that can be after hours of study and prayer, but we have to just come to the pulpit in weakness and dependence upon the Lord. So as I think I mentioned last week, we need to prepare as if everything depends on you, In other words, be diligent, be disciplined in your study of the Word, but then remember to pray and to look to the Lord in faith, knowing that ultimately everything depends on Him. A couple of quotes here at the end of the chapter. Homiletics is the science of which preaching is the art, and the sermon is the finished product. And then a sermon is a speech spoken in behalf of or in the name of God. So you need to memorize these two scripture verses down the bottom. And you will need to, I'll summarize the homework requirements at the end of class, but you will need to do the study questions. So what that means now is you're going to reread this section on introduction to homiletics, and you're gonna just fill out with your pen the study questions. Next week when you come to class, I will give you those same study questions as a test, and then we'll move on to the next unit after, then we go to the next unit. So as we work our way through, that will be our pattern. Also, just on the Gibbs reading, you don't need to submit that to me until the end of the course. So just fill out the fill out the review questions. So, fill out the review questions, the study guide questions, which is, sorry, the textbook study questions. That's assignment number one, page 173 and through. And you will simply submit that to me at the end of the semester. With the other additional textbook that I've assigned you, that's a weekly thing. I want you to send me the quotes, which you've done, okay? Does that make sense? All right, let's have a look what the time is. Oh okay, well that means you're ahead for next week. So what we'll do, so just to clarify, we will When we reach a set of, so when we finish a unit off and there's study questions, they will be due the week after that lecture. Okay, so we just basically handle them as we come to them. Because there'll be some times where it takes us a couple of weeks to get through one chapter of notes, depending on how much, you know, I want to expand on things. Okay, so let's turn over now to page 19. Alright, so we've finished with the introduction to homiletics. You will need to do those study questions for next week. We're now going to get into some sermon fundamentals. Okay, so we're looking a little bit more in detail now about Sermon fundamentals. In practical terms, what is a sermon? It is a prepared discourse designed to explain and apply the Word of God to the hearts and minds of men. This lecture presents a general overview of the preparation and design of a sermon. So, like I said, we're looking in a little more detail at those, particularly those first three steps. Okay, selecting the sermon, studying the sermon, and then structuring the sermon. Okay, which is on page nine, so those first three steps in greater detail now. So number one, sermon selection. And how does a preacher know what he is to preach? We have a quote here by H. W. Robinson, while all scripture is profitable, not every scripture possesses equal profit for a congregation at a particular time. He's not saying that any part of scripture is not profitable. He's simply saying or really highlighting the point there that we need to be discerning as to what the congregation needs at the time. So if there's a major battle going on in the church over the doctrine of the deity of Christ, you're probably not going to pick for your Sunday morning message a message on you know, soul wedding. You're probably going to preach on the deity of Christ. All right. Alright, before a sermon can be composed, back to the notes there, the preacher must decide what biblical text, passage or topic he believes God would have him preach. He must have the spirit of God's leading and direction in this quest, knowing what to preach is generally determined in one of two ways. So it comes back to what we said before, one of the biggest challenges is, Lord, what do you want me to preach? And there's any number of factors that will lead us there, but ultimately the Spirit of God, you get to discern the Spirit of God leading on these things and He'll impress upon your heart something. So there's a number of ways we can determine this. Point A, subjects that are delegated. And this simply means there are going to be times where the topic is pre-selected for you. Now, that's not very often because as a preacher, usually you have the scope and the liberty to select a message for yourself. But it might be an occasion where you're asked to preach for a church conference and they might ask you, look, would you mind speaking on this theme here? Or sometimes the occasion of the message will also dictate the sermon. So if it's Paul and Bianca's wedding, I'm probably not going to preach a sermon on hellfire for his wedding. Unless you want me to. So the occasion is going to influence what message I preach. A similar thing, I'm not going to preach you know, on Christmas Day, a message on, I don't know, soul wedding, that might come into it. So we have to be aware of the occasion. So we have, for example, special day sermons, Christmas Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day, national observances, weddings, funerals. So these are specific occasions where you're going to need to preach a certain type of message. Now there's still a lot of scope and liberty there because when it comes to maybe preaching something like a wedding, that can be approached from any number of angles and the whole truth of marriage and that sort of thing. But like I say, you're not going to preach something that's just not at all connected with the occasion unless you want to look like a complete fool, okay? Special meetings, sermons, missions, conferences, Bible conferences, preparing for the Lord's Supper, okay? So again, these are the sort of occasions that will influence the sermon selection, ministry conferences, revival meetings, family conferences, youth rallies, okay? If you're doing a message to youth, you're probably not going to give them a detailed study on the curtains in the tabernacle. you're probably going to need to preach something that is aimed at where they're at. Okay? Series sermons. When preaching a series of messages, either on a particular topic or through a book of the Bible, the next sermon in the series is obviously predetermined. Now, that's what I like, personally, about preaching through a book of the Bible. It makes my study very predictable. because you know next Sunday this is where I'm up to. I'm up to chapter 2 verse 5 and I'm going to take the next section of verses. So I will generally seek for the Lord's leading for a whole book. Lord what book would you like us to do? But then I try and balance that with still being open and sensitive to the Spirit of God on a week-to-week basis if there's another need that needs to be addressed. So last Sunday was an example. I believe the Lord encrusted on my heart around Monday, Tuesday that I needed to preach on James 3. So we just put the two regular series, the Sunday morning Mark series and the Sunday night series on hold, and we just preached on that. And that can be good too, because it gives the people a bit of a mental break as well, and then you come back afresh to the book study. So obviously in your case at the moment, while you're still in training, you're going to be preaching standalone messages, one-off messages. But one day when you're Lord willing in the ministry, if the Lord would have you in a pastorate, then you're going to be, that's probably where you're going to be more looking to maybe preach through a book of the Bible. So, you know, I preach through Romans because we've had a lot of people, we often have unsaved visitors on a Sunday morning, and so I felt that Romans would be good because it's very salvation focused. At the same time, there's a lot of good solid doctrine and other things there for the believer. And the Lord used that series. We saw several people saved through that series, plus it was a help to the Christians, I believe. And so, same with now the Gospel of Mark, because I felt that Mark, again, would give me a good launching point for the Gospel on a Sunday morning, at the same time, plenty for the Christians. So I'm trying to preach on Sunday mornings, double-barreled messages. And whereas, you know, the Book of Daniel is Sunday night, because that's generally more the core group, and therefore we can be a little bit more teaching orientated and so on. Although, you know, there's a few challenges coming through there as well. Right, then there we have, so that's subjects that are delegated. B, subjects that are disclosed. These are topics and scriptures that are put on a preacher's heart by God. and this is where most of it is going to come from. They are born of, one, the preacher's private study of the scriptures, two, the preacher's personal devotions, number three, the preacher's understanding of the needs of his intended audience. The Lord is going to lead you as a preacher on what you need to preach, whether it be through a whole book or a smaller series on a particular topic, but we need to be sensitive to the Lord about that. Our personal devotional life, sometimes the Lord will speak to us through our devotions and that will eventually turn into a message or there might be just little things here or there you pick up in your devotions that feed into one of your other main sermons eventually. And then the understanding of the needs of the intended audience. Again, if there's a big battle raging over a doctrine, you're probably going to preach on that doctrine. You'd be very unwise to avoid it. Some people have that philosophy of, well, if there's an issue in the congregation, don't address it. No. If your role is to be a shepherd, a shepherd is going to tend to the specific needs of the flock. So don't take that philosophy that you should never deal with an issue from the pulpit. Now, it needs to be done in a spiritual manner, and you need to make sure that you're being led by the Spirit of God in all of those things, but it's got to be done. You have to bring certain challenges. So there's been several messages like that I can think of over my time here. and where the Lord very clearly led me to just lay out some challenges. Because, you know, the church, in any life of a church, there are just different seasons you go through, and the needs change, so you have to be sensitive to those needs and seek to address them. Note, a preacher must not source all his sermons from his personal devotions, the focus of which should be his walk with God. Daily devotions should not become daily sermon idea hunts. And I think that's a good point. Sometimes, because we're studying the scriptures for messages all the time, we can start to approach our devotions that way, and it can actually make your devotions become dry. I sometimes have to consciously make an effort just to put aside, in a sense, the analytical side of study. It doesn't mean I don't want to understand the passage, but as far as you develop a homiletical mind and you start to just almost automatically break down the passage into a sermon. But there needs to be just a time for just the reading of the scriptures and allowing God to minister to your heart. and come to the study later. So again, there will often be things that I get out of my devotions that I'll draw on occasionally and bring into my sermon. But the primary aim of your devotion time is just to spend time with the Lord, to let Him speak to you, to speak to Him in prayer, not to turn that time into a sermon study time. If you do that, you're going to dry up spiritually. It might sound strange, but a preacher can actually become dry. Even though a preacher spends most of his time studying the Bible, he can actually become dry. And there's always a danger. In fact, that's probably a little admonition for you when you're going through college. College is a great time to backslide. Because if you're not careful, you can start to approach the Bible like a textbook. And just because you're trying to get all these assignments done and they all centre around the Bible, if you're not careful you can start to approach the Bible in just a dry and academic way. So we've got to constantly pray for the Lord to keep our hearts fresh. That's where our devotional life is important, whether you're at college or in the ministry, to keep your heart fresh. Like I say, reading good books and other things that are just going to stir you and encourage you. So yeah, bear that in mind as well. Thought and prayer about this matter must commence at the earliest possible time. For pastors, Monday is a good time to commence. I beg to differ. I think Monday is a good time to unwind. Or at least quite early in the week. Okay, I agree with that. Early in the week. While a sermon may be written on a Saturday, the preacher should have been mulling it over in his mind for several days. And I think that's correct. I believe that's a good method to work by. So try and start exercising your mind at the start of the week. If you're preaching on a Sunday, for example, you need to start working your head in. Because even if you're working, like both of you are, in the back of your mind, that text of Scripture can just be Ticking away a bit, you'll have some thoughts as you just go about even your daily duties. You can be meditating on that passage of scripture or whatever. And then that, it's like I said to you, I try and in a sense let, what you want is for the message to refine as you go throughout that week and mature and develop as you think on it and meditate on it. All right, we're going to stop there and have a 10 minute break and then we'll come back for lecture number two.