Unsexy Church

Season 3 Episode 10: Expository Preaching

• First Baptist Tampa • Season 3 • Episode 10

Share episode

Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.

0:00 | 35:57

Send us Fan Mail

The Unsexy Church Podcast

New episodes drop every Wednesday Morning

ABOUT THE PODCAST

The Unsexy Church is a weekly podcast exploring the real, everyday life within our church family. Each week, join Pastor Bob (Senior Pastor) and Darren (Worship & Discipleship Pastor) as they sit down to discuss a wide variety of subjects—from deep theological questions to the practical, often "unsexy" work of following Jesus and building a healthy local church.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO THRIVE?

We want to help every person make a genuine commitment to follow Jesus and then follow through with that commitment in Connecting People to a Thriving Life in Christ. These Thriving disciples should Dig In to the Bible, Grow Up in Christ, and Branch Outinto the community.

Our Mission: To Connect People to a Thriving Life in Christ. What is a thriving life in Christ? Scripture says that Jesus Christ came “that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” Our mission in the city of Tampa is to make disciples who follow the pattern of the believer in Psalm 1 and desire God’s glory above all things.

NEXT STEPS

Are you looking to get connected or learn more about First Baptist Tampa? We would love to help you find your place in our community.

STAY CONNECTED

Wherever you are in life, you have a purpose. First Baptist Tampa wants to help you find your next step.

Our Student & Young Adult Ministries:

Cold Open And Florida Banter

SPEAKER_00

Hey gang, welcome back to the Unsexy Church Podcast, the ministry of First Baptist Church Tampa, where our mission is to help you connect to a thriving life in Christ. Good morning, everybody. Morning, Darren. I say morning because it's morning when we're recording this. So we've got we're joined as always by uh our producer, Extraordinaire, makes us sound good. Mr. Jordan, how are you doing, man?

SPEAKER_02

Hello, I'm doing good. I don't know about I doing any of that, but yeah, good.

SPEAKER_00

Jordan's wearing a hat today. I don't know what it meet me at the marsh. Yeah. In Florida, you're liable to find some alligators there. What does that mean? I don't know. It's um So you're in the habit of wearing hats and things that say things that you don't know what they mean, and you're representing things that you have no idea what you're representing.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, honestly, when I find a hat, I just wear it.

SPEAKER_00

Easier than combing the hair. Exactly. Exactly. Oh man, getting called out the first minute of a podcast. That's Pastor Bob. Pastor Bob's with us as usual. Not wearing a hat. Not wearing a hat today. Yeah. I'm not wearing a hat either. Uh but uh we're back to go research what this is. Yeah. Meet me at the marsh, and the marsh is all capitalized, so it must mean something. I don't know. If you're out there, you're a listener, maybe we don't need to make it. Maybe we don't want to know. Yeah. Yeah. That'll teach you. No.

SPEAKER_01

Carry on with your uh conversation.

Odd Florida Stories And Hypnosis Case

SPEAKER_00

I'm gonna I'm going to do some research. Research. All right. I've got a uh I don't have a historical fact that we've been doing a on this day uh historical fact. So I started, I just thought, you know, we live in Florida. Uh I'm gonna do a on this day in Florida, man. And I I didn't I found some things that I'm not gonna share on the Unsexy Church podcast. But what but something I did find, this is I thought this was really interesting. Um thinking about our last week's topic or not topic, but one of the questions uh was about hypnotism. And here just recently in February, uh there's a docuseries out like a true crime docuseries kind of a thing. Um, and it's called The Curious Case of Dot Dot Dot, and they'll fill in a name or something. And so this happened in 2011 in in Florida. There was a high school principal in Sarasota County who Which isn't far from us, not far from us at all. We're pretty close, right? He um decided, and and I I I want to I want to think the best, right? And he says he he wanted to to help students who are struggling with uh sports or struggling with test anxiety or uh those you know, those kind of things, and he was trying to help them. And so about he took yeah, you could make an appointment with them, you know, your parents had to sign off on on this, but he hypnotized or you know, had sessions where he hypnotized uh 75 high school students. And uh I think back in 2011, uh three of them died within a month. Uh and it it one died in a car crash, and his girlfriend uh who was riding with him said that he kind of just went into some trance mode, just a strange look on his face, wasn't responsive, and he crashed his car into a to a tree. Wow. Uh the other two were um were death by suicide. And uh the parents, uh obviously very uh upset, um were claiming that they were uh that they were acting like almost like a zombie the day before or around that same time. What's what's crazy about this to me, I mean all all this is terrible, right? Unfortunate, uh more than unfortunate. Um but he went he's a long this is a longtime teacher, longtime educator, longtime principal. Um he went and received he received five days of training at I'm not gonna name the place, but uh to hypnotize people.

SPEAKER_01

Five days of training. So I I have questions. I don't know if you know the answers to these questions. I've got I've got lots of questions. Maybe, maybe not. So the first question is why? What what was the purpose behind the hypnotism that's a good idea?

SPEAKER_00

He would say it would it was helping them with anxiety before a test or helping them perform better in their sports, like for instance, the the young man um who died in the car crash was for sports uh ability, and he was hypnotizing him to help him see things slower on the field. So uh I'm looking at your look. I understand. It's too bad we're not uh video movies.

SPEAKER_01

Both as a pastor and a coach, I'm trying to process that that last comment. Um so the idea was to give them some kind of coping mechanism.

SPEAKER_00

Some kind of tool that they could make you know that they could uh cope with it. That they can initiate on their own, maybe, I guess. Yeah, possibly.

SPEAKER_01

So the second question is I'm assuming no charges of any kind were filed or something. Actually, charges were filed.

SPEAKER_00

Now he was never connected to these deaths. Right. Um never charged anything like that, but he was charged um with uh and I don't know the exact uh wording or or verbiage of this, but basically practicing without a license, without a medical license, or like there's apparently there's a license to hypnotize. I don't know what I don't know what that is. But uh you know, so he went, five days of training, turns around, starts hypnotizing students. Wow. Yeah. And again, I again I want to thank the best of this man. I think he's I assume he's still teaching today or no. No, no, no. He uh matter of fact, he he he he pled no contest to those charges. I think they were felony charges. But as a condition, I imagine he had to their misdemeanors and he had enough time in the school system where where he could re retire. I think he's in North Carolina now, something like that.

SPEAKER_01

So third question. And I'm done. This is such a cheery way to start our podcast. Thank you for this. This is such an uplifting.

SPEAKER_00

I was thinking about the hypnosis from our last episode. That was my third question is why? Why why did you bring this back up? We talked about hypnosis at not at length, but uh quite a bit the bulk of our last It's one of the questions that we were asked. One of the questions that that that we were asked. And uh and so as I was looking, uh one one story I came across on this day, uh, Florida man walks into the DMV with half of his beard and mustache shaved for his uh uh driver's license picture. No. So I and this it this kind of falls flat because you need to see this picture. This is not just like Jordan has a real nice, close you know, trim beard. Pastor Bob, you have a nice close trim beard. No, this guy is bushy. Yeah, this guy is Grizzly Adams. Okay, literally, one side of his face is bushed out, the other side of his face is clean. And and his eyes are wide open and smiling as big as you can. So I mean, just you can probably find that on the internet somewhere. But I thought the other one was the one I led with was more interesting than that.

SPEAKER_01

I think I would have preferred the half-shaved gun. Um but the I think your point is no, don't take this hypnosis thing lightly. Yeah, exactly. There's dark elements that can be involved in here. And we we don't know all the details of this particular or or the causality or whatever.

Weekend Recap: Funeral, Hope, And Baptism

SPEAKER_00

But and again, he was never connected to to the deaths, right? Um, but if you talk to those parents, they believe they were clear. I'm telling you, they they believe that. Yeah. So um, yeah. Good morning. Again. Hey, today we we you know, we had, I don't know, I thought we had a great weekend here at uh at FBC Tampa. Um it was a it was kind of a longer week weekend. We wrapped up 5G. Uh they had their their banquet sat Saturday, um, 5G basketball. It's one of our uh outreaches, one of our b uh one of our programs here through the children's ministry at FBC Tampa. So their last Saturday was this this weekend, they had their their banquet. We also had a a funeral, and uh it that's when I say it was a great weekend. I I mean it's always sad when we lose someone, but man, when we have a funeral here from someone from FBC who is a believer, uh it it can't joyous may not be the right word, but man, uh it just it is beautiful. Let me just say it was a beautiful service Sunday. Um Saturday. Or Saturday, thank you. Yeah, and you did a fantastic job um presenting the gospel, helping us remember that that we have a shepherd who loves us, cares for us, and that we we grieve, but we don't grieve eternally, and we don't grieve uh without hope because we know uh where where our sister is. And so that was a good that was a good day. It was be it was beautiful.

SPEAKER_01

It was a sweet day of celebration, um, celebrating her life, Kristen's life, um, loving her family. And and the family's desires was that we would honor Kristen, of course, and celebrate her life, but that we would honor her Lord um and share why she had hope and peace. And there were I I don't think we got a final count, but there were, you know, our the bottom floor of our worship center was packed. It was and it was with many people who don't regularly attend, who don't have a relationship with Christ. And so just a great opportunity to just tell them about the hope that they saw in her life. Yeah. Um and where that hope came from. So it was yeah, it was a it was a sad, but also a a a day to celebrate. Sweet. It was a good word that you used.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. That was a good word. After that, we had a baby shower. I mean, we just you know, it was just all kind of you know, we look we obviously want to celebrate life and we're we're excited when babies are are born here at FBC Tampa. So that it was just that was a it's kind of been a long weekend, but it but a good weekend and Sunday was a great full day on Sunday, of course. Yeah, great day uh of worship. We were um we were pretty full Sunday and uh it was just a it was a good good day. Baptism on Sunday, and baptism, man. School to baptize Alex, yeah. Love to start the service with baptism. That's always a good thing to see someone publicly profess their faith in Christ and identify with with our Lord. And so just a good it was a really it was a good it was a good day, Sunday. And uh you, as always, just gave us a fantastic uh look into the book of Mark. Um we're in Mark chapter nine. Uh we're talking about who is gonna be the greatest, and you know the disciples are are arguing. The Jesus is foretelling his his death, meanwhile they're arguing about who's gonna be the greatest, you know. And so you uh you just really led us to think about um humility in in a good in in a really good way. So it was a good it was a good day.

From Mark 9 To Today’s Topic

SPEAKER_01

Tough lesson for all of us, right? Because pride is at the center of so many things and just leads us astray. And so yeah, it was you know one of those many lessons in that section of Mark where Jesus is just taking the time to just really train his disciples, teach his disciples, prepare them for what's to come, helping them to truly understand what his kingdom is about and what their role in that would be. And humility is a huge part of that.

What Expository Preaching Means

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah. And while you uh were giving the the the message, you preach, you're just you're a fantastic preacher, you're a great preacher. Um you have a certain style of preaching um that uh that you I mean almost hundred percent, and I would I we could probably even argue hundred percent adhere to, right? You always preach expositorily, right? Right. Um that's uh that's that's a big word. It is. It sounds painful. I was afraid I wasn't gonna be able to say it. And well, never mind. But anyway, um, yeah, and so what why don't you that's kind of our topic today, you know. You want to talk about an unsexy topic. Expository preaching is maybe one of the most unsexy topics. Oh, I find it super interesting, and hopefully um people are not scared, not scared, but turned off by the by by the word. Um, but uh yeah, you preach expositorily. Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

So we y'all were giving me a hard time last week um because I preached a shorter message, uh, but also because it's taken us a year, over a year, to get to this point in in Mark's gospel. Uh and so we briefly discussed what expositional preaching is, expository preaching is, um, and so we kind of spun to that and say, well, let's why don't we explain why we do it the way we do it? And yeah, and for us, it's just not expository preaching, it's consecutive expository preaching, which so it expository preaching is just allowing the text of the Bible to explain what the text of the Bible says. Yeah. So there's there's two approaches. You reit either read out of the Bible what the intended meaning is, or you read into it what you want it to say. Um, or you think it says. I'll be kind. Um and so exposition is just doing your best to read out of it what the intended author meant. And I believe there is one proper interpretation of every text of scripture. Yeah, correct. There may be multiple applications. Many applications. But there is one. God only means for it to say one thing, and it is our job to figure out what that is through his revelation.

SPEAKER_00

I tell yeah, I tell my core group leaders and and even people in my core group, you know, there's like you said, there there's one interpretation. God meant something when he preserved this word. And our job is to find out what he meant. You know, I always say, you know, if I could tell you two things, right? I love peanut butter, right? I love peanut butter. I mean, for the first 30 years of my life, I ate a peanut butter sandwich for lunch every day. And I could still do that. That's commitment. I love it, man. I do. And no jelly. I don't even want jelly on it. I mean, for the first 20 years of my life, it was as unsexy as just a plain peanut butter sandwich, nothing on it. Bread, peanut butter. White bread? No. We eat bread. Oh, we eat bread. Oh, oh. Yeah. Okay. And crunchy peanut butter. It has to be crunchy. And then, and then I got married, and man, Mandy opened your eyes to the world of jellies and jams. No jelly, no jelly. I'm not against jelly. I just, you know, she put honey. It didn't even tell me. She just put it on my sandwich, and I tried it, and man, changed my world for the next 10 years. So I what's your point? You can tell I love peanut butter, but I can also say I love my wife.

SPEAKER_02

Right.

SPEAKER_00

Right? I mean two different things. Exactly. And and and our job with scripture is to find out what God meant, right? To expose that that meaning.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. So I I don't believe that expositional preaching, particularly consecutive expositional preaching, is the only way to preach. I I think you can preach other ways.

SPEAKER_00

It's just the best way.

SPEAKER_01

I think it's the best way. I'm convicted of that. I'm convinced of that. Um, but uh you can do what are known as topical messages. Yeah, we're talking about expository preaching, and this Sunday, you're doing it you're gonna do a topical message. Right. But I'm gonna take us to a text and draw the truth out of the text. Can you can you preach topical messages expositionally? Expositionally. Yes, you can, and you should. If you're going to choose um to do so, um sorry, my wife is trying to FaceTime me with my granddaughter. Excuse me. I had to turn that down. That hurt. Um If you're going to choose to preach topically, don't just come up with topics and find a text that you can lean up against your topic. Just go to the Word of God and say, what does the Word of God say about this topic? And then draw it out. Because you can come up with a topic, right?

SPEAKER_00

And you can pull two, three, four verse. You can find proof text for it, right? But what would be the difference of you know from doing that to what what you're explaining?

SPEAKER_01

Well, I I I I I think there's there's many different benefits to consecutive expositional preaching. And so I think as we kind of go through these, I think it'll answer, uh I'll answer that question. So we've defined expositional preaching as um preaching where the we allow the text of the Bible to explain what the text of the Bible says. Um consecutive expositional preaching means that you're just going through books of the Bible, starting in chapter one, verse one, and working your way through. And wherever you leave off on one Sunday, you pick up the next. Now, wherever you leave off should be guided by the text itself. This is where this story ends or where this lesson ends.

SPEAKER_00

Some natural divisions.

Why Preach Consecutively

SPEAKER_01

Which aren't always, by the way, the ones that are in our modern Bibles. Our chapters aren't uh aren't inspired.

SPEAKER_00

Is that what you're saying?

SPEAKER_01

So I I think the primary thing is we want to draw out the intended meaning of the text. And the best way to do that is to put everything in context. And the best way to do that is consecutive expositional preaching. Trevor Burrus, Jr. The saying out there, context is king, right? Yeah. It's it's it's how you determine meaning. I use this example all the time. I say you wouldn't go to the library, pick a book off the shelf, and then just randomly turn to chapter two and find the third paragraph and the and the third sentence in the paragraph and start reading. You wouldn't do that. But yet we do that to the Bible all the time. And that's it when we pull a verse out of context, it becomes a pretext. We can make it say whatever we want.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Yeah.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So that I mean, yeah. So we we can we can approach subjects topically, but we're gonna do that in expository ways. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Um one of the primary reasons I do that, number one, is putting it in context. I I it is my responsibility to um teach the word of God, and I will be held accountable for that. Um that is a that is a weight that I carry, it's a blessing that I have, but it's a weight that I carry. And so I want to do it properly. Right. I want to uh I'm there as an ambassador. I'm giving his message, not mine. I'm giving his laws, not my opinions. You're the herald. Exactly. Yeah, I'm the king. I'm just the messenger, right? Uh but another reason why is I think it it models proper biblical observation, how to read it properly.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And it models proper um biblical hermeneutics, how to interpret it properly.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And so by demonstrating our our goal isn't just that somebody would be reliant upon me or one of our teachers to show them this is what God's word says, but to model for them how they can read it and through the Holy Spirit properly understand it and then properly interpret it.

SPEAKER_00

It's almost like the inductive Bible study method done out loud in real time. Not fully, but you know what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_01

It really is. It should be modeled that way. Where you're not saying, okay, we're doing our observation now, we're doing our interpretation now, we're doing our application now. You don't have to say it that way, but it needs to be modeled so there's that people see, okay, we're putting it this text in its proper historical context, we're putting it in its proper biblical context, we're putting it in its proper theological context. So this, oh, I understand what it says now. I understand.

SPEAKER_00

You know, and just kind of think of these the the topics as you preach consecutively through scripture, um topics that you want to hear about are going to be addressed. Right. Right. Um, you this is it kind of and I may be jumping ahead here a little bit, but I'm just it just reminds me, like when you go through the Bible in in the way that you do as far as your preaching schedule goes, it it almost sets up some guardrails for you. Because I people who know me, they know my soap boxes, right? They they know my things that I'm passionate about and what I I would gladly talk about every every time that I could, right? But if you're going through a book of a Bible, verse by verse, it puts you don't get to pick the topics necessarily, right? Right. You're letting the text guide guide you and and keeps you from uh just hitting those those favorite points, right?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, it it it prevents the preacher, me in this instance, from hand picking favorite topics, and it also helps us um to not avoid harder topics. Address everything. With sometimes there's a topic we're like, nope, not touching that with a ten foot pole. Right. But if I skip a verse as I'm reading through an a a book. People are going to go, hey Bob, notice you missed uh chapter five, verse thirteen there. Any particular reason? Right. Yeah, I didn't really want to talk about that one. It wasn't comfortable. So it it helps us um to not hand pick favorites and not avoid harder topics. So it it it basically ensures a comprehensive teaching of the whole council of God's word. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And by doing that, like we're we're acknowledging the authority of scripture.

SPEAKER_01

Right.

SPEAKER_00

Right? You're not you're not choosing the the direction. Scripture is choosing the direction.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. I I keep saying this is one of the main reasons why I choose this style, but here's another main reason. Because it places authority in the text, in the scripture, not on the preacher.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Right. So if I'm if I'm just taking you and saying I'm telling you stories or I'm this is this is what I think, what I think. Oh, here's a verse of scripture that backs up what I think. I think that's the opposite way we need to approach it. We need to approach it and say, this is what the word of God says. Yeah. Best we can, this is what we believe it to mean. This is how we apply it. And so the authority isn't in the preacher, it's not in my my scholarship, it's not in my experience. It's in the word. And so I'm taking people to the word. The preacher should take the people and say, here's what scripture teaches. It also teaches the sufficiency of scripture.

SPEAKER_00

Right.

Authority In The Text, Not The Preacher

SPEAKER_01

I don't need anything else. I need what God's Word says.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I was thinking about that uh this morning as I was driving in. Um just I've been in churches where like an elaborate set for every sermon series is is made, you know. And I'm not I'm not saying that's a necessarily a bad thing, but everyone remembers that set. But are they remembering what that set is pointing to? You know, and if we're not careful, the the tricks and the and the tools that we use can become front and center. That's you know, that's a reason why um that's why we have we should do a uh pastors and pulpits thing, but uh that's the reason why the pulpit was brought in was to hide the preacher, right? Yeah, you know, and and we're in the day of I don't know if this is still a thing, maybe it's not. You for a while it was like you know, Wonder Woman has the invisible jet, you know, you know, you know what I'm saying? Acryl. Yeah, clear acrylic. Clear acrylic see-through pulpit, right? That was a big thing for for a while. And so you could see the and that I know, I mean, there's something that happens in communication when you can see someone. So I'm not uh I'm not doubting you know any of that, but it was it's interesting. You know, now we're at you know, tables or I don't know, music stands, Trent. I mean, uh sorry, uh no anyway. Or nothing at all, or just whatever. Yeah. And and so it's just and I don't think that we're consciously saying we're trying to put the pastor forward, no, but there was an intention of the of the pulpit. And the reason that they started out really big and solid was to hide the pastor. Sure. But because the authority is in what the pastor is preaching the word of God, right?

SPEAKER_01

Even the placement of pulpits was important. Yeah. You know, w in in our Protestant denomination, uh it is it is front and center uh because of the centrality of the people.

SPEAKER_00

On a platform, lifted up, right, not because of the man, but because of the word.

SPEAKER_01

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

It's not off to the side, right in the middle. Which another reason for this is as we're teaching people this, it is it makes preaching God-centered, not man-centered. Yeah. Uh which anything, if we're not careful, is our conversation yesterday. Um, it can easily turn to being man-centric and putting ourselves um at the center of things. And and scripture preaching exp expositionally puts God at the at the middle middle of it. Um, I I think over time it also introduces the congregation to the whole Bible, the meta-narrative of scripture.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Um, how I choose what I'm gonna preach next is multifold. But uh, of course, it's spending time with prayer, seeing where where where are we as a people, what issues are going on, what what parts of the Bible address those issues. But I also do it by just what haven't I preached in my 17 years here. Right. And I can go and say, okay, I've never done a treatment of a full treatment of the book of Exodus or whatever it may be. Um so it it helps over time. Now this takes time. You know, I've been here 17 years and I still have several books that I haven't haven't gone through yet, and and we'll get there, but um but it helps us with the what's known as the meta-narrative. So the creation, fall, redemption, restoration of man. And the Bible speaks to those throughout it. And so um over time it introduces the congregation to the the whole of the scripture.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

How how by by using this style, how does that help you in your preparation when you're getting when you're getting ready to to preach?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I can't imagine not preaching this this method. Um I can't imagine being a topical guy going, okay, what am I going to talk about this week? I just it it just blows my mind that the the guys would do that.

SPEAKER_00

And I think sometimes we can let the culture, not that there could be cultural moments that, you know, a a 9-11, something you know, where you need to address, you know, address a conversation or congregation with a a topic. Right. You know, but that's not the norm. Yeah.

Guardrails Against Hobbyhorses And Evasion

SPEAKER_01

This this um and I uh you're you're absolutely right. There are times that you have to pull away from what you were doing and and the spirit says no, address this directly. I would say, however, that a lot of times what we the mistake we make is we tend to preach towards symptoms, not the disease. Right. And so a lot of times social issues that are going on, we want to address that particular social social issue. There's a heart issue behind it. But there's a heart issue behind it. And if we're teaching the word, we're addressing the disease. It's like a doctor and they come in, you don't treat symptoms, you you treat disease. You're and it's not the tail wagging the dog. You're not letting the culture tell you what to preach. Exactly. So it it may but not be the sexy message that some want, you know, I'm gonna get on this bandwagon about this particular social issue, yeah. But I'm gonna get to the heart of why we have this particular social issue and how the church should respond to it based on what scripture teaches.

SPEAKER_00

Aaron Ross Powell And the Word of God is sufficient. You will address every one of every issue we'll ever come across, you will address when you preach expositorily through the scriptures. Right.

SPEAKER_01

Aaron Powell So specifically how it helps me in preparation is it helps me to plan and prepare in advance, right? So Darren knows this. I give him my sermon schedule a year in advance. A whole year. A whole year. A whole year. Now he also knows it changes, it it adjusts from as we go through. But I'll spend uh a week away um just doing a sermon retreat, planning, praying, and then I come back and say, here it is, here's everything I'm preaching. Most most of the time, all my my teaching sessions, but for sure every Sunday morning's teaching session or preaching session. So that helps me so I know what's coming. It also helps me because I can do my research up front. So when I go to preach the book of Mark, I don't have to every week go, okay, what is the primary who wrote it? When was it written? I don't have to do all the background, nor does the church when I have to present it. Now I have to kind of put it in context every week, but it only takes me 30 seconds to do it as opposed to 10 minutes. So it helps me with that. It helps me just knowing from week to week so that I can like this week, I know what my next two sermon messages are. I have a notebook where all my research is in it, and I can be thinking through okay, I know I'm preaching on this, and God can speak to me and help me through that. Um so yeah, those are primary reasons how it helps me to prepare.

SPEAKER_00

So when you are presenting what you know, what you've done all week long and and more, obviously, um, how does this help you in your presentation?

SPEAKER_01

Again, we're looking at the whole body of scripture, and there's different types of literature in scripture. So there's narrative, they're prophetic, there's apocalyptic, there's letters. And so um, as I'm presenting, it needs to come across that way. We need to know, okay, this is a prophetic letter, or this is an apocalyptic letter, or this is uh narrative. And so it it helps present it so that the people know what's being presented. Right. It also is just a balanced diet, right? So we're not, again, we're not just in the Psalms all the time, we're not just in the gospels all the time, we're not just in the letters all the time. We're we're we're we're moving around. So it helps in that. Um, and just knowing the varying moods of scripture, right? So I have to I have to convey what is the mood in the text, right? So if if I'm reading one of the Psalms and David is one of those stages where he's just broken over his sin, right? There's mood in that. I need to convey that, right? Um, and so it helps as I'm presenting the the message to know what the mood, the style of the text is. And so I be I could be faithful to that, so then then we can make proper application for me.

Modeling Hermeneutics For The Church

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. What are um so I would say that I think this is a biblical model. I mean, I know some people would say, well, Jesus, you know, he he told stories, you know, he just taught in par parables, you know, and I my my pushback is I mean, he's the living word. He is the word. He is the word, right? Right. You know, and and then we're the word, you can do that. You can do that, right? Exactly. You know, and so um, but I think there's benefit. I think it's first of all, I think it's biblical. I think we see in Ezra, you know, where where he explains the law and gives them a sense of the meaning, right? And helps them uh apply it. We see, you know, Paul talking about applying the whole, you know, preaching. I didn't hold anything back, I preached the whole counsel of God in Acts chapter 20. Uh, Paul, when he's telling Timothy, he's like, I want you need to dedicate yourself to the public reading of the word and exhorting people, encouraging them to understand it and know it and and and teach it, right? Um, you know, and then he he says all scripture is sufficient is profitable, right? And so just a lot of I think it's a biblical model.

SPEAKER_01

Trevor Burrus, Jr. He tells Timothy to um diligently present yourself as one who is approved. Approved worker, right? Approved worker who does not need to be ashamed, not being ashamed of rightly handling the word of God. Exactly. And and there's a wrong way to do it and the right way to do it. I'm not talking about style, but there is a right way and a wrong way to but expository preaching helps you do that in a correct way. And and I think you can use illustration, you should use illustration to help amplify. Use modern illustrations to help draw. But make the point from the text and then use the scripture to amplify that truth. Not the other way around. Don't start with the illustration and then go here, let me show you a text that backs up my illustration. Yeah. Let me show you a clip from a movie and then find some text of scripture that we could quit churches, people quit letting culture exegete you.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. You know, let the let scripture exegete the culture.

SPEAKER_01

I believe that over time, if if if people commit themselves to um studying scripture this way, they won't tolerate anything like this.

SPEAKER_00

And that's that's kind of what I kind of wanted to close with, I think, is like because of the model that that you that that you show us every single week, there's a pattern that we can see in the pews, I think, in our church. Like like when we do a first steps class, people I mean 90% of the time, they don't say I'm here because of children's ministry. They don't say I'm here because of student ministry, they don't say I'm here because of the worship or the music ministry. They do say those things. Some, but I'm telling you, 90% of the time it is you preach the word of God. You know, and and and the word of God is exalted, and we are word-centric here. And and so we see and so we see that when we're word-centric as a staff, as a church, the the the pews become word-centric, if you will, right? They they're you're modeling that for for them, and that's just gonna, I think, reap great benefits in in in in in the church.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. I think it somebody said um how do they put it? Someone can preach the word better than I can, but they can't preach a better word than I can. That's the boy.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

So, you know, there's better preachers out there. I'm I'm not delusional to think that there's not. There are, but they're not preaching a better word that we're presenting. And the word is what transforms lives. The word is what makes um the difference in our life. And so that's what we're committed to do, and that's why we do it the way we do it.

SPEAKER_00

Anything else you'd like to add to expository preaching?

SPEAKER_01

I this is not exhaustive, but I think it's healthy. So important. So important. Absolutely.

Planning, Preparation, And Balanced Diet

SPEAKER_00

Hey, thanks for joining us today. We are so glad that you did. Remember to rate us, give us a five-star rating that helps it get out there, right? If you want to write a write a review, write a review. We'll we'll read it, even the bad ones. And so uh uh if they're not too bad anyway. Right. But make sure you you write uh you you give us a re review, you give us a five-star rating. If you have questions, send them in. We're gonna answer. We've already got some more. We're gonna do another episode here in the near future where we answer your questions. We've got some good ones out there. Be sure and share it. Make sure you can you can do this on Instagram, DM us on X Instagram, and as always, stay unsexy.

Head Shot

Bob Block

Host
Head Shot

Darren Selvidge

Host