Ep. 6: The Foundation: Keeping the Sermon Textually Honest

Most preachers have sat with a rich biblical text and felt pulled in multiple directions. The passage says several true things. You can only preach one. How do you choose — and how do you know you're not just preaching what you already wanted to say?

That's the question this episode is built around.

In this deep dive on Clarity of Thought, Jonathan unpacks one of the most important distinctions in the Clear Preaching Framework: the difference between the Foundation and the Focus. The Foundation is the Big Idea of the text — the author's primary intention, stated as the Abiding Truth. It's not your sermon's message. It's your sermon's boundary.

Working through two passages — James 1:2–8 and Luke 19:1–10 — Jonathan shows how the Foundation protects you from misrepresenting the text, opens up multiple legitimate sermon angles, and catches the things most preachers leave out without realizing it.

One sentence to carry into every sermon you prepare: The Foundation keeps you honest. The Focus keeps you clear.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:04

Here's the honest tension as preachers that we face. You and I, we've sat with a really rich, deep text and we're pulled in multiple directions. Number one, the passage says several true things. Number two, we can only really preach one in a sermon. And number three, how do we choose? How do we know we're not just preaching what we already wanted to say? Now that tension doesn't mean you're doing something wrong. It just means you're working with a text that has genuine depth. Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Clear Preaching Podcast. My name is Jonathan McClintock, and today we're going to look and take a deep dive into the foundation of the sermon. What keeps every sermon textually honest? Now, for me, I look at a very foundational work, book that was written quite a while ago, Haddon Robinson. He developed or at least popularized this idea of finding the big idea of the text. Very important, finding what, before we prepare a sermon, what's the author saying? What's the author truly saying? Every author's trying to say one thing. What are they trying to say? And Robinson's framework helps you determine, okay, what's the text's idea? What is the subject the author's writing about, and what is he saying about that subject, and put that subject and what he's saying about it together, and that becomes the idea. From there you cross this theological bridge and you get to the place where you bring that text out of its original setting and you help your audience so you come to understanding of what does that text, what's the truth mean for us today? And then for Robinson, that would then be your sermon's main idea, your take-home truth per se. What the author intended for the text, that's what you would preach. And where I see a benefit in that, and where that is very beneficial in many times, many preaching, many texts, I believe there's one question that it kind of leaves open. Because a rich text, and let's be honest, most of Scripture is very rich and deep and has a lot of things to say. A rich text might say one primary thing, but it also illuminates other things, prominent things. Where at times it's hard to nail down what's the one thing that passage is saying, because it's saying some multiple really good things, prominent things that are genuinely present in the text. So what do you do with those? And the gap, that gap is where the foundation comes in. The foundation, let's look at the foundation, define it for you. The big idea of the text, the author's primary intention, stated as that abiding truth or that theological truth that we take from first century writing of Paul and pull it into 21st century, that what's that truth? And when we've determined that, it sets the boundary. This is the foundation for our sermon. It sets the boundary of what we can preach from that text. I believe we're limited in what we can preach from certain texts. I know topical preaching will sometimes, when it's done incorrectly, topical preaching done correctly is a wonderful mode of preaching. Topical preaching done incorrectly takes words or phrases from texts and preaches them. And what is preached is completely foreign from that text. Which is the real reason to find this foundation in the text. What's the foundation? What is the text saying? What's intended in the text? So, what is that boundary for me? I want to find that foundation and that boundary to protect the sermon from misrepresenting the text. The foundation is not necessarily your sermon's message, it's your sermon's boundary. Robinson would say that foundation is your sermon's message. I would like to push on that just a little bit. I understand what he's doing and I honor what he's doing, but I'd like to push on that a little bit because the text can say many different things, many different true things. As long as we know the foundation, as Robinson has pointed to, as long as we know that foundation, know that boundary, then we can preach from the text a number of things and not misrepresent the text. So the foundation is the sermon's boundary. Now there's two really non-negotiables. For a focus, for the foundation to give us boundaries here, what we're going to preach, what what we decide to preach, I'm going to call that the focus, which you'll hear me refer to many times as the take-home truth. So we're talking about the foundation, the text idea, and the focus. What's our take-home truth? For the focus to be legitimate, it's got to meet at least two non-negotiable conditions. First of all, the focus must be genuinely present in the text. Your sermon focus, your take-home truth, your sermon idea, whatever you want to call it, needs to genuinely be present in the text. Not assumed, not imported. We don't force it into the text. It's not stretched. We don't try to make the text say something. It's not. The text must actually say it, point to it. So condition one is a focus must be genuinely present in the text. Secondly, second condition, the focus must be consistent with the foundation. Now, again, it doesn't have to be the foundation, to be exactly what the author said. But as long as the focus agrees with it, doesn't contradict it, doesn't stretch it, doesn't read into it, import something into it, it can't contradict, can't distort the text's primary claim. So two non-negotiable conditions. The focus, your sermon idea, your take-home truth, must genuinely be present in the text. And secondly, it must be consistent within the boundaries of the foundation. Let's look at a passage that I worked through in other lessons. I worked through this in one of the courses on the Clear Preaching Academy site. James chapter one, I want us to look at this and see that there are multiple legitimate things to focus on, truths to focus on from one foundation. If you read James chapter 1, verses 2 through 8, and I'm going to throw it up on the screen here, and so uh then I want to read it to you so you can you can you can see that. For those not watching this, just listening, you'll still get it because I'll be reading it to you here in just a second. James chapter 1, 2 through 8. Verse 2, my brethren, count it all joy when you fall into divers or diverse or various temptations, knowing this that the trying of your faith works patience, but let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and entire, complete, wanting nothing. If you lack wisdom, anyone who lacks wisdom, let him ask of God that gives to all men liberally and abrades not, and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith nothing wavering. For someone who wavers is like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed. Don't let that man think he shall receive anything of the Lord, because a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. Now I'm not going to do the work and show you the work here, but the foundation that I've really determined for this text seems to be what's a statement that encompasses what this text is saying? Here to me is the foundation. God works through the testing of faith to produce the maturity and completeness he intends for every believer, and he provides the wisdom to endure it all to those who ask in faith. Now it's a long statement, but it's one that encompasses these entire six or seven verses. God works through the testing of faith to produce the maturity and completeness he intends for every believer, and he provides the wisdom to endure it to all who ask in faith. Now, this is the founding, this is what the author's trying to say. It establishes the boundary now. We know that. So what are the legitimate focuses within it? Well, in there we see this idea of the formative purpose of trials, that trials produce some spiritual formation in us, so there's a purpose behind the trial. We also see this idea of this gift of wisdom that God will give us in our suffering, in our trials. We see this posture of doubt that we can have and what it costs us. We can also see joy as this counterintuitive response to suffering. So all four of these focuses are found in this text. However, we've determined this foundation, we've determined the boundaries, yet we see these at least these four ideas in the text. Why is each focus legitimate? Well, the first one, the formative purpose of trials. We see the text explicitly teaching that testing produces maturity. It's really the foundation's primary claim stated directly here. We see this gift of wisdom and suffering. You find in verses five through eight gives this significant space to wisdom and faith. So a sermon here is genuine to the text. We see this posture of doubt and its cost. So we see this warning against double-mindedness, and it's prominent, actually specific. It's textually honest here. And then we also see this idea of joy being count a counterintuitive response in trials, right? This command to consider trials, joy, to take joy in them. That's it's striking, it's specific, but it's a legitimate focus inside the text.

SPEAKER_00 10:25

So let's walk through uh one of these here today.

SPEAKER_01 10:31

If a sermon the text explicitly addresses wisdom, it's it's not a stretch to then preach from this text this idea of asking for wisdom and seeking wisdom in the midst of trials and suffering to know what to do and how to respond. So it's actually legitimate. It's inside the boundaries of this text. It doesn't contradict the foundation. It's it's in there. If you were to preach a sermon on joy and trials, but you were never to connect it to God's purpose. There were some that might read this and preach somewhat topically for this passage, and they want to preach on joy, having joy in trials. And so they build this sermon out and talk about how we can have joy in trials, how we can set our mindset to be right when we're facing difficulties, and how we can put on the armor of God to battle these things. We can really draw this out and build this out. However, understanding the foundation will keep us honest in that because we can't preach joy in trials from this passage unless we also connect it to God's purpose in the trial. Truly, the reason we can find joy in trials is because God is using it for his purpose. For his purpose to work things out and his will, but also his purpose to complete us and form us and mature us. So knowing the foundation, we can preach one of the focuses, but the foundation keeps us honest. You can't preach about joy and trials without also linking it to God's ultimate purpose. So we have to understand we see at least four legitimate sermons from one passage, but the foundation will keep us so we do not misrepresent the passage. You can also see this in Luke chapter 19. Won't read that for you, but Luke chapter 19, verses 1 through 10, the story of Zacchaeus. And if you look at these ten verses, I've determined the foundation to me seems to be this. Jesus deliberately seeks those whom others have excluded or written off, and an encounter with him produces the kind of genuine, visible transformation that nothing else can. Does that to you sound like that encompasses Luke 19, 1 through 10? Let me say it again. Jesus deliberately seeks those whom others have excluded or written off, and an encounter with him produces the kind of genuine, visible transformation that nothing else can. You see why it's important to really work with the text until you determine how I can name what is happening, what's the message of this text? Now, probably the most common sermon from this text, a sermon I've preached from this text, maybe a sermon you've preached from this text, is a truth or take home truth that maybe just encapsulates that last verse, right? The Son of Man came to seek and save the lost. Well, that's a legitimate focus. That's in the text. It's true to the text. But watch what the foundation, when you understand the whole foundation, watch what the foundation catches. The text doesn't just say Jesus seeks the lost, as verse 10 tells us. It shows what happens when he finds someone. Zacchaeus' declaration in verse 8 is really the climax of the story, and it's the climax of the story for a reason. Because Jesus seeks people like Zacchaeus, he seeks and saves the lost, but he seeks, and when he finds people, there is a transformation that takes place. So when we preach this idea of Jesus seeking to save the lost, when we understand the foundation, we can't truly preach seeking and saving the lost without also tying in this idea of the transformation that takes place when Jesus seeks and he finds. So there's three legitimate focuses from this passage. There's the deliberately seeking of the excluded. How Jesus doesn't wait for Zacchaeus to find him. He stops, he looks up, he calls him by name. And so a sermon on the initiative of Jesus in salvation is textually grounded. Jesus searches, Jesus seeks. The second one, the transformation that encounter produces. Verse 8 is the climax here, a sermon focused on what genuine encounter with Jesus produces. Life that's visibly changed. That's the text's emphasis. And then salvation is the verdict of others. The crowd's response in verse 7 creates this contrast, the story that deliberately builds on this contrast. Who Jesus considers a son of Abraham versus who the crowd does. This is an honest focus. So there's three of these focuses here. But understanding the foundation allows us to preach these without contradicting or hurting the text. So here's what I want you to understand. The foundation keeps you honest. The focus keeps you clear. The foundation is your accountability to the text. The standard every sermon should be measured against. Is it true to the text? But the focus is your message, your gift to the congregation, the specific idea they're going to carry out. I have noticed when I have learned and developed preaching this way, when I determine the foundation first, I build this barrier, this really protective boundary around the text. Okay, what is the text saying? What can I legitimately preach from this text? It doesn't mean you have to preach, you have to find that one idea, and that's the only one you preach. No, but but when you find that idea, it gives you a boundary so you know what I can preach from the text, what is legitimate. And then when I focus on an aspect of the text, it will keep me honest because I can't preach that aspect without making sure it's true to the text. It really frees us up to preach textually and biblically and true to what the Word of God is saying. We can preach that message knowing we've not misrepresented what the writer said. And truly, the power is not in the great ideas we can come up with. The power is in the word of God. So the closer you can stay to the meaning and purpose and message of the text, the greater the power of your preaching. The foundation keeps you honest. The focus keeps you clear. I pray that you preach clear. I pray that you preach anointed. And I pray God helps you the next time you step in the pulpit, that his word will speak through you and that you will impact the audience that you're preaching to, and God would have his perfect way in that service. Have a great day. God bless you.