Note to self: Appropriate lesson as a lesson for TEACHERS not

preachers : )

Preaching is the public proclamation of the gospel to the world, and

everyone who is born again carries the burden of doing so. Teaching is the
imparting of biblical knowledge and the wisdom to apply it
appropriately. While it has become commonplace to refer to ministers as
"preachers", that has actually created a misconception of the core
responsibility of the minister.
In the 3rd chapter of I Timothy and in the 1st chapter of Titus, the Bible
contains the only authoritative listing of the qualifications of Bishops (what
we know today as Pastors), and a qualification is an attribute that cannot
be absent. In neither of these scriptures can it be construed that a
qualification of a Pastor is that he be able to preach. But I Timothy 3:2
lists ‘apt to teach’ as one of the qualifications. While no Pastor should
be considered fully, biblically qualified without meeting ALL the
qualifications, the focus here is just on teaching. In that sense, a minister
who cannot teach is not qualified, according to the Bible, to be a
Pastor!
Should a Pastor be able to preach? There is certainly nothing wrong with
that, but the more important question is, is it necessary? That depends
upon ones definition of "preaching". Exhorting church people to praise and
worship God is not preaching. Telling already saved believers that Jesus
Christ is a savior is preaching, but it’s unnecessary, since obviously a saved
person already knows that. Telling believers what a wonderful thing is was
that God delivered David from Goliath, without exposing the underlying
spiritual lessons that will aid in spiritual strength and growth, is
irresponsible and can even be a waste of the believers’ time.
Once a person has accepted Jesus Christ as their personal savior, having
repented of sin and received by faith the truths of the gospel, that person
no longer needs to be preached to (although it is helpful to be reminded
from time to time of the tenets of the gospel and salvation). What the new
believer needs is to be taught how to possess his or her vessel in a
sanctified manner, what holiness is and what it means to the everyday
decisions and actions a person must make and do, how to participate in the
encouraging and building of the Body of Christ, and how to express the love
of God to unbelievers and win as many as will come to Christ. They need to
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be taught how to skillfully use the Word when dealing with trials, tribulations
and temptations. They need to be taught how to foster a right relationship
with God.
None of this is to say that a minister should NEVER preach, even to saved
people, but the point is that too much time and effort is spent preaching
and not enough is spent teaching, and the result is that there are
millions upon millions of sincere believers who lack the knowledge to be
effective Christians in their homes, in their churches and in the world. Being
"devout’ and "sincere" and "determined" are good traits, but only if one is
devout, sincere and determined in the things that are true according to
rightly divided Scripture. A person can be sincere, but be sincerely
wrong if he or she does not have correct teaching.
Just because a minister can be considered a "good preacher" by his ability
to emotionally connect with an audience and inspire them to worship and
praise, does not in itself make that minister a good teacher. Spiritual growth
does not come by way of praise, worship and emotionally satisfying church
service; it comes by way of teaching and the practical application of the
Word of God. Both preaching and teaching are necessary to the
fulfilling of the Will of God concerning His plan for the salvation of man,
but the success of that plan in the lives of individuals is hindered by
unlearned millions who profess the name of Christ and yet do not live in a
manner that fulfills the purpose for which he was sent.
Finally, there is nothing in the Bible that indicates that God’s people are
destroyed from lack of praise or worship or having "good church", (though
those things do have their place and should not be taken away) but it does
state that, "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou
hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee." [Hosea 4:6]. Knowledge
comes only through teaching. The minister therefore that rejects
teaching or does not give due attention to teaching is failing to give due
attention to the building of God’s kingdom. The minister who does not
understand that there is a difference between teaching and preaching (and
what that difference is) is likely not equipped to be a minister, and certainly
should not be a pastor!

. Anybody can preach, or exhort the word of God, but the true
litmus test of a minister or Elder being worth his weight in the
ministry is his ability to impart information.
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Good preparation that leads to effective teaching begins
with letting Scripture examine, speak, and teach to us.
A lot of teachers want answers to these questions:
Why is my teaching not improving?
Why am I struggling to develop my teaching "voice?"
Why are people falling asleep when I teach?

Using Outlines

The benefits of an outline are that you keep the big picture
in front of you and tend to consistently move in that
direction. Using fewer notes means that eye contact and
interaction with people will happen more frequently. Many
folks who use outlines say they go into the pulpit with a
sense of freedom and confidence that they might not get
with a manuscript. The downside of an outline is that it is
easy to miss important details of the text. Outline
preachers tend to preach longer because they are tempted
to chase thoughts that occur to them in the preaching
moment. Also, off-the-cuff humor and illustrations are
usually underdeveloped and might not convey your
intended meaning.

4 Ingredients

“Teaching will always be effective if it does four things:

One, it must have a biblical substance.

Two, people must track with the teacher.

Three, it must be interesting.

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Four, it must be relevant.

Do all four and you will have good teaching. None of the
four depend on ‘whiz-bang stuff.’”

1. Does my teaching have a biblical basis? The emphasis on

Scriptural authority is essential. The Bible is the only
authority and basis of central truth.

2. Are people tracking with me? The primacy of teaching

must continue to be central in our churches, and the
purpose of preaching must remain biblical in the truest
sense of the word if it is to continue to make a difference
in the world on this side of the apocalypse. Yet
teachings/lessons must come from the heart of the
teacher delivered to the heart of the hearer. Teaching is
still a face-to-face and a heart-to-heart encounter. The
teacher, therefore, must be committed to integrity,
authenticity, and transparency. People track with realness
and authenticity. When the teacher speaks from biblical
authority on real life issues from a broken and contrite
heart, never will the teacher lack for an attentive
audience.

3. Is the teaching material interesting? The “whiz-bang

stuff” that Sunukjian refers to is the use of technology. If
anything has changed dramatically in teaching in the last
20 years, it has been the onslaught of PowerPoint, video
clips from movies punctuating sermons, preprinted note-
taking outlines, props, and anything to hold the listener’s
attention. Sunukjian is not persuaded that people have
short attention spans. “People will watch a movie for two
hours and not get bored,” he asserts. Good teachers will
hold the listener’s attention for 45 minutes

4. Is the lesson relevant? Teaching has to be relevant,

addressing the needs of the audience with an undisputed
message and clarity. Granted, relevancy is not easy. It
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requires study, preparation, and concentration. But if
people matter to God, and to us, then we will communicate
with them so that the lesson touches them where they live.
I have discovered that when I know my audience better
than they know themselves and then address the issues
and concerns of their lives, my message has a better
chance of hitting home. My words, while not eloquent or
grandiose, gain a hearing because I am speaking to the
real life hurts, pains, and needs of the listening audience.

Do you want quality feedback on your lessons to help you

become a stronger teacher?

The challenge with getting feedback from others is that

typically they are not trained in homiletics. Let me be
clear, this is both a positive and a negative. But as far as
pursuing feedback is concerned, you need to ask clear and
answerable questions. Complicated feedback forms are
the staple diet of homiletics profs, but simple questions
are worth their weight in gold.

Here's a sample question: Given that every oral

communication situation demands an inherent unity of the
presenter, did the speaker effectively engage with the
single proposition of the text once the text is distilled
using good hermeneutical principles? This is a horrible
question. Long, hard to decipher, and actually only
requires a single word answer, yet at the same time
touches on several elements of teaching. Let’s try again:

1. Did the teacher make you want to listen? Was he

engaging? How? – This is often the missing question on
feedback forms I have seen. It is possible to be biblically
faithful, organizationally clear and personally relevant, yet
to be completely unengaging.

2. Biblically sound? Did you have the feeling that the

teacher handled the Bible passage properly? – Might seem
5
strange to use the word “feel” in a question on biblical
accuracy, but for most listeners, that’s all they have to go
by!

3. Was the message easy to follow? Was the speaker clear?

– This points the listener to issues of organizational clarity,
as well as allowing for comments on vocal clarity, and
whether they knew where you were in the text.

4. Did the passage and the message feel interesting to

you? – It is a sin to bore people with the Bible, so you
might as well find out if you did or not!

5. Did the teacher’s delivery help you connect or was it

distracting? How? – You need to give people permission to
tell you that you keep picking your ear, or moving like a
robot, or shuffling your feet, etc. Furthermore you may
think that your eye contact is great, but they may tell you
that you’re always looking at your notes!

You may find that you need to add prompts for each
question (i.e. for the last one you could add – eye contact,
gestures, movement, distracting habits, etc.) But then you
are heading toward one of those complicated forms that
only preaching teachers can really fill in.

And, if you want the most challenging feedback of all--add

this question:

6. Please write down the main idea of the message.

Here are a few tips for making your lessons truly lousy,
eminently forgettable, and completely ineffective.

1. Quote too many scriptures or scholars

Everyone already knows that you are an expert; that’s why

they are listening attentively. There is no need for you to
prove yourself. A whirlwind tour through scriptures and
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scholars, quoting them seemingly at random and for
diverse or trivial purposes is necessarily superficial, since
time prevents you from examining them properly.
Scriptural gymnastics confuse younger Christians since
they are not equipped to follow, and it feeds the pride of
older Christians, which causes them to sin. The purpose is
to edify the congregation in their faith, not to convince
them that you swallowed a chain reference Bible or a
seminary rolodex.

Scriptures and scholars are different. If you quote a lot of

scriptures that are thematically related and you use them
to corroborate your argumentation, you can use as many
as you like. In fact, it is a big plus. If you quote too many
scholars, however, it will backfire on you, no matter how
adroitly you use them. People will think you don’t have any
personal convictions or that you are insecure, because
they instinctively know that whoever invokes authority
generally has none of their own.

This mistake is most often made by new ministers who are

fresh from the seminary. It takes them a while to adjust to
the fact that they are teaching to a congregation, not to a
professor. You are teaching to edify the congregation’s
faith, not to enhance your reputation.

2. Use illustrations that only part of your congregation can

understand

The purpose of the lessom is to include all listeners. Most

sermons are delivered to mixed audiences. In his letters,
Paul balanced every Jewish illustration with a Greek
equivalent. He knew that an illustration that only a portion
of the congregation (however large) can appreciate would
exclude, lose, or alienate the rest.

For example, suppose the teacher is a new father and he

innocently tries to draw a lesson from his toddler’s antics.
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Teenagers cannot relate; they tune out the whole lesson .
Only a select few get the point.

If you have an illustration that only appeals to one part of

your congregation, try to think of parallel illustrations that
cover the other parts of your congregation, then use them
together.

3. Use irrelevant illustrations

Sometimes, teachers/speakers get nervous because they

have forgotten their material, lost their chain of thought,
their audience, or their confidence, or they feel the Spirit
has temporarily forsaken them. So they tell an irrelevant
joke whose real purpose is to ask the congregation for
approval. This happens to all teachers at one time or
another. If it happens to you, don’t panic, but you should
pray about it afterwards. The problem may have been poo
planning, or perhaps you were forgivably distracted by
some unexpected event. It may also be the Holy Spirit
demonstrating His powerful, essential, and inspiring
presence in your ministry by withholding it temporarily. Do
not fail the test and lose heart!

4. Go for the laughs

Humor is good, necessary, and appropriate. After all, many

incidents in scripture are funny, such as the story of the
woman at the well, who rather dimwittedly saw Jesus’
living water as a way to get out of work, hilariously
missing his point! You should not hesitate to use topical
humor.

However, resist the temptation to become a stand-up

comic. The purpose of humor is to relieve the dramatic
tension, to hold the congregation’s attention, or to drive a
point home. The purpose of irrelevant jokes is to seek
approval from the congregation. You are to seek the
8
approval of God. If you find yourself on a roll, and it isn’t
announcement time, watch out! It has a quick reward, but
from the wrong party.

5. Deliver an academic lecture

A good teaching is also Good News, because that is what

Jesus commissioned. It should draw people inexorably to
His love and forgiveness through a recounting of His life
and deeds and inestimable love. It should appeal to the
heart and soul and draw all, so that anyone can be saved
through it.

Lectures appeal to the intellect and thus (but not

improperly) exclude some people. Not everyone in the
congregation is equipped to follow a seminary-level
teaching . Classroom-style lectures are a valid format that
you should neither neglect nor confuse for sermons .
There is a time and a place for all things.

Preaching and teaching are two separate gifts: Teaching

helps people believe what they can understand, while
preaching helps people trust what is beyond their
understanding.

6. Ramble aimlessly

Your lesson/material , whether it is prewritten or

extemporaneous, should be well organized. Don’t make it
into longhorn steers—a point here and a point there, and
you know what’s in the middle. To the congregation, a five-
minute ramble is subjectively twice as long as a fifteen-
minute, well-organized teaching.

7. Teach too long

I’m not going to tell you how long should it be in minutes.

Some lessons are too long before they even start. Others
9
are so engrossing and so inspired, you regret when they
end. Sometimes, a teahing has to be short, because the
service that day is long and involved. You don’t need to
put your watch to see if your lesson is too long—just
watch the congregation/the audience. How many people
are looking at their watches? How many are staring out the
window? How many are passing notes? How many are
fidgeting and restless? If you’ve lost your audience, you
might as well cut your losses, close up shop, and try again
next week. You won’t recover by talking more.

Everyone wants to hear a good teaching . But what exactly

is a good teaching ? Certainly, you know one when you
hear one, but pinning down the details can be difficult;
Teaching is an interesting mixture of theology (what we're
saying) and rhetoric (how we say it). Yet when a lesson
includes the following seven central elements, and when
the Holy Spirit is present, something happens—the Word
comes alive and people come to faith.

In brief, a good lesson engages the biblical text, proclaims

the gospel, connects God's Word to the lives of God's
people, is well organized and easy to understand, captures
the imagination of the hearers, is delivered well, and
orients people toward life in God's world.

1. A good teaching engages the biblical text

To think of the lesson as response takes seriously the

nature of the Bible as God's Word, a living witness that still
provokes a response from those who hear it. Therefore,
good teachers strive to engage the biblical passages
seriously, in a manner that is interesting, inspiring, and
relevant.

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2. A good teaching proclaims the gospel

Wait a second. Isn't teaching the Bible the same as

teaching the gospel?

Yes and no. Certainly, our sense of the gospel (in brief,
what God has done through Jesus Christ for us and all the
world) emerges from the biblical witness. At the same
time, though, there is some value in realizing that we
cannot simply equate the two. Luther had a nice way of
putting this. The Bible, Luther said, is like the manger in
which the Christ child rests. So while we should flee to the
Bible to find Christ, Luther counseled, we should avoid
falling on our knees to worship wood and straw. To put it
another way, we value the Bible so highly precisely and
primarily because it contains the gospel.

The teacher's primary task in dealing with any biblical

passage, therefore, is to say a word about what God has
done and is still doing through Jesus Christ for us and for
all the world. Our task as biblical teachers is to approach
passages of Scripture (be they parables, wisdom sayings,
passages from Old or New Testament) with two tasks in
mind:

• to hear the particular confession of faith being made in

the passage and
• to relate it to our overall sense of what God is up to in
our lives and the world through Jesus.

That is, whatever you're teaching on, somehow it relates

to the ongoing work of the God we have come to know
most fully through Jesus Christ.

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3. A good teaching connects God's Word to the lives of
God's people

Part of the significance of the Christian doctrine of the

Incarnation is God's commitment to be accessible, to speak
a divine word in human form, to take on our lot and our
life. Teaching is an incarnational word, one that reaffirms
God's commitment to meet us where we are.

To put it another way, we might go so far as to say that

there is no universal gospel apart from the way it
manifests itself in the particular and concrete aspects of
our actual lives. To talk about "God's love" or "forgiveness"
or "grace" in general makes very little sense without
pointing to specific examples and instances of love,
forgiveness, and grace in our lives and the world around
us.

Teaching that is generic or universal in character and does

not struggle to relate God's Word to our actual lives is
boring, irrelevant, and gives the impression that God does
not really care about what's going on in our lives and
world. On the other hand, teaching that is only "relevant"—
focusing on the latest perceived need, trend, or tragedy in
the community without viewing these issues from the
perspective of the gospel—is at best therapy and at worst
mere pandering.

4. A good teaching is well organized and easy to

understand

As we all know, if the message isn't clearly thought out

and presented, it just doesn't matter much what's being
said. If I can't follow it, then I can't appreciate it and
certainly can't be moved to faith by it. Likewise ,teaching
that is unclear, poorly organized, or difficult to understand
is ineffectual.
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5. A good teaching engages the imaginations of the
hearers

One of the most significant insights of mainline

teachers/speakers over the last two generations has been
that the gospel is more than a head-trip. That is, the
gospel is more than thinking a certain way. It is not just
cognitive, but also experiential, deals not only with our
rational side but also with our whole selves—feelings,
desires, needs, heart, soul, and so forth. Teaching, we
have come to realize, speaks to the whole person, and to
do that, we need to engage the imaginations of our
hearers.

6. A good teaching is delivered well

To teach is to communicate. Therefore, it must be

delivered effectively so that we may hear the message. In
order for that to occur, two things need to take place:

• The teacher must deliver it with the appropriate

effect. If you're excited, bursting with good news, and
think what you have to say really is good news, then
your facial expression, body gestures, and voice should
express those emotions.
• The teacher must deliver it with passion and integrity.
People should know that you believe what you say,
that you have something at stake in this message, that
it is true for you, and that it matters. Insincerity is
easily detected by most listeners and greatly
undermines preaching.

7. A good teacher orients hearers to life in God's world

Christian worship is the gathering of the faithful so that

they may be renewed in faith and sent once more into the
world as the people of God. Teaching also like preaching ,
has the responsibility to not only proclaim the gospel so
13
that hearers may come once again to faith, but also to
redirect those same people to the world as the arena in
which they live out their Christian callings to be God's
people, and even God's partners, in the world. God has
chosen to use human means—the abilities and
opportunities of our people in the various roles and
dimensions of their everyday lives—to help sustain the
world God loves so much.

For this reason, teaching that does not seek to orient

hearers to their active lives as God's people sent to care
for God's world risks engendering an inwardly focused,
even self-centered version of Christianity that betrays
God's love for and commitment to God's world.

The next time you are listening to or preaching a sermon,

look for these seven marks. This outline of the seven
marks of a sermon may give preachers and their hearers
some guidelines to talk about what makes good preaching.

1. Do I Belong to Him?

The key to success in life/ministry isn’t teaching a good

message and/or making a great series of leadership
decisions … we will only be successful long term if we
belong to Him.

If we belong to Him we will say what He tells us to say and

do what He tells us to do–if we belong to “them” we will
always back down.

2. Do I Believe This?

In other words–are you smokin’ what your sellin’?

• We can’t teach on purity if we aren’t fighting to be

pure.
• We can’t teach on money if we are robbing God.

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 •We can’t teach on integrity if we are not letting our
yes be yes and our no be no.

When we teach something we’ve got to believe it or else

we will teach from convenience and not conviction.

3. Am I Leading or Responding?

We should seek to lead our people through the teaching of

His Word–period!

I used to feel like I had to respond to all of the

questions/complaints I received the week before in the
upcoming message … and doing so caused me to lose focus
on where our church needed to go and what was best for
the majority of the people in attendance.

4. Do I Believe the Promise in Isaiah 55:8-13?

Nothing is more discouraging to a teacher/minister than

when we teach our guts out and there seems to be zero
response. However, God’s Word promises that if we are
faithful to declare it that it will NOT return without
producing a harvest.

Sometimes we do get to see immediate results but most of

the time God will take His Word and work it into the hearts
and minds of the hearers over time. Trust God and His
Word–a harvest IS coming!

5 Characteristics of a Next-Level Teachers

Are you working to produce more followers or more

leaders?

There are many different thoughts or definitions of what a

Next-Level Leader is or what that word pairing actually
means. In this post, I will provide my personal definition of

15
what a Next-Level Leader is, in addition to identifying 5
Characteristics of a Next-Level Leader.

The definition of a Next-Level Leader is this- A leader that

not only elevates their personal leadership to the next
level, but also elevates the leadership of their team
members, peers, and competition to the next level. They
challenge those around them to dream BIG, think BIGGER.

Below are the 5 Characteristics of a Next-Level Leader.

Next-Level Leaders always do these things:

1.) Challenge Things- They challenge things because they

are supposed to be challenged. They not only challenge
the thoughts/methods of their leaders, but they challenge
their own methodology. They realize that their boss puts
their pants on just like they do and embrace the fact that
just because a person is a supervisor doesn’t mean they
are necessarily smarter or better leaders or that they can’t
add value to the conversation. Challenging things is not
about being combative but rather raising every-one’s
leadership game to the next level. It’s okay to respectfully
disagree. Don’t get the willingness to challenge things
confused with being obstinate.

2.) Ask the Right Questions- They always ask the right
questions… They begin sentences with “What if?, Have you
ever thought about?, This might sound crazy, but do you
think we can…?” Anytime they have the opportunity to sit
down with a Next-Level Leader that they desire to learn
from, they have a list of questions and not a list of
answers. They take their leadership game to the Next-
Level by asking the right questions.

3.) dream BIG- They are always dreaming and

imagining. Some of these dreams may seem to be a fairy-
tale to some, but not to a Next-Level Leader. A Next-Level
16
Leader will schedule an appointment to dream, they go
to Starbucks and dream, they close their office door and
dream, they take a vacation alone to do nothing but
dream. They take their leadership game to the next level
by dreaming BIG, encouraging those around them to dream
BIG, writing their dreams down, and making those dreams
a reality. They dream BIG, think BIGGER.

4.) Learners- They are always learning from: books, blogs,

their industry, history, other industries, culture,
failures, their followers, other Next-Level Leaders. They
have a mantra something like Will Rogers’ mantra (I never
met a man I didn’t like). The Next-Level mantra is “I never
met a man, woman, or situation that I didn’t learn from.”
They elevate their leadership game to the next level by
realizing that learning is fundamental.

5.) Produce Next-Level Leaders- Next-Level Leaders

produce Next-Level Leaders. Next-Level Leaders
contribute to the world of leadership by truly caring about
those that they lead and always developing Next-Level
Leaders. They never confuse management with
leadership. Managers manage people and things…Next-
Level Leaders produce other Next-Level Leaders. Simply
put: “If you are not developing and producing Next-Level
Leaders…you are not a Next Level Leader.” Next-Level
leadership is not about how tall your tree can grow but
rather the type of fruit your tree can produce.

“I start with the premise that the function of leadership is

to produce more leaders, not more followers.” ~Ralph
Nader

What has been your experience working with a Next-Level

Leaders? Share your thoughts on any of these 5
Characteristics, or share your definition of a Next-Level
Leader. ( PERSONAL NOTE: Change leader to teacher and
appropriate some of the words in relation to TEACHER
17
instead of LEADER. IF time not enough, I can eliminate this
:))

Everyone makes mistakes, but for all the mistakes teachers/ministers can (and do) make, here are
10 that we should do our best to avoid at all costs.

When it comes to preaching and teaching the Bible, we all fall short. Who hasn't quoted the wrong
reference or (worse) read the wrong passage of Scripture altogether? Who hasn't, in the heat of the
moment, accidentally gotten tie-tongued and credited Paul with the words of Peter? You may even
find yourself creating a homiletical mountain out of an exegetical molehill.

Everyone makes mistakes, but for all the mistakes preachers can (and do) make, here are 10 that we
should do our best to avoid at all costs.

(note to self: change PREACH to TEACH. Appropriate lesson to TEACHING rather than
PREACHING . Read detail but CONCENTRATE on the GENERAL THOUGHT (underlined) : )

1. Thou shalt not put words in God's mouth.

God is more than capable of saying what He means and meaning what He says. He doesn't need our
help to add to or take away from His Word. We have no business saying God said something He
didn't say. That's why we must handle the Word of truth accurately (1 Tim. 3:15). If you've ever
been misquoted (in conversation or a newspaper), you know how frustrating that experience is.
Imagine how the God of the universe must feel when one of His messengers misquotes Him. We
need to be sure to get the message right!

2. Thou shalt prepare and teach every message as though it were thy last.

Even if it is only to a small Sunday night crowd, the preacher never should take his or her
responsibility lightly. Why? Because it very well may be the last sermon you ever preach or the last
sermon someone listening ever hears. Furthermore, we don't know what God's Spirit has been
doing behind the scenes. A rebellious teenager or wayward spouse may be on the verge of
repenting and trusting Christ. The listener's need is urgent, therefore the preaching should be
urgent.Preaching is not a playground for frivolous fun,but a battlefield for gutsy warfare. It is where
the very issues of life and death, heaven and hell, hang in the balance. As the great Puritan
theologian and preacher Richard Baxter once eloquently said, "I'll preach as though I ne'er should
preach again, and as a dying man to dying men." We should seek to do the same.

3. Thou shalt not present the Word of God in a boring and non-compelling manner.

Newsflash: If people are falling asleep during your sermon, it's not God's fault. If God's Word is
sufficient to transform lives, isn't it also sufficient to keep people's attention? Don't get in the way
18
of the transforming power of God's Word by letting it become boring. To preach and teach the
Bible in a boring and unpersuasive manner is, I believe, a sin.This is not to say every preacher has
to be dynamic, witty, and entertaining. It does mean, however, that every preacher should see him
or herself as God's messenger and spokesman for that moment. He or she must plead passionately
and desperately with those listening to hear and heed God's Word.

4. Thou always shalt point to Christ in thy message.

Seeing that Jesus Christ is the focal point of every passage, it stands to reason that He should,
therefore, be the focal point of every sermon. As Dennis Johnson writes, "Whatever our biblical
text and theme, if we want to impart God's life-giving wisdom in its exposition, we can do nothing
other than proclaim Christ."

The most humbling experience of my seminary years was related to this. In one of my preaching
classes, I had to give several sermons in front of my peers and professor. The first sermon I
preached was well-received and complimented. So, after the second sermon (from the Old
Testament), I sat down arrogantly waiting to hear "the showers of blessings" and compliments
about how well I had done. My professor, Greg Heisler from Southeastern Seminary, said, "Tyler,
that message was passionate and challenging…but you made one huge mistake." He continued,
"You could have preached that message in a Jewish synagogue or a Muslim mosque and [the
congregation] could have said ‘Amen!' to everything you said. You never once mentioned Christ in
your entire message." He left me with this challenge: "You need to be sure that every time you
preach—even from the Old Testament—that if a Jew or Muslim were in the audience [he or she]
would feel extremely uncomfortable."Remember, we are not simply theistic preachers; we are to be
distinctly Christian preachers.

5. Thou shalt edify thy hearers to faith and obedience.

It's like the old hymn: "Trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and
obey." Regardless of the passage, the goal of every sermon should be to remind people that
whatever the issue or doctrine at hand God and His Word are reliable. When God gave the Ten
Commandments, He didn't begin by barking orders at the Israelites. In fact, the Ten
Commandments don't start with commands. They begin with the reassuring words, "I am the Lord
your God who brought you up out of the land of Egypt…" (Ex. 20:1). In other words, God
reminded them: "You can trust Me; that's why you should obey Me."The real motivation for
Christian living is not, "I have to obey God," but it is, "Given everything I know to be true about
Him, why wouldn't I obey God?" A good sermon will help people to think and live that way.

6. Thou shalt not be one kind of person and another kind of preacher.

This is the Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde syndrome of preaching. On the one hand, this means you can't live
like the devil Monday through Saturday and expect to preach with the tongue of an angel on
Sunday. Paul told Timothy: "Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from these [sinful] things, he
will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work" (2 Tim.
2:21). Every preacher must seek to be a "clean vessel" which is "useful to the Master."This also
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means you shouldn't try to be someone else in the pulpit. As Phillips Brooks once said, "Preaching
is truth through personality." God only made one Charles Spurgeon, one Adrian Rogers, one John
MacArthur, and one John Piper. Don't try to imitate other preachers; be yourself.

Listening to such great preachers is like watching a grand Fourth of July fireworks display. You sit
back, relax, watch and "Ooo" and "Ahh" with everyone else. You should be amazed at it and enjoy
it, but you shouldn't go home and try to duplicate it in your backyard. You can't. There's no sense in
trying. The same is true with preaching. When you preach, be yourself.

7. Thou shalt not open a commentary until thou hast read the passage 100 times.

This may be a bit of an exaggeration, but it's an important reminder. Which would you rather eat:
Grandma's made-from-scratch, warm, fluffy biscuits or a frozen biscuit that's been nuked in the
microwave? Reheated food is never as good or fresh. The same is true with sermons.The biggest
temptation, I think, for the current generation of preachers is to jump directly into the commentaries
or click over to the sermon Web sites without thoroughly meditating on the passage first for him or
herself. As Robert Smith once commented: There are far too many preachers who preach only from
the neck up. The truth is most powerful when it is from the lips of a person whose heart and mind
have marinated extensively on God's Word.

8. Honor thy context above all else, so that it may go well with thee in thy message.

The battle cry of the soldiers of the Texas Revolution was "Remember the Alamo!" The battle cry
for today's preachers should be "Remember, context is king!" I often tell people they don't need to
know Greek and Hebrew to teach the Bible well, but they must know the context well.The role of
context in preaching and teaching cannot be underestimated or over stressed. Without context, I
could preach a sermon that said, "and [Judas] went away and hanged himself" and the Lord Jesus
said, "Go and do the same." While there may not be anyone promoting suicide from the pulpit, if
we don't pay close attention to context, the result may be spiritual suicide. Don't ever lose the
context.

9. Thou shalt make the point of the text the point of the message.

The title of John Stott's timeless book says it all: Between Two Worlds. The preacher of the Word
of God finds him or herself with one foot in the biblical world and one foot in the modern world. It
falls upon the preacher to straddle these two with balance. Don't ever forget that what God said
2,000 or 3,000 years ago is exactly the same message people need to hear today.Some will argue,
"Yeah, but what about all the history, culture, and differences in language from biblical to modern
times? My people don't understand all that stuff." Well, guess what? You should teach it to
them.Don't dumb-down the Bible; smarten-up the people. The Bible is the most relevant thing in
the universe because God is the most relevant Being in the universe.

10. Thou shalt preach and teach doctrine above all else.

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Many churches are weak and lifeless because they have spiritual anemia. What they lack is
doctrinal iron in their bloodstreams. All week long, people hear messages from other people.
"What people need," as Robert McCracken once said, "is to hear a word beyond themselves."
Doctrine feeds the soul. It reassures the faithless. It matures the child. It's what keeps churches
healthy and alive. Without it, pastors speak without preaching, and churches sing without
worshiping. Preach doctrinally rich sermons!The great problem in today's pulpits is not a lack of
preaching, but an abundance of dreadful preaching. This is largely because many preachers are not
as careful and mindful of the task as they should be. Not only does the church need us preachers to
keep these Ten Commandments, but more importantly God and His Word deserve the effort
required.

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