dearly beloved brothers and sisters friends and family ladies and gentlemen

we have gathered here today to talk about the sermon now if you were to ask
the average person on the average Street what they think about the word sermon what
would you hear if you were to ask
the person on the street what do you think when you hear the word sermon what
are your memories what are your images what associations come to mind what would
you here would you hear
intelligent provocative holy inspiring challenging comforting healing
revolutionary or would you hear other words we're gathered here because it's
time to reclaim sermon it's a brilliant primal art form it's been around for
years and it's taken a bit of beating recently but what we need is a whole new generation
of people who will embrace it as the beautiful sacred compelling art
form that it is and as things come on as
the world gets more Twitter eyes I
believe that what's going to happen more and more is actual people gathered in an
actual room with an actual person who has actual flesh and blood who is
actually talking in real time about things that actually matter and people
actually hearing it and saying I was there and it did something to me
and so as everything goes a particular direction I am fully convinced that this artform
is going to have a resurgence because as it gets less it's going to get more
interesting more compelling as less people have faith in it it's going to be all the more
brilliant and
counterintuitive and counterculture and I believe you're probably here because you have
have that sense for many people in our culture let's be honest the sermon is
something to be endured the sermon raises the question when is lunch for
many people the sermon is simply something you get through it's boring and sifted
lifeless the last thing they
would think of is okay whatever you do don't miss that because someone's going to
throw it down and wherever you are on
it's going to be something perhaps oh that's the worst thing that happens when
it isn't it I don't know what it was I just it was to be endured for other people the
fundamental posture towards a
sermon is its to be evaluated and so the two sacred questions are number one did
you like it I did I liked it you did I liked it too so and so didn't really like it one of the
people do like it
they like stories but my friend likes video clips and some people like to take notes and
the sermon begins pretty much
do you like it a bit like a sweater or a pair of trousers did you like it and for
others it's not did you like it but it's did they do a good job how how was it
you know she did a good job yeah but how did you do
because the point was to listen and then do something with it
can you imagine think about hearing Martin Luther King jr. in his dream speech and at
the end saying I don't
know he would have been long and I've heard some of those stories before you
don't think about it and you don't think I don't know did you like it no the last
category you put that in is about it happened and you hear tha there or you
were but that was something we're talking here about the greatest truths humans have
ever stumbled upon we are
talking about resurrection we are talking about a new creation bursting forth right here
in the midst of this one and somebody stands up in public and
talks about that in the best way people can process it is yeah I think she did a pretty
good job perhaps we
need to rescue people from this kind of perspective and then for other people
their perceptions of the sermon is and sometimes it's perceived that way
because it's true the sermon is pure propaganda let's be honest some sermons are about
telling these people what they
already know and they already believe and they've already been taught to believe so
they can continue to believe
that they're the only ones who've got it are you with me and so the truth is
there isn't any room for this sermon to go anywhere because it's got to fit right within
this thing in other times
let's be brutally honest the sermon we got to get that building built you with
me sometimes the sermon is in the service of something else and you're sitting
there and you know it this isn't of this is about that and not
what I dream it could be or what we know it's supposed to be sometimes a sermon is
just pure propaganda it's just trying
to get this group of people either continuing to buoy this is exactly who
we are what we're supposed to be doing and there is no explanation there is no
discovery there is no movement it's about getting something else done and
you can smell it or I would argue your friends who haven't perhaps been a part
of a church culture can smell it even better the sermon is this beautiful
ancient art form and I believe you're here like me because you believe it's
time for a resurgence a reclaiming of this art form now this raises a question
for me why would anybody want to give a sermon why would have you ever been
giving a sermon and thought why in the world am i doing this this is insane I
want to talk about one of my first sermons ever I was 24 25 and I was well
basically somebody else that I was working with was asked to speak somewhere and
they said no and I was like the but but this guy will go so
from the start it was pretty sweet and it was a revival at a County Fairgrounds
so I mean like I'm just going to fit right in pretty much the only problem
was about 13 people showed up so apparently was a revival but nobody invited the
Spirit of God now I have a
Google image of the fairgrounds because I need to lay out physically exactly who
was where first off the 13 people who came it was at a racing track and this
is the racing track and you can see the stands right there the white wrecking their was
some sort of rule apparently
agreed upon beforehand that the 13 people were not allowed to sit closer than 25 feet
from each other so it was
this big sloping roofed stands with like somebody there and somebody there and
somebody there and somebody there now they did not put the stage right up
towards the front row so that you would be close to the people that you're oh speaking
to they put the stage on the
other side of the track in the infield they then apparently had concerns about
weather or rain or hail because they put a roof on the stage like a kind of tarp
but apparently hobbits put this tarp up because it was like right here on my
head they then on the stage which was on
the grass may I remind you on the other side of the racetrack they put a large pulpit like
a large
pulpit slash shield which I what what is this um this is in
between I yeah this not something I've used much they then before I was to
bring the revival message had special music and the special music was a
keyboard player and a bass player who
were leading singing but partway through for some reason maybe because the stage was
on the other side of the racetrack
the keyboard went out so they led singing with a bass player so by the
time I got up I was like man the mood is set I get a read from not gonna preach
from the phone book I mean this place is humming so I've done like like a like two three
four sermons in my life I have my notes inside my bottle I fix all sorts of
outlines and scratchings in my notes I walk up to the thing and it just it doesn't feel right
and so there was some
sort of fence they put up in the front of the stage for an unknown reason to
this day but I wanted to be closer to the people so I jumped off the stage
over the fence down onto the track and got right on the track so the people are
right here and I open my Bible and a gust of wind all my notes gone
have any of you ever tasted of the tree
of the knowledge of naked and vulnerable in public it would be easier to be naked
at that point because you could just run but your left I don't know what I'm to
do that that story over the years has proven not to be an isolated incident
you're up there you're giving it everything you have and yet there are
these moments when you feel so exposed so vulnerable and so out there like what
am i doing and all of a sudden it becomes very very lonely how many of you have had
this
kind of experience and in your moment of desperation you look to see your spouse
and they're either a have left which
doesn't help or they just look down kind
of like you are on your own and we'll talk about this later why would anybody
put themselves through this and in my experience has been that Sundays come on
a regular basis this beautiful sacred
art form can also be lethal it can cut you it can hurt and you walk up like I
here we go and you walk off like what was that how many of you on a regular
basis like experienced pastors hangover which is you're tired and you find yourself
thinking I said what
and for some reason we put ourselves through this or I think of a couple of
years ago at the end of a sermon at our church I was sharing a story and it was
a personal story and it was one of those things where you're sharing something and all
of a sudden you discover there's
all sorts of emotion down in there that chose this moment to come up and not the
nine times you worked on it all alone in your office all of a sudden it came racing up
and you had allergies and and
I was very like kind of overwhelming oh my god I think I'm gonna lose it I think I'm
choking up I think yep I am full-on crying and so kind of this
the sermon it didn't really wrap up it kind of crashed and fell over and so it was the
it was time like grace and peace be with you have a great week see you next week kind
of and so I'm still on the stage
sitting kind of there was a stool there trying to kind of what was that what
just happened whoa kind of trying to click and a guy comes up boom he's three feet in
front of me
in seconds and he says dude I gotta tell you about this Elm I bought this week
have any of you ever had this experience have you heard anything I've said
just give me one tiny fragment that you've heard anything I said and this
gets worse the longer you've journeyed with a specific congregation because you
meet up with wonderful people and they say something and often it's not direct it's
somehow thrown out in the course of
the conversation and you think yourself oh dear God I they've been here for
seven eight and that's where they are Oh
have they heard anything you pour yourself out you're on this journey
you're engaging with the Scriptures and you bump up against the limitations of
what you're trying to do are you with me it's like Oh or there's this one I would
call this one crickets versus that was the most powerful thing I've ever heard in my
entire life
you got this that you know this thing you are brewing you're going to open up a can on
this one I mean it's gonna be
like you're gonna pull the pin and toss that and it is going to be boom angels down
through the roof this thing is
going to be like people people taking their wallets and emptying them out here and and
swimming to Africa to help
people because it's that like mediate I can't even wait for a plane I mean you this thing
and then you give it and you
just get crickets and you were so convinced that was the and then you find
out that it it didn't it wasn't apparently everybody else wasn't feeling the same way or at
the other end of the
spectrum you have this thing you've been carrying around it's like it kind of even
helping it along because you've
tried you want it to fly and you've duct tape wings on it and you've you like go
you're great you're oh you can do you can do it and it's like when your kid in
recreational basketball and third-grade shoots at the wrong hoop and you're like aah and
then afterwards after you've
brought this sick anemic limping thing
of a sermon and you've presented it like this is I'm tired I had a rough week I
had this good and this is what I got and people are like okay that okay that that
was amazing and you're like that was a homiletically
so crap that's what that was okay if there was the police I would have been
arrested for just bad talking let among the things and what happens is if you're
in this place where the response of people if you're if you're working
through how the response of people affects your sense of worth calling whatever this
there is a sort of vertigo
of I thought I knew but at Wow anybody know that vertigo like I was
pretty sure I knew how things and you're thrown off like if that's it and there's
this sort of humble you smack up against the the limits of your own Wow I've got
to figure out how to do this from a grounded centered sort of place where I give these
people my very best and then
from there it belongs to somebody else this sort of God I'm gonna give you I'm
gonna give them what I got it's my best and I'm grateful for this opportunity but you're
gonna have to help me sort
through all of that and there's this one and this one oh that sermon it was so passionate
it was so creative I mean that was like the old Rob
yeah I know I think God loves him more -
or or this one man can't we do it like we used to do it how many know that one
there's there was a moment that was somehow it had a sort of utopia
something about it and if it can we could just go back to that in our church we began the
first year of the life of
our church by going through the Book of Leviticus for the first year and a half because
that's in all the church growth books and over the years I just man
can't we just do like Leviticus again okay you just said can't we do Leviticus
again people don't say that they don't say can't we do Leviticus period let
alone again okay this sort of thing and those of you who have done this for a
while as you lead and and we're here to talk about preaching teaching and giving
messages you develop a body of work and so it isn't just now you and the message
that you're giving in them it's you and the message you're giving and them and a
whole world of assumptions and expectations and experiences that are
also in the room and you have grown you
aren't who you were you can't do it like you used to because you aren't who you
used to be and to go back would violate something know the Spirit of God isn't
about endlessly camping out back there the Spirit of God is about celebrating that but
transcending and including that
and then and then being led along to the next place on the journey and so there
is this this lethal thing can't we like the old building like the old way we
used to and and and it and they're just essentially saying that
shaped and formed me that was a moment that was a key milestone in my can't we
go back there but what it comes across is it really really hurts like can't we
just do it like that's like the old Rob oh it's like getting kicked in the
stomach and then there is all of the various things that we are expected to
balance perfectly and effortlessly like be vulnerable and honest and personal
but not too personal because that's as a therapy session and we need lots of Bible but not
too much because it has to relate to what's happening our lives and
in the world today but it can't be political and it has to be challenging and deep and
significant and at the same time easy for everybody to understand
and it has to be funny but not too funny because you're not a comedian and you're a
pastor and while you're at it mix it
up and try new things and don't get in a rut but make sure to be consistent and talk about
your own struggles but not
too much because that's kind of depressing and we and we love stories about your
family but not too many because that can be weird just be
vulnerable and honest right there's all of these balances that
we are endlessly working on and there's this and there's this and there's just
and the one thing that worked the first week of June I mean it killed it was
like well that thing if you do it in the second week of June we'll be so stale and lame
that you can't you so your
endlessly evolving and changing and working with it and at the same time
there is this sense that there has there's a consistency and you can't violate who you are
and who they are and
who who your community is and so you're endlessly navigating all of these
various things notice Ezekiel which you are all thinking let's talk about Ezekiel that's
what we need to go next
chapter four take wheat and barley beans and lentils millet and spelt put them in a
storage jar and use them to make bread
for yourself this is God talking to you to Ezekiel you are to eat it during the three
hundred ninety days you lie on
your side eat the food is you want a loaf of barley bread bake it in the sight of the people
using human excrement for fuel
you've had some weird outlines
now what is this let's talk about this what is the sermon what is a sermon
Ezekiel has been told by go and do this in public
sounds a bit like a sermon God says I have a message for the people I want you
to bring it so I want you to go and do this in public so that the people can
hear and see the message I have for them it sounds a lot like a sermon you go in
public and you do something from any of us we're so conditioning you you talk but
actually like if you begin with the
prophets these are sermons sermon go and do this and it's loaded with meaning and
symbol and significance that the people knew what he was saying it's just a
little odd to us maybe you could say it like this the sermon there is a degree
to which sermon is performance art I mean that's where its roots are to a certain degree
and what you will
sometimes hear is oh no no no no someone so no no I'll tell you why people are coming
so and so they just preach the
Bible yeah but lots of people preach the Bible and no one's coming so if we stick with
that sort of oh no no it's just because they're sticking to the word okay then they're really
good at sticking to the word correct and there sometimes
develops this odd sort of like you're not allowed to talk about the fact that that person
it's not just because
they're preaching the Bible or it's not just because they're talking about Jesus it's because
they talk about Jesus in a really compelling way and so what
happens sometimes is the human dimension gets almost pushed to the side and ignored
but it's there and in the
scriptures it's really there sometimes a sermon there's a formative sort of performance
art I mean Ezekiel's roots
there what he does that's and that's Banksy I mean I mean that's a gesture a
loaded gesture in public that people can infer from it what it means like whoa can't
believe he just said that
even if he didn't say a thing there's a degree to which his guerrilla theater he
sets up he does this thing and he's gon be whoa something just happened what was
that and you are discussing it you are interacting with it and people are sharing their
responses to it it's actions that evoke sometimes the sermon
you are doing something and it is evoking something out of people perhaps
you've had these moments when you were teaching or preaching or working on
something than you realized what I need
to do at that point in the sermons is I have to do whatever it is I can talk about that all
day long but actually
what I need to do is this I need to wear that I need to cut that any but glue that I need to
turn that over I need to
throw that I need to bite that person up onstage you need it whatever it is when you talk
about the sermon as an art form
it's got as much in common with performance art as all sorts of things
they talk about John the Baptist what do they say the brother brought it the the the
words the poetry what do they also
always describe what he ate what he wore I use the full package and people read
cuz of why because it made statements because he was preaching long before he open
his mouth like oh whoa look who's
coming he's already made statements just by his presence or sometimes the sermon
next slide in acts 4 they were astonished and they took note that these men had been
with Jesus what you find
with the Apostles again and again as they had been with Jesus they saw
something and it changed everything they
experienced something and they were never the same again
and so the sermon sometimes is witness
you have seen something and you have to talk about it you have if you don't
share it speak it tell it point to it Express preach it you will spontaneously combust
sometimes when you see a serve in the oil man nothing did something whoa what you
are seeing is somebody they met the
resurrected Christ they saw heaven crashing into Earth they witnessed something and
they had to share it it's
that feeling before you're about to give a sermon and you think man if I cannot wait to
bring this it's that feeling
when you've got a sermon coming up and everybody you meet you're like hey by the
way have you noticed in lamentations chapter 2 check this out you're in a
restaurant you're drawing it on a napkin you're jogging along and you're seeing people
hey dude I gotta stop and tell you this this is so fresh unbelievable
what is it what is it's witness I've witnessed something I've seen something I've
stumbled upon something I've
discovered something and I have to share it with people if I don't something is going to
happen to me it's like in there
like exploding sometimes the sermon is just it's straight-up witness I'm at Christ in this
person and I have to tell
you what Christ looked like next sometimes like Jeremiah 20 I love this
but if I say I will not mention his word or speak any more in his name his word is in my
heart like a fire a fire shut
up in my bones I am weary of holding ideon indeed I cannot one of the things
we're going to talk about over the course of these talks is exploring setting up your life
in such a way those
are actually things that are happening they're like okay this is like a fire and I can't hold
it in that the sermon
in many ways has connections with performance-art the sermon sometimes is just
straight up it's got a dimension of witness you've seen something in you
have to share it other times I like this one in Jeremiah - the Prophet is Israel
a servant a slave by birth why then has
he become plunder indeed what the poet says essentially is these Israel is
God's Sun God's people now the people have been plundered and this isn't what
God had in my and so the sermon their next sermon it's
a reminder hey hey hey this this isn't how supposed to be this isn't what God
has in mind sometimes we need that do we not hey hey you you have settled you
have settled and that isn't right that isn't right I'm sure you're like me you
can think of people who sometimes need to be reminded you're better than this
but because God is better than this you are a child of your heavenly father you
are loved you are a new creation your identity is in Christ let me remind you
but you are not a slave by birth and so the sermon becomes this powerful moment
of oh my word I have totally settled oh I have sold out and I've been jolted
into this reminder of the this no way this is not what I set out to do so the
sermon becomes this beautiful of reminder of what could be and sometimes like a mark
when Jesus the time has come
the kingdom of God has come near repent and believe the good news sometimes sermon
is simply an invitation
something big is going down who doesn't want to be a part of it sometimes the sermon
is this big wide open giant
inclusive invitation something huge is happening all over the place and
everybody is welcome sometimes the sermon is witness
sometimes that has this element of guerrilla theater you set up and boom you do it and
you're gone and people are
left with whoa what was that I got a wrestle with that and sometimes it's an invitation
it's a the word repent is the
word return it's an invitation to return to your true self the invitation to return to the way
of God it's an
invitation to turn from that way to this way sometimes a sermon is a fresh word
and with that and this is key the sermon
often is implicit critique and we don't even realize it when you stay
end up with a new word you are saying
something with that new word you are making a statement about the old word and what
you are saying about the old
word is it's time for a new word sometimes a sermon is the first punch
and we don't even realize it we've simply glimpsed something Jesus invitation and all
we're doing is trying
to put words on this invitation and actually there's a bunch of people going hey wait
wait if I connect the dots
you're also at the same time in saying that's where we need to head that where we're
currently headed isn't where we
ought to be headed how many of you have had responses to your work and thought
where did that come from I was just talking about this beautiful compelling amazing
thing and found out that you
that you had actually taken the first punch and you swing you didn't realize it how do
you know this thing you were
implicitly critiquing the current system and some folks have a problem with that
I don't know anything about that but I've heard but that sort of thing happens to time
to time and then I love this Isaiah 52 what is a sermon awake awake Zion
clothed yourself with strength free yourself from the chains on your neck for this is
what the Lord says you were
sold for nothing and without money you will be redeemed how beautiful on the
mountains are the feet of those who
bring good news who proclaim peace who bring good tidings who proclaim salvation
who say to Zion your God
reigns now who is Isaiah talking to Babylonian
exiles where is God in this the Babylonians are winning look at the
scoreboard they crushed us that killed off our leaders and they hold a few of
us away into slavery in Babylon the Babylonians won ok Israel God 0
Babylonian God one and now we're miles from home in exile and our identity is
in question and the prophet says your God reigns but what shackles ok our God
reigns sometimes a sermon is a sub
version the story the version is
Israel's God has lost and the god of the Babylonians is one that's why we've been
hauled away to a foreign land in the slavery that's the version that's the story and Isaiah
comes along and he
presents a sub version it is a version that says there are other versions and
there are other stories sometimes what a sermon is is you are charging into a setting and
saying I know this is the
story that everybody's assuming is the story but there are other stories I know everybody
has said this is the story you
live by this is the narrative that you're supposed to line yourself up there's actually
there's another narrative and it's better and what you
are doing is presenting a sub version that's why it's so dangerous is a reason
why this particular version got a head of steam and you are saying nope and you are
calling it out there's a better
story there's a better story the sermon sometimes it's just pure
subversion and then and I love this I find this actually strangely encouraging
in Luke 4 and there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the Prophet
this is Jesus first sermon in
his hometown yet not one of them was cleansed only name in the Syrian so Jesus Bay
essentially wraps it up by
saying by the way in our own history there are a bunch of people around in Israel who
were sick but but actually
was a foreigner pagan Gentile who was healed which is a bit of a dangerous
thing to say in your hometown all the people in the synagogue were furious when they
heard this they got up drove
him out of the town and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built in
order to throw him off the cliff the response to Jesus first sermon
in his hometown as they wanted to kill him so I don't know how your first sermon went
but if you lived you know
I'll take it where I can get it Oh strangely encouraging I got out of there
what is going on in Jesus first sermon I mean it's brilliance got all these layers and depth
to it but next it's
it's just pure provocation don't think they didn't know exactly what he was
saying and they connect all of the dots immediately and it's not like you know what an
in small group later we're going
to kind of discuss this and get back to you and some of the ways we're going to apply it
to our lives now like kill the
preacher is pretty much how it ends then lunch
I mean this Jesus is using loaded language and he's not backing off and
he's not saying you know we just got to understand that Christians disagree and
there are multiple ways to interpret this passage and we all just need to get under the
Jesus tent and it's okay no no
he's going here's what's going down you're missing the point and you claim to be God's
people but something's
happening right under your nose and as has happened in your history you may actually
miss out I mean it is loaded it
is a warning it is a warning your actions are headed to a really dark
dangerous destructive place and I am here to warn you it is pure provocation and
warning and they want to kill him
sometimes the Sermon is loaded with implications it's loaded with warnings
it is there are times when what the sermon demands is that you provoke
that's what's going on here sometimes it's like witness sometimes it's a
subversion sometimes it's an invitation sometimes it's like it's like guerrilla
theater you got to do something to wake people up and sometimes it's just pure
provocation at the Peris debut of rites of spring there was a riot in the aisles
some say that people were throwing rotten vegetables at the conductor there are
multiple accounts of exactly what
happened that night but it ended with fistfights in the aisles and a riot broke out because
of the shocking
provocative controversial nature of this piece of music and now we listen to it
as a classic there is always the chance that what was foreign strange and
shocking may simply be a bit ahead of its time and when you bring the fresh
word when you stand up in the midst of your community after prayer study in
community you have discussed this and you bring a new word and you've got others
around
you who are resonating there is a chance that it won't be understood there is a
chance that you're speaking something that some can't see when you give a
sermon you open yourself up to misinterpretation and confusion anger and ignorance
and blogging and fear and
jealousy and opinions and evaluation and critique and agendas and baggage and
convictions and projections which is this is way more about them than you but at the
exact same moment you are also
opening yourself up to the possibility of truth and light and hope and
repentance and desire and compassion and longing and revolution and confession
and inspiration and comfort and solidarity and salvation and resurrection and when you
do this you
don't get to pick one or the other you
want the one then you got to be willing to take the other and so part of what
we're going to wrestle with it isn't just technique and rhetoric and knowing how to
memorize things and how arc and
narrative and all sorts of things that we're going to wrestle through it's also just coming
to the realization if I'm
going to give sermons and not just putting in my time but I'm going to give
sermons which is I'm going to give a part of myself I am opening myself to up
to all sorts of things and that's just how it is and you can't resolve this one
they tried to kill Jesus and eventually they did so that's strangely inspiring and also a
become a bit of a bucket of cold water at the same time yeah yeah so so part of
reclaiming the art of the sermon is being honest with ourselves notice acts
17 when they heard about the resurrection of the Dead some of them sneered but others
said we want to hear
you in on this subject when you give the sermon a mixed response may come your
way some may say seriously come on and others may say can I please hear
more that's just what comes with the
territory I'm sure many of you know exactly what I'm talking about but I'd like to talk
about gore and kraut I don't know if there's any gore and crop fans here corn crop is
Swedish in the early 90s göran
crop decided I'm going to climb Mount Everest without supplemental oxygen
everybody who climbs Mount Everest takes along oxygen tanks because you can't
breathe as you get higher and higher he's out I'm gonna do it without supplemental
oxygen but he said you know
what people have done that before I'm gonna ride my bike from Sweden to Mount
Everest climb Mount Everest and ride my bike home but then he thought I don't
know I think uh I could make it harder
everything I need to climb Mount Everest I'm gonna bring with me on my bike from
Sweden including food there's actually one point when he's on the mountain and
he is dying from malnutrition and someone offers him I think is a piece of cheese and he
has this ethical dialogue
with himself but what about he could accept a piece of cheese in order to train for it he
moved out to a gravel
pit like you do and and he would set his alarm for a
random time in the middle of the night and as soon as it would off he would get up and
walk 37 miles just to get his
body used to doing things like this at
one point in the journey specifically in Iran he talks about the
odd looks he would get and how people would throw rocks at him because he had to
ride his bike through Iran and
Pakistan to get to Mount Everest which I mean you all know that if you do things
that other people haven't done before you may get a few strange looks and that
kind of comes with the territory and part of reclaiming the art of the sermon
is acknowledging when you speak a fresh word and when you put yourself out there it's
a bit like riding your bike across
Iran just trying to figure I was going to connect those thoughts but they'll just take it
whatever it is and
oftentimes what we want is all that comes with speaking the fresh word and
there's a bunch of stuff that we're like but I don't want that and the problem is you may
get a few funny look some of
them sneered when they heard about the resurrection of the Dead and others were like
man please tell me more why am I so
passionate about this artform and why am
I so committed to doing what I can to helpfully maybe hope others reclaim this
artform I I think that there's a reason
why the Bible begins with a poem and it begins with this poem in which and God
said and then it's the speaking of all
the ways the poet could have chosen to try and describe the creation of the universe the
poet uses
this image of the divine speaking I
think it's because words create new worlds you had thought something for a
while you kind of knocked it around in your head you never really shared it with
anybody you kind of been wrestling
with it and then you heard somebody say it publicly and you learned that you
weren't alone you were thinking things and what was happening in your spirit in
your heart in your understanding of God Jesus resurrection Bible Church
transformation transcendence what it was happening is you are coming to a
realization that the story is even better and that Jesus is even bigger and
that God may be even more mysterious and you're realizing if I even whisper this
to somebody I'm gonna get fired and then you heard somebody say it publicly with
a microphone on and you realized that you're not alone and you may not be
crazy and if you are crazy you have company and what happened whole new
world got created or you've had this sense that there is a connection between this and
this you know and this and this
and this you know there's some relationship and then somebody said boom
boom boom boom boom and stuff you'd been
carrying around that was like a friend of mine calls it tying the clouds together things
that you had here and
hearing here all of a sudden you went that's it and whole new worlds were
created there is a divine redemptive nucular power in words I acknowledge in
the life of the church you've got acts of justice you've got counseling you've
got the real thing that runs the church children's ministry you've got
Desai Faline people you've got to helping the poor you you've got all and
I realized that the sermon is only one part of a larger thing we're talking
about the sermon this time but it's not because we think that somehow that's the only
thing going but the sermon has the
power to create whole new worlds somebody comes in and they sit in the back row and
they hear for the first
time that that maybe tomorrow doesn't have to be a repeat of today and it's
like the exact moment when they had to hear it and they did and everything
changed and you can't explain it and you can't plan it and sometimes it happens and
sometimes it doesn't but the the rabbinic Jewish tradition endlessly
you'll find endless discourse about the power of words and I understand that
actions understand that flesh and blood and incarnation we all were all we're all done
with that but but the truth is
if you're like me you have had moments when whole new worlds got created whoa
some they just painted a picture that changes everything and they did it in a
sermon so there's a sort of humility that comes with the sermon it's only
capable of so much it's it's bumbling stumbling people like I was trying to
kind of put words on something we've seen witnessed experience discovered explored
there is a should and must be a
deep-seated sense of humility and at the same time a firm conviction that this
this art form for one reason or another throughout history unbelievable things
have happened because somebody was willing to stand up on a crowd and say
I've got an idea hear me out and
unbelievable things happen now our time together will be a bit of a progression
I'll start theological I'm kind of talk about the foundations
in the undergone what exactly is the story that we're telling so I believe there are some
deep-seated sort of
things that affect everything else and we intuitively pick up on that's a
little bit different than that and but I think if you trace it down you can discover there
are some commonalities that drive everything and then we'll
move to kind of the conceptual I want to talk about narrative and arc and tension
and what you can learn from mind mapping storyboarding sketching Venn diagrams
all sorts of different things that maybe help get at how come some things have a certain
thing and some things don't I want to pull apart some some things and
hopefully that will help and then we'll just talk about some very practical I'll just work
through some very practical
things sometimes at these kinds of gatherings I discover there are people who are like
okay what's a commentary or
I don't even know how to begin to memorize something so we'll move towards some
very practical just share some
things that have helped me with no sort of like it just how to do it but just here are some
things that help me if that helps you wonderful and if it
doesn't well that's just what it is and then we'll end with just some personal
dimensions to the sermon and a couple things and one thing specifically that have really
really really helped me so
that's kind of a movement sometimes we get cooking at the theological conceptual on
there are people who are like okay okay I need nuts and bolts
okay I need like bit and and we will get there it'll just take a couple days my
hope is that these talks simply these are talks that start talks for many people their
understanding of the sermon
which was rooted in our standing of spiritual authority was that the person up front had
the last word the leader
was the one who could say this is how to think or this is how we think about this
and they ended the discussion and for many people in our our world or our
culture for many people that is they're under this person is going to kind of fix it solve it
lay it out there boom
done but I believe that what you find with Jesus it's less about the last word
and it's a bit more about having the first word it's a bit it's a bit less
about ending the discussion a bit more about starting the discussion my
understanding is that a great teaching a great sermon a great talk what it gets things
rolling now it's not just a vague
like here are 21 questions I'm kind of woo about now it's something was said and it was
defined and it was clear and
it was compelling but if it's true true period if it's true then it's going to
plunge you in to all sorts of mysteries and truths and revelations because if it
comes from God that's a pretty deep pool to be summoned in so my hope is that
these days together are in some ways a microcosm of what happens when people
are being taught and when sermons are really cooking this is talks that start talks and I
believe actually that if you can resolve a sermon by the end of the sermon
something is inherently flawed with the sermon because if the scripture is this
movement from Word to flesh it's not just hearing it it's hearing it and it
becoming flesh and blood it becomes incarnated so it isn't just a word it
becomes a way so there's this movement and so the word starts something that
then takes on flesh and blood so you're talking about generosity but it's not just talking
about generosity that the
hope and passion and dream and prayer is is that people become living flesh and
blood embodiment of generosity there's a stream we can swim in and hopefully you'll
hear some helpful things about I
think the stream I think it looks like this but you will take it and take it to your own
context and they'll be infinite
brilliant ways in which you'll figure out what it looks like in your particular word so are
my hope and our
hope and prayer is that these talks will simply start talks and then one one thought
perhaps you came exhausted
burned out your screen is blank I got nothing and
my hope and prayer is that this time together becomes a really holy sacred
time in which you recommit to being the kind of person who who it's not because
you have to say something it's because you have something to say my hope that for
some of you maybe as
you make a commitment these couple of days I will never give a sermon and just
kind of get through it I refuse to just give sermons I'm going to get up there
or grab the microphone and get in the group of students or whatever is and I will not do
that unless I am bringing my
absolute best maybe for you at some commitments along those lines maybe for you you
are in a life where you have all
sorts of things coming at you and you get these little tiny moments when you
get to work on your teaching and then even those little moments get interrupted it's like
you fight for the
space and so maybe for you at some resolutions about creating boundaries so you can
actually put the time in and one
of the things I'd like to explore is everyday sorts of disciplines that aren't forty hours a
week that are five
minutes here and ten minutes there that have helped me with the just sheer accumulation
of what's happening in your
head and heart through the scriptures in life so you even have things to talk about so we
will work through all of
that but our hope and prayer is that you have a renewed sense of I want to be the
kind of person who speaks and I've got something in my belly afire and if I try
and hold it in ohoo I cannot
you