All right, well, we are smack dab in the middle
of a very strange three -way intersection of
preaching series. This is one of those weird
Sundays. Last Sunday, we wrapped up our study
in the book of Esther. Next Sunday, Adam is going
to be back up here in the pulpit, continuing
his brilliant series in Ecclesiastes. And the
following week, which is February 15th, we will
dive into a brand new series in the New Testament,
Paul's first letter to the Corinthian church.
So the question is, where does that leave us
this morning? Well, this is one of those interesting
Sundays where we get to hit pause and take a
little bit of time to talk about who we are as
a church and what convictions we hold to. As
you can see by the title on the screen, that
is the subject of this morning's time in the
word, convictions. I recall many years ago when
I was a young Christian back in the late 1980s
and beginning to take seriously what it looks
like to be a member of a local church. I remember
becoming more and more interested about what
was happening behind the scenes at the church
that Tani and I were a part of. At that time,
I was in the corporate world, and I was learning
all kinds of skills about what business leadership
looked like, but what really interested me was
what was happening back in that back room. of
the church. What about leadership in the church?
How do these men who lead the church, how do
they lead? How do they make decisions? How do
they get along? I wanted to see the back room
of the church. But back then, in that particular
body, that was not possible. And sadly, I found
out later on that much of what was going on in
the back room was not super healthy, but a little
bit dysfunctional. But that lesson stuck with
me as a congregant. I wanted to know what was
going on. And this is one of the things that
makes Oak Hill, a little bit unique among churches,
something I think is very, very important for
transparency. Any covenant member at Oak Hill
can come and observe one of our elder meetings.
You can literally be in the back room of our
church because we want you to be able to see
how the sausage is made. Have you guys heard
that? You heard that phrase? We want you to be
able to see how it's made in the back room if
you want to see it. It's not a requirement, but
it's something that's available to members. We
think it's really healthy, very valuable to watch
how our elder team, how we pray together, how
we study the word together, how we interact as
both brothers and friends, how we're concerned
about one another and one another's families.
If you come, you get to see what kind of issues
we face as we lead this church, how we go about
making decisions. And we hope by making all this
visible that you, our members, will become more
confident in trusting us as your leaders. And
that's so important in this day and age. where
there's a lot of church hurt out there and a
lot of unscrupulous men leading churches, we
think growing in that confidence and trust is
very, very important. Now, if you do take advantage
of that opportunity and come observe one of our
meetings, you'll often hear something take place.
One of our guys, not always me, but one of our
seven elders, will put an idea on the table for
discussion. And it might be something very small
and very sort of procedural, or it might be an
idea for a major shift in the direction of our
church. And so we will come together as a team
and we will discuss it. And the hope is in our
discussion that we will come to a conviction
about that particular idea. And to do that, we'll
walk through a series of steps. First thing we'll
do is... take that idea, that suggestion, and
hold it up to scripture and say, what does the
Bible say about this particular issue? Then we
will bring our various experiences in ministry
and leadership to the table and apply those.
Then we'll just talk about practical wisdom,
talking about, well, okay, if we do this, what
will that lead us as a body? Will it benefit
the sheep? And what's the process we would need
to get there? And here's the great news. About
95 % of the time, we come to a pretty quick conclusion
in absolute unity. And we will come to a conviction
together. The other 5%, that's for another sermon.
Yes, we do sometimes disagree, but it's rare.
We have a unity of mind on our elder team. So
we'll come to a conviction. Either yes, we're
going to move forward with this, or nope, let's
not. At least not at this particular time. By
the way, it's important for you all to know that
when those ideas come from leadership or you
hear about a change in direction, please know
that it's never just my idea. I know we have
this idea, this concept in our minds about church
and the so -called senior pastor, which is not
in the Bible, but the senior pastor who makes
all the decisions, that is not what we're about
at Oak Hill. It's always a collective decision
that comes from the entire team. A team, by the
way, you should just to help you grow in confidence,
has multiple theological seminary degrees. and
has decades, I don't know how many years, decades
and decades of experience in church leadership
and biblical teaching. So having a plurality
of voices at the table and never giving too much
decision -making power to one man, that is both
biblical and it is protective. That is often
how abuse happens in churches. You get one guy
who's so dominant in his personality that he
takes over and everybody else just sort of kowtows
to him and they rubber stamp everything he does.
And he just, he eventually gets to the place
where he can't be questioned and he can't be
challenged by anybody. So as long as I'm here
at Oak Hill, that is not going to happen because
I don't want it. I don't want it. The guys don't
want me to have it and you shouldn't put up with
it. Amen? Adam's laughing over here. He knows,
he knows. But having an elder team that develops
convictions together and then stands on those
convictions. is incredibly important to a healthy
church. Developing convictions and then standing
on them, especially in this day and age where
you all know this, there are so many opinions
and so many preferences out there and so many
sort of church fads and trendy movements that
are constantly flying around. Holding to solid
convictions keeps a church stable. It keeps the
church from being tossed to and fro by every
new thing that comes down the pike, every new
book that's written, every new ministry idea.
We stay stable. A church that is constantly chasing
trends and making dramatic shifts tends to give
members what we call ministry whiplash, where
everything is changing all the time and it creates
anxiety among the flock. It creates insecurity
in the body. So we want to avoid those things.
Now, when it comes to arriving at convictions,
obviously, Scripture is our most important guide.
If the Bible instructs us, that is our conviction.
If the Bible forbids it, that is our conviction.
But, of course, not every idea, not every suggestion,
every issue, not every situation that we face
as an elder team is explicitly found in the Bible.
So here's what that means. As a team, we have
to approach these things using broader biblical
principles that we see in Scripture. We have
to take into consideration both our freedom in
Christ, in those gray areas, but also the guardrails
that would take us too far outside of that freedom
to keep us from error. And in all things, to
make sure that any decision we make or any direction
we take ultimately gives glory to God and edifies
you, the body. These are the things that we think
about a lot. Now, here's something to remember.
Not all churches and not all elder teams will
look at an issue and come to the same conclusion
or come to the same conviction. You may hear
about another church that sees things differently.
Even though we would agree on much of our theology,
they see things differently. You might wonder,
well, why is that? What's going on there? Why
does Church X or Church Y do that thing, but
we don't do it? Or why does Church X have so
many nice things that we don't have? And by the
way, that's humanly very understandable. We all
do that. We play the comparison game, right?
We're like, wow, that looks really fun. What's
wrong with us? Right? It happens. Differences
are going to happen in the kingdom of God. And
when they do, when they're over non -essential
issues, right? Because there are essential issues
we must agree on. When they're over non -essential
issues. That's okay. We can have a difference
in those things. And in those cases, we want
to extend grace to each other and show charity.
In those cases, we just say, look, this is our
conviction. We're not saying it's right or wrong.
This is what we've come to, and this is our conviction.
Does that make sense? Good, so this morning we're
gonna hit a bit of a pause and reset here in
the new year to talk about some of the convictions,
the foundational convictions that we have as
a church. And my hope is for those of you who
are newer, this might give you a little bit of
insight into what we're about. And for those
of you who are OGs, you're veterans of Oak Hill,
hopefully this is a good refresher and reminder
for you. Now, there's a long list of convictions
that we have. I mean, I could be here for the
next three days. talking about things that we're
really convicted about. I only want to talk about
two today, just two convictions. That's really
all the time we have for in a one -off sermon
like this. But know that these are two things
that are very important to us. They are foundational
to us. And interestingly, they are two things
that I do get asked about from time to time.
Sometimes by new folks who are just asking good
questions. Sometimes by long -term members who
are, again, like I said, just wondering, wait,
why do we do that? I've gotten used to it. I
know it's what we do, but why do we do it? And
there are times when the motivation behind the
question, it just comes from that comparison
issue, which we understand. We hear about Church
X doing things this way or Church Y doing that,
and the question comes, what about us? Why do
we believe that? And why do we function as we
do? Here's the first of the two convictions that
we want to talk about this morning. And I don't
know if this is going to surprise you or not,
but here's the first one. And it is our preaching.
I'm preaching about preaching, which is always
a challenge. And obviously, this is very personal
to me because it seems to be what God has called
me to do with my life. And I have spent decades
and decades studying this topic, both looking
at it biblically. reading I don't know how many
books about it looking at church history trying
to understand what it is God wants when it comes
to preaching and let me just share something
with you even if you will never in your entire
life ever get up and teach a bible lesson or
preach a sermon you should know something about
preaching you should understand the basics about
preaching And the reason for that is this, wherever
you go in this world, because not all of us are
going to be at Oak Hill until the day that the
Lord calls us home, right? Wherever you go, you
should be able to walk into a church and know
whether or not you're being fed God's word in
a proper way. To be able to discern that is a
very important thing for every one of us to understand.
So here we are today, we're getting close to
embarking on what will likely be, Lord willing,
a multi -year preaching series. I mean, the guys
are doing like a little game now. Is it going
to be two years, three years, four years? I just
don't know. The Lord knows, but I don't know
yet. But it raises questions. Why do we preach
through entire books of the Bible? Why do we
do that? We just finished reading every single
word in the book of Esther, right? Every single
word. Adam is very slowly working through every
single verse in the book of Ecclesiastes. None
will be left out. I did the math last night.
Lord willing, over the next few years, we're
going to study all 437 verses in 1 Corinthians.
That's more than 9 ,300 words that we'll read
together in the English. Why do we do that? Why
don't we just do what so many other churches
do, just move quicker, go from series to series,
shorter, sort of lightning series, touch on just
the most entertaining topics in the Bible. Why
don't we do that? I'm going to tell you why.
But first of all, we're actually going to open
our Bibles. So grab them. I want you to turn
to John chapter 17. John 17. Now there's many
places we could turn to in scripture. By the
way, both Old Testament and New Testament that
speak to the transforming power. Hear me now.
The transforming power of studying every word
that proceeds from the mouth of God. And that
is a foundational idea. that every word that
comes from the mouth of God is for our good and
for our edification and for our growth. But John
17 is one of my favorite passages. We're only
going to look at four verses here, beginning
in verse 14. Remember, John 17 is this beautiful,
famous chapter that we often refer to as Jesus'
high priestly prayer. This is towards the end
of the gospel story. Jesus is about to be arrested
and put on trial. And so in front of his disciples,
for the very last time, he prays. And he prays
to the Father with great passion. And in his
prayer, we see all kinds of amazing insights
into his relationship with God the Father and
his identity as the Son of God. All kinds of
great things. So as we read this, you have to
remember, this is mind -blowing. This is inter
-Trinitarian communication between God the Son
and God the Father. And we get to eavesdrop.
into that conversation. Don't take that lightly.
That's an amazing thing. So in verse 14, Jesus
says to the father, I have given them, my disciples,
I've given them your word. And this is an important
thing to acknowledge. Three times in the gospel
of John before this, in chapter 8, 12, and 14,
Jesus said something to the effect of, I do not
speak on my own initiative, but I speak for my
father who sent me. I speak what he tells me
to speak. And so as we come here to this particular
part of John 17, Jesus has clearly done this.
Father, I have given them your word. This is
God the Son fulfilling his unique role within
the Trinity, right? He is the one God the Father
decrees and the Son carries those out. And part
of carrying out the decree here is to speak what
the Father tells him to speak. I have given them
your word, he says. And what is the result? Verse
14 continues. and the world has hated them. Anybody
feel that? I've given them your word, but the
world has hated them because they're not of the
world, even as I am not of the world. So just
as Jesus belongs to the Father and has no part
in the wicked systems of this world, you and
I who are united to him, we also belong to the
Father. Our citizenship is in heaven, and therefore
we no longer belong to this. system down here
on the earth. That's what he's saying here. And
yet in verse 15, Jesus says, I do not ask you,
Father, to take them out of the world, but to
do this, to keep them from the evil one. Again,
they are not of the world, even as I am not of
the world. So Jesus prays for our protection
in the midst of this wicked world system that
we have to live within. And then we come to the
primary verse I really want you to see this morning.
Verse 17. Jesus prays, sanctify them in the truth.
Your word is truth. Now, those are some of the
most important words in the entire New Testament.
Because of who he is, the words that come from
God are the very definition of truth. You have
to know that, the very definition. And that Bible
that's now sitting in your hands, those words,
that is the only infallible source of truth in
the entire universe. Everything else is fallible.
Everything else is human. Everything else has
bias. What you're holding in your lap is the
only infallible source of truth in all of creation.
Do you understand the privilege of this? This
is huge. It's by this infallible word, Jesus
says, that God sanctifies us. He says, sanctify
them in the truth. That verb in the Greek, hagiadzo,
in a practical sense, it refers to setting something
apart from sin and marking it out as holy. This
is how God changes us, transforms us. He marks
us out. separates us from sin, marks us out as
something holy. So in essence, Jesus is praying,
Father, set aside these, my sheep, set them apart
from the wickedness of this world, refine them,
purify them, make them more and more holy in
their days upon the earth. And here's the key,
do it by your word. That's what I want. More
than anything else, Jesus is saying, sanctify
them by your word because your word is what?
It's truth. Now here's the point for today's
sermon. If that statement is true, and we say
it is, if God sanctifies us by his word, then
that truth should be at the very core of how
we approach preaching. Right? If that is true,
if that's how we're sanctified, that should direct
how we preach in Christ's church. Now, let's
look at another passage. Go back to the Psalms.
We're gonna go back to our call to worship passage
from earlier this morning, back to Psalm 119.
Remember, this particular psalm is famous for
its exaltation of God's word. It dedicates 176
verses, 176 verses to the glory of God's precepts
and statutes. Lest you thought this was just
a New Testament thing, right? Psalm 119, verse
105, this very famous verse, your word is a lamp
to my feet and a light to my path. How many of
you guys have been through an earthquake? When
the lights go out and it's pitch black, you love
seeing that little bit of light. It's a game
changer. Trust me, been through many of them.
It's a lamp to your feet and a light to your
path. The infallible word lights up the path
of truth. It lights up the path of wisdom for
believers so that God's ways can clearly be seen.
Yet even as we have this path shown to us, we
also know this truth, we all stray from it at
times because why? We wrestle with the flesh
in our days upon the earth. So in verse 107,
if you look at that, it tells us what to do.
It says, I'm exceedingly afflicted. Anybody feel
that way in life? I'm just afflicted. There's
a lot going on. I feel pressure. So what do we
do? We cry out. Look what we cry out. Revive
me, O Lord. According to what? According to your
word. Catch this now. It's not our effort or
our determination that brings revival. It's going
back to the truth of God's word. When we're afflicted,
we go back to what he has said clearly. And we
trust in his promises. This is how we do it,
right? I think about church history. Back in
the days of the Reformation, it was said that
as the Bible was opened in that generation, Reformation
was released. Before the Bible was opened, it
was dark. The light wasn't being seen. Open the
Bible, preach the word, and Reformation. Luther
says, I didn't have to do anything. The word
did it all. I just opened the Bible and let God
speak. Same thing here. That's how revival comes.
But we know this to be true as well. The world
and its systems, they're not going to give up
fighting against us, right? They're not going
to be friendly to us. They want to inflict spiritual
harm. So verse 110 says this, the wicked have
laid a snare for me, yet I've not gone astray
from your precepts. So God's word becomes part
of our spiritual armor. As we're going through
life and man, we all see the snares, right? The
traps that are laid for us, the world just begging
us to come their way. But when we stay rooted
in God's word, we don't go astray. And for how
long do we get to rejoice in God's word? Verse
111, I have inherited your testimonies. How long?
Forever. God's word will go on forever. Because
why? They're the joy of my heart. Ask yourself
that question. Is God's word the joy of your
heart? Forever and ever, we will celebrate every
word that proceeds from the mouth of the Almighty.
But for the here and now, while we're still on
the earth, we have an obligation. Look at verse
112. What's the obligation? I have inclined my
heart to perform your statutes forever, even
to the end. This is an intentional posture that
we take to incline our hearts toward God, toward
the truth of his word, right up until the day
that we pass into eternity. Here's the point
of all this. With all of that laid out, both
Old Testament and New Testament, we would do
well, friends, not to let a single moment go
by, let alone a Sunday, without diving into God's
word to glorify him and to be sanctified by it.
Why would we waste a Sunday doing anything but
that? This is what honors him. This is what sanctifies
us. So we ought to take the preaching of God's
word seriously every single time that we gather.
And if you want a high and lofty idea of this,
John Calvin, the great reformer, believed that
in any true church where the gospel is rightly
preached and the sacraments are rightly administered,
he said that the pulpit of that church represents
God's throne for revealing divine truth. And
that true preaching, when it comes from the word,
should be considered by the congregation the
very voice of God speaking through the lips of
his servant. That's a big vision, isn't it? That's
a heavy burden. And I feel it every single time
I stand behind this pulpit. And so does every
other guy in this church, every elder who gets
up here. We take it very seriously because we
know every time we open the word, lives and souls
are at stake. And it's not to be taken casually.
So with that in mind, let me share with you a
few important principles related to our conviction
about preaching. For the immediate goal of the
preacher on Sunday mornings, the immediate goal,
it's very simple. It's twofold. Explain the text
and apply the text. That's what you should be
listening for. Explain the text, apply the text.
In other words, here's what God has said, right?
Here's how that impacts your walk with him. And
here's how you need to respond. Make sense? Those
are the important things. Now, there's many ways
to do that in preaching. In fact, preaching is
going to look and sound very different at different
types of churches because God uses his servants
with their unique personalities and their unique
bents and their unique voices and all those things.
So it's going to look and sound a little bit
different, but something should always be present
in biblical preaching. Let me give you a list.
Proclaiming. There should always be a proclaiming
aspect of preaching, proclaiming truth. Instructing.
We're always instructing the congregation in
some way. Persuading. Persuading. In other words,
you see it on the page, but let me persuade you
that it's actually true and you should do it.
Persuading. Correcting. Maybe you came here with
a wrong view, and so let's look at the word and
let it correct us. Exhorting. Right? This is
that, hey. Let's go. Get up. Let's go. Let's
do this. We know it's right. Let's do it. We
exhort. What else? Rebuking. Yeah, sometimes
it requires rebukes, right? Because we're stubborn
and we're holding on to things we shouldn't.
So there's a rebuking aspect to it. Then there's
the encouraging aspect. And this is where the
grace overflows, right? So you're like, okay,
I'm forgiven. The cross matters, right? So I
can encourage you as well. And then there's the
inviting. hey, come with me, let's do this. And
maybe it's come to know Christ, maybe it's come
to grow in Christ, but we're inviting one another
in to do it together. But the ultimate goal as
we explain and apply scripture is, of course,
glory to God and second, to build up the believers
in the faith. This is what Paul famously said
in 2 Timothy 3. You all know this verse. He says,
all scripture is inspired by God, God -breathed
and profitable. That's a great word. All scripture
will profit you in these ways, for teaching,
for reproof, for correction, for training in
righteousness, and here's the ultimate purpose,
so that the man of God or the woman of God may
be adequate or complete, equipped for every good
work. 2 Timothy 3 .16 is a great verse to memorize.
That's what every man who comes up to preach
here at Oak Hill wants. to see every one of you
grow towards that sense of completeness in the
Lord, to be built up in your faith and equipped
for whatever kingdom work God calls you to. But
it comes through the preaching of the word and
the teaching of the word. So let me just pause
there. And before we go any further into what
good preaching is, can I mention a few failures
in preaching? I'm kind of an expert at this too.
Been there, done this. but some things that are
red flags, some things that as you're traveling
throughout the world, you hear or see things.
These are some ways that we can not do it in
a biblical way. I'm going to give you, I think
I got four of them. Here's the first one. I'm
going to call this, oh, I want to tell you what's
on my heart sermon. Okay, this is where the preacher
routinely gets up on Sunday mornings and shares
things that he really wants to tell you. He really
wants to tell you what he wants to talk about,
but it's not always grounded in scripture. And
even when he does appeal to the Bible, oftentimes
it's grab a verse here, grab a verse there, rip
it out of the context in order to make his point.
And ultimately what that means is the big idea
of a sermon often comes from his mind, not the
mind of God. It might not be evil, might not
be bad, but it's his mind more than it is the
Lord's. And in many cases, you'll find this happening
at churches. And this is, I'm gonna give you
one of my hobby horses this morning. It happens
at churches that don't have pulpits. Have you
noticed this? There is an actual history in the
theology behind pulpits. They do actually matter.
What happens in these situations is oftentimes
a guy that has the skinniest little stand possible.
Have you seen this? It's off to the side. And
all he does is walk back and forth and make it
look more like a TED Talk than preaching a biblical
sermon. Okay, off my hobby horse. We call this
the, I want to tell you what's on my heart sermon.
The second one, which is already up there, I
went to seminary and I'm determined to make sure
that you know that sermon. This is a danger for
me. Just being honest, right? You know when I
get nerdy about history? Yeah. I have to be careful
about this. This is where the preacher routinely
tries to prove how educated he is and oftentimes
flies right over the heads of the audience with
unnecessary details. Now, there is a wisdom to
what we call putting the cookies up on a high
shelf. If you don't know this, backroom stuff.
There's a whole discussion in preaching about
where the cookies go on the shelf. Okay. In other
words, do I put the cookies on the bottom shelf
so everybody can understand it? Do I lift it
up a little bit to make people sort of stretch
to understand? Do I put it at the very top so
nobody can reach it? It's an actual discussion.
So we've got to be careful that we don't just
put it so high with unnecessary details that
all you're really doing is proving as a preacher,
I'm pretty smart. That's not helpful. So in that
case, folks walk out intellectually challenged.
But they also walk out practically going, I don't
know what to do now. And that's not good. Make
sense? Okay, third one. This is the opposite
of that one. I call it the, I'm in such a hurry
to apply this text that I don't have time to
show you where it comes from sermon. This is
where the preacher jumps right to life application
so quickly and spends so much time on it that
you're scratching your head going, wait, is this
actually from the Bible? Because I'm not sure,
you haven't really showed me that yet. You haven't
proven to me that this is actually a biblical
principle. And that's not helpful either. And
then the last one I'll mention is just the I
have to phone this one in sermon. And this often
happens when the preacher has either had a terrible
week or he's going through something personal
or there's family, whatever it is, he didn't
have the time necessary to really put something
together. Or, yes, it's true, sometimes preachers
get lazy. And they don't commit the time on their
calendar to put in the work that's required for
such a serious undertaking. And it's serious.
And so what happens in this case is the sermon
comes out without any coherent structure to it.
You all feel like it's all over the place. There's
no clear transitions. The ideas don't really
seem to connect. And at the end, you're not really
sure where he was going in the first place or
what the whole point of the message was. because
it's so sort of jumbled up. So these are some
of the things you've got to watch for. These
are some of the things that you should be aware
of, the common failures. And look, I did some
calculations last night, and I may be crazy,
and Tanya can correct me. I think I've preached
somewhere between 800 and 900 sermons over the
years here at Oak Hill. And I know I've laid
some eggs on some of those sermons. I know, right?
And the other team lets me know, hey, that was...
You may have missed it. Look, we all do this.
This happens to every single preacher. And when
that happens, I appreciate your grace. And I
want you to know that even at my age, I am striving
to learn and grow and to get better at this calling
that he has on my life. I want to get better
and better at preaching every single year until
the day comes he either calls me home or pushes
me into retirement. because we should be lifelong
learners and always growing, always putting in
the work, right? Cooperating with the Spirit
of God to bless the body more and more. So, all
right, all that to say, we're coming now back
to the original question. Why do we preach to
entire books of the Bible? Why? Well, here at
Oak Hill, whether it's me or it's Adam or Jeff
Steele or any other elder, we practice something
called expository preaching. I know some of you
heard that term before, and you may think you
know what it means, but it's good to talk about
it. I put a subtitle on the screen there. Letting
the scripture itself set the agenda and drive
or shape the message. Right? Letting the scripture
itself set the agenda and drive or shape the
message. Every Sunday, what I try to do, and
this is my constant prayer before I walk up here,
is to get out of the way. so that you don't remember
me in any way. I've likened it to, if you know
anything about sports, the referees, they're
supposed to disappear. They call the game, but
if you remember the refs at the end of the game,
they've done a terrible job. You want to remember
the players, what they did. It's the same thing
with me. I want to disappear. I want to deliver
God's word, and you remember what God said, not
what Jeff said, or what Jeff wore that day, or
whatever, right? I'm not what really matters.
It's not about me. So you don't want, it doesn't
matter if I'm funny. It doesn't matter if I hold
your attention. None of that matters. It's always
about letting God speak through his word. And
the best way to do that, this is our conviction,
okay? Other churches may do it differently. This
is our conviction, is that we should preach through
entire books of the Bible from beginning to end.
After all, that's the way they were written.
And that's the way they were designed to be read.
Imagine yourself for a second. Picture this scenario.
You're a believer in a first century church.
And the big news comes, the apostle Paul has
written a letter. It's been copied and circulated
and it's now arrived in your hands. And you're
the preacher. And you get up on Sunday and you
say, Paul's written a letter. And then you open
the scroll and you go to the middle and you read
like three verses. And then you close it up and
you go, But let me grab the scroll from Peter
or John, and I'm going to read a couple of verses
there to make my point. Do you know what that
congregation would do? They would question your
sanity. They would say, just read Paul's letter.
I want to read all of it from beginning to end
because Paul has a whole big idea and a flow
of thought and an argument, and we want to hear
all of it. Don't just jump around. Does that
make sense? So expository preaching works its
way through the entire book of a Bible, explaining
and applying. By the way, sometimes moving quickly
and sometimes slowing down, depending on the
context and the complexity of the passage. But
ultimately, we want to teach you every word of
every book. Here's the advantages to doing it
this way. This is hopefully some things that
will convict your heart as well as it's convicted
ours. Number one, here's the advantage of this.
It's the best way to make sure that the preacher
doesn't stray from the text and just start doing
his own thing. Right? Hey, we're going to cover
these six verses today and then next week we're
doing the next six. So it keeps that preacher
on track. He's not out there doing his own thing.
Number two, it authorizes the sermon. Meaning
that... As the message comes out, you know it's
from God and not from the guy. And that naturally
happens. When you work your way through consecutive
passages, one after the other, it can't help
but be God's message, not your own. It authorizes
the sermon. Number three, it teaches the congregation
how to think through a whole book. And part of
our job as pastors and elders is to help you
to read, study, understand, interpret scripture
for yourself. This helps you. You follow along
passage to passage. You start to understand as
we lay those on top of each other, the flow of
the argument. What is it the author is trying
to say? It helps you. as we're doing it. Number
four, it introduces the congregation to the whole
counsel of God. We are told that we should know
the whole counsel of God, both Old Testament
and New Testament, not just selected scriptures,
not just things that the preacher wants to read,
but the whole counsel of God. And number five,
this is my least favorite, it forces the preacher
to have to deal with really hard subjects. I
don't get to go around things. Which so many
preachers do. Be warned. They will work around
things. When I look ahead to 1 Corinthians, it's
daunting. I'm going to have to deal with a whole
chapter on church discipline. And a chapter on
male headship and head coverings for women. Pray
for me. And I'm going to have to talk about divorce.
And I'm going to have to talk about food sacrifice
to idols. and a huge section on the gifts, the
gift of tongues and prophecy and more. Really
hard things. It's going to take extra work on
my part, but I'm excited to jump into it. Let's
go. But I could choose the opposite path. I could
say, well, we're going to teach you 1 Corinthians
topically, and then I could manipulate the series
by avoiding all those really hard passages and
touch on the subjects that are going to please
the crowd and make everybody feel like you're
okay. But that's not our goal. is it? And that
brings me to the opposite of expository preaching,
something we call topical preaching. Now, there
is room for topical preaching in the life of
a church. There is. In fact, sometimes it's really
helpful in a particular season for an elder team
to say, hey, we're going to hit pause and for
six weeks we're going to cover this important
subject. We've done that, for example, on communion.
We've done that on membership. We've done that
many times. By the way, this is a topical sermon
that you're hearing today. So there are times
for it, right? But here's the thing. A church
should not have a steady diet of topical preaching.
Not a steady diet. Because when it does, it means
the preacher is setting the agenda. Not God.
The preacher is determining what subjects you
should hear about and which ones you shouldn't
hear about. And where you find churches that
don't want to preach on hard things for fear
of offending or for fear that people might leave,
in those places you will always find a steady
diet of topical preaching. And in those places
you'll find entire chapters, entire verses, entire
books that will never be touched because of fear.
They'll never be heard. And that is by design.
So instead of me telling you what you need to
hear, I want to let Scripture show you. what
you need to hear. Make sense? Okay, did I beat
that horse to death? Okay, good. Yes or no? Does
everybody understand? Adam at okillbible .com
with any questions. Adam is so busy, I don't
know why. Okay, second conviction I want to talk
about. This will be much shorter, so don't panic.
But let me talk about the second thing that we
really want to talk about. And this is what I
call normative ministry in the church. At Oak
Hill, we're convinced that normative ministry
looks like this, steady, faithful, and ordinary.
Now, that may not sound controversial, but let
me expound on it. We live in an age where the
goal of most churches, whether it's talked about
openly or not, the goal is growth in numbers,
always. And I know this to be true because I
know too many pastors. And I've gone to too many
pastors' conferences. And you know what the first
question guys ask each other when they go to
conferences? How big is your church? 100 % of
the, am I right? All the time. It's the number
one question. How big is your church? I know
too many guys in church leadership. This is their
obsession. And there's a reason for it. It's
sort of built into us as human nature. You know,
this equals success. Big church, successful.
Small church, not successful. And it can become
their identity. It's how they measure their worth
before God. And when a church leader is driven
by that kind of goal, they're always in the grip
of a few great temptations. Number one is the
temptation to compromise in the area of strategies
for the sake of just growing the church, for
putting people in seats. Compromise whatever
it takes. Abandon biblical principles so that
we can pump up the numbers and project, quote,
worldly success. And then say, look what God
has done. But it's a compromise. And so the guide
in those types of churches in the back room is
not really what scripture says. It's what works
best. It's just practical. What works best to
put people in seats. This is more common than
you might think. So wherever you go in this world,
make sure you have your eyes open and look for
those red flags. The other great temptation of
these kinds of churches, it's more subtle. It's
the idea that lots and lots of activity equals
godliness. Especially lots and lots of really
big events, big exciting events. That equals
success in ministry. We fill up the calendar
with all kinds of programs and we seek after
mountaintop experiences for our people that keep
them excited so that they'll come back for more.
And it's a constant spinning of the plates to
make sure everybody's getting their dopamine
hits in the church. Can I say that? Just keeping
them excited. Hey, what's the next thing? In
fact, if you pay close attention to most church
announcements on social media. and I follow all
the churches so I get to watch them, or even
on Sunday mornings, you will hear the word excited
so many times it'll make your head spin. We're
so excited. Everything is so exciting. We're
just excited. Ah. It's the mantra of church marketing.
And you'll find many churches filling up their
social media with this constant drumbeat of big,
exciting news. And then it's conferences and
guest speakers and retreats and concerts and
celebrity appearances, all supported by big lights
and big sound by the big worship team. And it's
all too common. Now, I don't want you to get
the wrong impression. All the things I just mentioned,
they can be good and healthy and actually edifying
to the body. They can be a healthy part of the
life of a congregation if the goal and the motivation
is biblical and correct. And that's a big if.
Now, we plan events at Oak Hill, right? Right?
We just last week, we had tacos. Was it exciting?
I mean, I was pretty excited. They were delicious.
Thank you, Ken. So, you know, we celebrated our
anniversary. That was fantastic, right? We do
church at the beach, which is exciting. I mean,
almost, in ministry, almost you can't stop yourself
from saying it. We do a chili cook -off. We do,
you know, scramble events. You know, and we do
have retreats, right? Men's retreats. Look, they're
good things, but here's where it can go wrong.
Is that what we're really building the church
on? The next big thing. This is the conviction
that we have. One mountaintop experience after
another is not good. Just constant this, constant
this, right? The dopamine hits. Kick the market
plan into gear. Get the people really excited
about the next big thing. Flood the calendar
with a million options. And here's the fallacy
of it, that that will automatically produce spiritual
maturity. All the activity will just, it'll magically
make people grow. If people are just participating,
if they're just involved in everything. But we
found that that's not true. One of the great
truisms that I... that I learned in ministry
many years ago comes from Mark Dever, and I'll
put the quote on the screen because this is so
valuable for anybody that ever goes into ministry,
right? What you win people with is what you win
people to. So if you attract people to your church
with big events, what do you have to keep feeding
them to keep them happy? More big events. In
fact, you've got to get bigger and bigger, right?
It's like a drug. More events, more things. Otherwise,
what? They might go, Oh gosh, we're a little
slow on big events, but oh, that church down
the street, big event coming up, right? Or if
you bring them in with tons of programs and you
got to keep launching new programs for every
little need in the body. You know, we've got
a group for every, for left -handed women in
college or, you know, we got to have a specific
group for everything, right? Because at some
point somebody may go, oh, you know what? There's
not a group that meets my, oh, that church has
that group. And they're out the door. What you
win them with is what you win them to. Do we
have any left -handed college women? Okay, yeah,
yeah. But you get my point, right? What you win
them with is what you win them to. So as an elder
team, this is what we believe the antidote to
that kind of mindset is. Just steady, faithful,
ordinary ministry. Day after day, week after
week, month after month, year after year, it
is the regular grind of walking with one another
through life and ministering to each other. Now,
I know that doesn't sound exciting, but it's
beautiful. It's actually what the Bible describes.
So again, if the word is truth, look, again,
retreats and all those things can be okay, but
they're not found in the Bible. What is found
in the Bible are things like Regular fellowship
and consistent prayer and ongoing discipleship
and outreach and evangelism in our community
and seeking unity as a body and mutual encouragement
and serving one another and gathering on Sundays
and engaging in the preaching of the word, opening
ourselves up to accountability and confession,
bearing one another's burdens, loving each other
well. That is steady, faithful, ordinary ministry.
It's found in the word, rooted in the truth.
And we believe that is normative Christianity.
Those are the things we want to win people with.
Because if you'll buy into that, if you'll say,
that's what I want, man, we got opportunities
for you to do that all day long. And it's good
and it's biblical. That's what will win you too.
And you can be a part of this amazing community
of believers. And yes, by the way, we're going
to sprinkle in fun events. That's okay. That's
actually really good, right? Think of our church
events that we have like a delicious piece of
cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory. It's
like, I mean, you take me to Cheesecake Factory.
Have I said that out loud yet? Oh, man, double
fudge ripple, whatever. But you can't have that
as your steady diet. But when you get it, it
is amazing. It's the bomb, man. It's just so
good. And that's how church events should be.
Those should be really rich, precious times,
but it can't be the steady diet. Does that make
sense? In church life, things can be occasional
and awesome, and they can be received with thanksgiving
and enjoyed to the fullest. God gives us all
things to enjoy, but it's the living out of the
ordinary essentials of the faith. that should
get us the most excited. So let me close with
this. Let me come back to this. What are you
supposed to do with this that I've just laid
out today? Let me give you a couple things. First,
I really want you to consider what I've shared
this morning. And I want each of you, not just
to believe me, but go ahead and hold what I've
said up to scripture and to practical wisdom.
Test it. That's a good exercise for all of us.
Second, Ask any questions you might have. If
what I've said this morning raises a question,
will you reach out to me? There is never a bad
question in church ministry. Reach out to me
or to another elder. Say, I need some more clarity
on this. I want to make sure that I understand
this well. Third, be encouraged that your leaders
actually think about these things. That our elder
team takes them seriously. That we spend the
time and the energy to develop convictions about
them because they matter to you. They matter
to all of us together. Be encouraged that our
goal is always to bring glory to God and to see
you grow spiritually, never to compromise what
we know to be true, never to chase after trends
or try to market ourselves into worldly success
or church growth for the sake of numbers. And
finally, number four, don't just rely on our
convictions, develop your own. It's good that
if you follow our example, right? Follow me as
I follow Christ. but develop your own convictions.
Paul told the Roman church that's exactly what
they should be doing. He said, look, in non -essential
matters, each man should be fully convinced in
his own mind. You should develop convictions.
Explore these ideas by the way of the word and
in prayer and consultation with your leaders
and let's do this together. Let's get to work
building the kingdom of God with steady, faithful,
ordinary ministry that powers this local church.
Amen? Thanks for hearing me out. Let's pray.
Father, these issues of ministry philosophy,
of church life can be so confusing, God, because
of all the activity that's happening down here
on the earth and well -meaning folks and folks
that may not be well -meaning, but but so many
different variations and varieties of church
to look at and to try to understand. And it can
all be overwhelming, Lord. So many books being
written. And Father, I just, I pray today that
more than anything else, we would just come back
to your word and we would focus our hearts and
minds there on biblical principles. What does
it look like to be a part of the greater body
of Christ, but also a local body of Christ? And
because of that, Lord, how does that impact us?
And what should we do next? Father, I pray that
you will continue to guide and lead our elder
team as we seek unity in these important convictions,
that we would take them seriously and that we
would lead this flock of sheep with care and
just being careful, Lord, to love them well and
to not give them whiplash, but to walk with them
patiently and kindly as we... as we take this
journey through life together. And that's what
it is, Lord. We want to love each other well.
So help us to do that. And Father, now as we
sing praises to you once again, may we sing with
all honesty. May it come from the depths of our
heart as we praise you for your goodness in our
lives. Help us to do that well, we pray in Christ's
name.