PREACHING - Driving home the point!

Recent "Warnie Award Winner" Mike Porter, at Unveiled Face, is enjoying the preaching banter around the Godblogdom cooler, so am I (and so are Blogotional, Adrian Warnock, Tranforming Sermons, and Jolly Blogger)!

Mike poses the following ...

Now quite clearly the points of application in our sermons (or even the sermon topics we're willing to broach) can be affected by the preacher's own life. But I think that it's also affected by culture; as certain behaviour becomes more culturally accepted, it may be harder for a preacher to cross certain boundaries in sermon application.

So my question is: how does this affect you, and in what way? That is, are your points of application constrained more by culture or your own example?

Great question, one that really hasn't been resolved in two millennia. Of course our life experiences, our world-view, and our training affect the way we prepare and present; our people want us to be real (see Blogotional's fine post on the importance of this).

The primary coin Mike offers has two sides ... "are your points of application constrained more by culture or your own example." Since I believe we should preach the Word, and nothing else, I'd have to say we shouldn't be "constrained" by either.

I think the main constraints must be the exegesis of the text and the exposition of the message. We're to preach in and out of season; we shouldn't let culture or experience dictate the content of our proclamations or our understanding of His Word.

I'm quessing but what I think Mike really wants to know is how do we illustrate or make alive the key points of our exegesis and exposition?

Every message I preach has a "foundational inquiry," which I've derived from the text. That propositional question is then answered by God from His Word; those answers are my main outline points. Together they respond to the foundational inquiry. [Click over to The SHEEP'S CRIB - Sermons to see some examples]

The material I insert into those main points are what I've come to call windows ... anecdotes, stories, illustrations, quotes, etc. They serve to drive home the main points in my outlines. [Click over to The SHEEP'S CRIB - Illustrations to see some examples] These are from everyday life, including culture and experience ... here is where the preacher gets to insert himself ... the rest had better be God inserting Himself.

There are basically two ways to deliver a message: the first is like a master carpenter, he drives the nail home, one swing ... wham, right up to the head; and then there are all of the others ... some go tap-tap-tap, others wham, wham, wham ... but in the end the nail must be driven to the head, for the sake of the sheep.

Mike wonders aloud ...

I wonder how much we really constrain our sermons by our own examples and not wanting to preach hypocritically. And how much we constrain them by not wanting to rock the cultural boat.

If we're preaching under the power and anointing of the Holy Spirit, I'd say none! What do you say?

UPDATE: Late entries for others at the Godblogdom water cooler ... John at Scotwise, linking to Phil with a prodigious but intimate and personal post at The Spirit Formed Life (refreshing is what it is), and Milton at Transforming Sermons has more.