So ist das leben

I just recently listened to three sermons that were absolutely excellent and that I would like to enthusiastically recommend.

The first was from my former pastor Mark Minnick, who is (in my opinion) the finest expositional preacher alive today. The title was “Preaching that Glorifies God,” and was a sermon delivered for an ordination service. Something that I heard Pastor Minnick say all my life finally jumped out and grabbed hold of me. In speaking of expositional preaching, he said that it was important not only to be preoccupied with the text and say what the text is saying, but also to say it in the way that the text says it. In other words, to lay it out in the same way that God chose to lay out the theme of that passage. This is a very important distinction. I have heard lots of expositional preaching that gets the theme of the passage down very well. And most of the main points naturally arise from the passage. But the element that is missing is the idea of also dealing with the passage in the same way the author did. Asking the same questions, raising the same objections, exhorting the same direction, etc. After hearing this sermon it was clear in my mind that this is what sets Pastor Minnick apart from the majority of expositional preachers today. He not only says what the text says, but in the way it says it.

The second was a sermon from John Piper, pastor of Bethelehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The sermon was his address at the 2006 Together for the Gospel Conference entitled, “Why Expositional Preaching is Particularily Glorifying God.” This is certainly one of the top ten best sermons I’ve heard in my life. The closing prayer alone is worth the whole sermon. Typical Piper-passionate and inspirational. He advocated an “expository-exultation” approach to preaching. He said that it was not enough to simply exegete the passage-anyone who is trained to do so can exegete the passage–but he said that you must exult over the passage and let it inflame your heart. He called preachers to be passionate about the Word and to let that passion be evident in their preaching. This clearly is what sets John Piper apart from most expositional preachers. He has a passion for the Word of God that has few rivals.

The last sermon was from Ligon Duncun and was from the Together for the Gospel Conference as well. It was entitled “Preaching from the Old Testament.” Since I have a kind of intimidation of preaching from the Old Testament (stemming mainly from my lack of knowledge of how to  preach expositionally from the OT), I decided that this would be a practical sermon for me. Duncan’s goal was to motivate and inspire pastors to preach from the Old Testament. I would call it a sort of “Old Testament Pump Up Speech.” Considering that was his goal, he was highly successful. If you want to hear some fine examples of exposition from the OT, then I would highly recommend the sermon. It alos really made me want to read the OT more.

All three sermons were a great challenge to my heart. I highly recommend them. On a related note, the 2008 Together for the Gospel Conference is going on this week. The sermons thus far, I have heard, have been excellent. I’m sure they would also be worthy of your time.

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