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Published on 1 Comment on Podcast: Evangelistic Speaking

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In this episode, among other things we respond to a listener question: What's the difference between preaching and evangelistic preaching?

A few thoughts... In evangelistic preaching you're especially concerned about the following:

  • Don't just point to Christ, the solid Rock, but also to the sinking sand of this world.
  • Preach a raw gospel - we're sunk over our heads, we're lifted higher than we could imagine. Take them on a journey.
  • Also take them on the journey from "wouldn't it be wonderful if this were true..." to "that's the assurance you can have because of Jesus."
  • Be ruthless with churchy language.
  • Put yourself in the mess you're describing... "we are mortal, we suffer, we frustrate ourselves..."
  • Describe journeys to faith (including your own).
  • If you will invite people to pray to Christ (which is a good thing), flag it up early

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In this podcast I talk about some examples of my evangelistic preaching.

Here's my sermon on Luke 14,

Some Lunchtime Student Talks, and

A sermon on Hell

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Published on 3 Comments on Easter Songs / All Age Resources

Check out our Easter Spoken Word videos BREAD OF HEAVEN and CANNONBALL

Plus, here's some stuff you're welcome to rip off if you like...

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Gethsemane:

Here's an idea for an all-age sermon / school assembly. It's a game of pass the parcel where the parcel is a poisoned cup. There's a song to go with it:

 

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Also for Maundy Sunday, I love this setting of When You Prayed Beneath the Trees.

Forget the singer, Christopher Idle's song's in my top 5 all time hymns.

 

Cross

Seed Song (Jesus is the Seed who dies and rises to bring life)

 

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Resurrection

Firstfruits

 

Easter Morn (the song that became 'Firstfruits' - no round)

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Little Fish! (Jesus is bigger than death)

 

Some Easter Sermons

Hebrews 2:14-18 (Last Sunday's sermon)

Some Talks By Others About Death (and Resurrection)

Dev Menon: Death Part 1 (Good Friday)

Dev Menon: Death Part 2 (Easter Sunday)

John Behr: Death the Final Frontier

John Behr: Taking Back Death

 

Videos

Some Easter .

 

Published on Leave a comment on Tweet’ll Dumb

Taste the coming kingdom: A land of wheat, barley, vines, figtrees, pomegranates, oliveoil & honey. U will lack nothing. Deut8 #EnjoyYourDay

Whatever your weakness today, it’s God’s opportunity to work powerfully. 2 Cor 12:9 #EnjoyYourDay

He cleanses lepers, drives out demons, blasts the lofty, lifts the lowly, shoulders shame, conquers death and rules the world #EnjoyYourDay

Even now my Witness & Advocate is on high, my Intercessor is my friend… He pleads with God as a man pleads 4 his friend. #EnjoyYourDay

Fave description of Xian life = Luther's: We live far above ourselves in Christ by faith & far beneath ourselves in our neighbour by love

"Humble minds think alike" Philippians 2:2-3

There’s a Battle-Scarred God who’s gone to hell & back 4 u. He meets u in Scripture to bring Peace and Awe (Jn 20:24-31) #EnjoyYourDay

God is not FatherLY. He’s Father. He’s not Like a Father. He. Is. Your. Father. #EnjoyYourDay

Feeling thirsty? Hungry? Spiritually empty? The sure mercies of Christ are yours: Isaiah 55 #EnjoyYourDay

 

Jesus didn’t use hell to scare religion into people. Most often He used it on the religious, to scare self-confidence out of them.

"I really must be more ruthless." Me after each episode of #HouseofCards

The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet (Rom 16:20). #EnjoyYourDay

God has given u His all – His very Heart – on the cross. He gave it while u were His enemy. What will He now withhold from u? #EnjoyYourDay

The Angel of the LORD is either mad, bad or God #ChristInOT

Does heaven seem closed to you? No, Jesus has torn it open & brought you Home: Luke 3:21; John 1:51; Heb 4:14; 6:19; Rev 4:1.#EnjoyYourDay

Hell is not opposed to a God of love. WE are opposed to a God of love. That's what makes hell HELL

All things are yours – all theology, the whole world, the future – and you are Christ’s and Christ is God’s. 1 Cor 3:21-23 #EnjoyYourDay

God does not treat you as your sins deserve (Ps 103:10). He treats you as Christ’s righteousness deserves. (2 Cor 5:21) #EnjoyYourDay

God's grace is not help to get us across the line. God's grace is when He crossed the line Into our helpless condition 2Cor8:9

"You don't need help, you need helplessness" Jesus (John 6:29, paraphrase)

To the gracious God, the only thing we bring is sin. Hence the upside-down blessing of original sin: it enfranchised the world.

Spring=just a taste of what's coming: "the desert shall blossom abundantly & rejoice with joy & singing." Is35 #EnjoyYourDay

Of course Luther & Calvin believed in Christ's finished work on the Cross but see how they relate the cross to preaching & union w Christ...

“Even if Christ were crucified 1000 times it'd be vain if the Word of God were absent & were not given 2me w the bidding: This is 4u” Luther

"As long as Christ remains outside of us, all He has done 4 the salvation of the human race remains useless & of no value 4 us" (MT Calvin)

 

In the style of Guy Ritchie I'm producing a tacky biopic of Howard Stern's music career: a mocklockstockshockjockschlockrockdoc

Forgot to get wrapping paper 4 Emma's bday presents. Thankfully we have plenty of 'decorated pine tree' paper with added 'birthday reindeer'

Jesus is not nice. He’s ferociously good, fiercely protective, jealously loving. His love is bloody. That’s why u can trust it #EnjoyYourDay

“Who He is, we become. Where He is, we dwell. What He has, we inherit. What He’s done, we possess.” #UnionWithChrist #EnjoyYourDay

The law is all compulsory. The gospel is all-compelling.

ALERT. To convert, don't just assert: subvert.

Monday’s not the 1st day of the week. It’s the day after you’ve received a massive Raise and a stunning Promotion. #EnjoyYourWeek.

Published on Leave a comment on Jesus: The True Bread – John 6 Sermon

Jesus the Bread of Life

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SERMON TEXT

How long since you last ate something? Or drank something? Anything? How long before you’ll eat or drink again? For all of us, some bread and wine is on the menu within the next few minutes. After that, a tea or a coffee, a biscuit. Maybe home and have a snack before bed. Then up for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks in between, deserts, coffees, a biscuit here, a piece of fruit there. How long are we ever awake and not eating?

Hunger is written into our humanity – from Genesis chapter 1, humanity has been born hungry. Born needy. Born dependent on something ELSE to give us life. Every day we need food or we die. And every day we feel our hunger.

These days we don’t feel hungry for very long. We tend to graze don’t we? We’re never very far from food so we don’t often feel our hunger. And when we do we feed ourselves pretty quickly, but even that constant eating shows our dependence. Human beings are weak. Within a few hours without food we can become frail, lethargic, despairing... When my blood sugar’s low, the world is coming to an end. Emma has to tell me, “Don’t worry Henny Penny, the sky’s not falling you’re just hungry.” Just hungry. We’re all hungry, all the time. And our hunger preaches to us. It tells me, on an almost hourly basis: “Glen, you are NOT self-sufficient. You are NOT independent. You do NOT have any life in yourself. You have very limited reserves and if you don’t quickly replenish them, you will die.” LIFE must constantly come to us from OUTSIDE OURSELVES. We have no life within us, we are empty, needy, weak, dependent creatures who MUST RECEIVE or we die.

Some people try to resist this necessity. Have you heard of a small sect called the Breatharians? They believe they can exist without food, through learning secret techniques they claim they can live on air and light alone. Last year a 65 year old Seattle woman held out for 47 days without eating. She had only water and tea (which itself is cheating really, but still 47 days is hugely impressive). Nonetheless she was aiming for a one hundred day fast but she called it off after receiving what she called "a message from the universe that it was time to stop."

A message from the rest of the world says “Don’t be so stupid! You cannot escape your need for food.” You cannot learn special techniques to generate your own sustenance. There are no special exercises or achievements or performances that give you life. You can’t earn life, you’ve got to RECEIVE it, from OUTSIDE yourself.

In the Old Testament, the Israelites got a powerful lesson in dependence. They were saved from slavery in Egypt, brought through the Red Sea miraculously and promised a land of milk and honey. But in between their freedom and their future they had to pass through a howling wasteland. Millions of grumbling Israelites had to survive in a desert with no earthly possibility for food. So what did God do? Did He teach them Breatharian methods so that their own spiritual techniques would get them through? Did He make them SELF-sustaining through their own religious practices?

No, God never wants us to be SELF-sustaining. He feeds His people with the Bread of Heaven. Manna in the wilderness. Every day the LORD supplied this food, like morning dew, it was freely available. It couldn’t be earnt. Even if you went out to gather lots and lots, you didn’t get more than anyone else. If you tried to store it up, it went off. If you went out on the Sabbath, you wouldn’t find any – God provided double on Fridays so that everyone could rest properly. This bread was a PURE GIFT. In NO SENSE was this bread earned. And a whole generation of Israelites REALLY learnt how desperately needy they were and how wonderfully generous God is....

FULL SERMON TEXT

 

Published on Leave a comment on More Tweety Piles

Dad's rich! He has unsearchable riches in Christ – of inheritance, mercy & grace – all ours in Jesus (Eph 1:18,2:4,2:7,3:8) #EnjoyYourDay

Christians don't so much think Supernatural > Natural (as tho those terms were obvious). We do think Personal > Impersonal

Your God has gone to hell and back for you. Do you think He doesn’t love you? Hasn’t forgiven you? Won’t raise you to glory? #EnjoyYourDay

Of course He's the shy member of the Trinity - He's the original Ghost writer. (2 Peter 1:21)

For the Christian, the Holy Ghost gives us our substantial identity. It's the flesh that haunts us.

Life does not grind along according 2 impersonal laws. Yr Father plots, yr Brother reigns, His Spirit moves: minute by minute #EnjoyYourDay

The way of Adam: keep back, fill up, cling on.
The way of Jesus: press in, pour out, give away.

We come to Jesus with failures, fears and futility.
He gives us forgiveness, a Father and a future.

Far and away the most common word to describe Jesus’ feelings in the Gospels = “compassion”. ie gut-wrenching mercy #EnjoyYourDay

The test of an orthodox church: they believe in God's THREEness and salvation's FREEness

You may feel besieged by worries. Give them to your Father and know: it’s His peace that garrisons you (Phil 4:6-7) #EnjoyYourDay

Jesus gives strength to the weary, grace to the guilty, worth to the worthless, hope to the hopeless. #EnjoyYourDay

Probably the most driven animal was the Dodo

Through the Righteous Branch, God never stops doing u good. In fact He rejoices 2do u good with all His heart&soul (Jer32-33) #EnjoyYourDay

Darwin: Death is the engine.
Jesus: Death is the enemy.

Your sins call down grace, your sufferings – comfort, your death calls you home. Life’s very worst can only make u better #EnjoyYourDay

Stooping Greatness.
Towering Love.
Jesus.

"Padre, Is God really like Jesus?" The Q of a dying WW2 soldier to Tom Torrance. With eternity beckoning that's the Q! Torrance's answer >>

<<“He is the only God that there is, the God who has come to us in Jesus, shown his face to us and poured out his love to us as our Saviour” You may be in the darkest part of the valley. Even there u r clothed in Christ, filled with His Spirit, adopted by His Father #EnjoyYourDay Though clouds may hide it, the Light of the world has risen, the darkness is defeated, it’s a completely fresh start #EnjoyYourDay Dawkins: "There is, at bottom, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference." Moses: "Underneath are the everlasting arms." His might dwarfs yr problems: they’re a drop in the bucket. His meekness draws u near: like a Shepherd gathering lambs. Is40 #EnjoyYourDay Feeling suitably shriven today? God exalted Jesus to His right hand to *give* you repentance (Acts 5:31) #EnjoyYourDay Forever the Spirit anoints the Son. Now He anoints His Bride. Soon He’ll anoint the earth & the deserts will bloom (Isaiah 35) #EnjoyYourDay We are His children and even Leviathan is His pet (Job41:5). There’s nothing our Father can’t - or won’t! - turn to our good #EnjoyYourDay Augustine on the Donatists: "The clouds roll with thunder, that the House of the Lord shall be built throughout the earth... ... and these frogs sit in their marsh and croak - We are the only Christians!" If u knew Jesus was praying 4u in the next room, what confidence u’d have! Distance makes no difference. He’s still praying.#EnjoyYourDay

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Published on 2 Comments on Podcast: How to give an evangelistic talk

10 commandments

This week Andy and I talk about delivering an evangelistic talk.

We discuss my (tongue-in-cheek) 10 commandments for evangelistic preaching (below):

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  1. Thou shalt worship Christ from the pulpit.
  2. Thou shalt communicate the newness of God’s revelation.
  3. Thy tone shalt be declarative and devotional.
  4. Thy method shalt be expositional and christocentric.
  5. Thou shalt not preach “the passage” thou shalt preach Christ from the passage.
  6. Thy fevered entreaty shall not be ‘DO’ so much as ‘LOOK’.
  7. Thou shalt not apologize for the word
  8. Thou shalt not be clever
  9. Thou shalt not go searching for illustrations.
  10. Thou shalt not go searching for jokes.

And how can you tell if you’ve done a good job? Ask yourself these questions:

Have I communicated JESUS - has He been the centre of it all?

Have I used or abused the passage?

Have I encouraged confidence in the flesh or faith in Christ?

Have I taken people on a journey from Adam to Christ?

Have I offered promises or simply stated truths? (In other words, Have I offered Christ?)

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Published on 1 Comment on How Not To Read The Bible

praying otterA semi-imagined conversation

-- Right.  Bible reading.  Here we go - Speak Lord, your servant is listening.  Ok, Matthew 11:28.  Jesus said "Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest."  Ok, good verse.  Well said Lord.  Now let's get down to business.  What's this verse really saying...  Well of course "rest" is theologically loaded.  Right from the seventh day of creation we see eschatological perfection modelled in Sabbath....

-- Glen!

-- Speak Lord, your servant is listening.

-- You've already said that.  And I've already spoken...

-- ... Oh indeed you have Lord and now I'm allowing your word to inform and shape my theological precommitments that I might be transformed by the renewing... Well you know how the verse goes.  Anyway I find it fascinating that you say v28 right after v27 when you declare the trinitarian, christocentric dynamic of all revel...

-- Glen!

-- Speak Lord, your servant is listening

-- Are you?

-- Well trying to.  That's why I'm deploying all the hermeneutical tools in my considerable arsenal.  It allows my whole theology to be shaped by these concepts...

-- Concepts?  Glen, have you actually come to me for rest today?

-- Well...  My plan is to get a properly nuanced theology of rest in place.  And once I have this understanding I imagine the experience of rest will sort of, I don't know, umm....

-- Glen?

-- Speak Lord your servant is listening

-- Maybe later...

 

 

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Published on 7 Comments on Podcast: How To Prepare An Evangelistic Talk

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We've been thinking about the nature of preaching and the tone of it. Here we get more practical with ten steps to preparing a talk...

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STEP ONE: Read, Read and Read again.

STEP TWO: Write an initial SUMMARY
STEP THREE: Make NOTES on each and every verse.
STEP FOUR: Consult the WISDOM of others.
STEP FIVE: Return to the SUMMARY
STEP SIX: SHAPE it for your audience
STEP SEVEN: Make an OUTLINE
STEP EIGHT: WRITE it
STEP NINE: Add COLOUR.
STEP TEN: Final FORM.

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