Preaching 101-2

to dwindle until just two or three of you are there [laughter]
because of philosophical preaching
divides people
oh yes
this is your point of view on soteriology but this is my point of view on soteriology and
there might be twenty different points of view on soteriology
and you have just divided everybody in the house
'cause now you've got to prove
you're right
and you've got to overcome what I believe
so it turns out to be me arguing with you
from the pulpit
whenever I have a fight
with another pastor
I can't bring that fight to the pulpit
because
the saints couldn't come to church
to hear my
dislike
of another man's position
or another woman's message
because that again isolates
now at this point people are scared
to bring somebody to church with them
because they don't know what you gone do
I told you I'm rambling a little bit
they don't know what you're going to do so they're scared
because
you may just
jump on somebody's skirt today
or jump or somebody's earrings or jump or somebody's shoes
oh I wish you'd understand
and and so to bring somebody to church
is like playing russian roulette
you know I don't know what happened to him today
something must be going on with him
but
maybe next week and the person is saying never again
will I go to this church never
because the philosophical preaching
that is oftentimes borne out of traditional
associations
so the reason I became a liberal
was
I couldn't understand
the rigidity
of the presentation
I mean I would hear things like like like like like the Lord
the Lord is going to come
and catch you unready
because he's coming
as a thief in the night
and just when you think not
then he shows up
so as a little child I'm trying to figure out
why would he
hang on a cross
why would he
have agony at Gethesane
and put a system together to save me
and then want to sneak in and catch me
so
so it
forced me
to study
then I would hear as my study became more pervasive
I would hear well
he can't preach in my church
because
he don't have the Holy Spirit
because you know it non pentecostal you know that
I don't know
but then I found out
that the preacher
was plagiarising
all of fellows he said couldn't preach in his church
so I told him I said
but he
preached in your church last sunday when you got up
because everything you said came from him
what bridges the gap
for a P.A.W.
sin killing
everybody going to hell but us how did I
liberate myself enough
to be able to preach
anywhere everywhere to anybody at any time
how
because
when you step out of philosophical
debate preaching
into psychological
uplifting preaching
you have now widened
your
base
because everybody moves and
betters their life not by philosophical debate because you
can win an argument and lose a soul
I wish I could talk to you now
the bible says that we have to be renewed
by the transforming of our minds
which leads now preachers
if the mind is to be transformed at all
then preaching has to be psychological
because it's only through the psychological
approach that you change your life
I your mind you change your life
so the presentation on the word of God then
must step into the solution of the problem of the individual
who is striving to move to the next level
and move into the psychology that is necessary to get them to the next
level so when you pick up your bible and you're about to study something
you ask yourself why is he
saying this
because once you ask why you are now connected to the problem and the
solution
because the why says this there has to be something deficient or something
lacking
for him to make this presentation so that we might find the solution
to eliminate that problem and as you eliminate the problems that
people have
from Sunday to Sunday to Sunday
they gather other people and they come back
because you have to preach reconciliation
to God
reconciliation to yourself and reconciliation to others and that's all
the bible is about its a bood of relationships where you deal with
reconciliation
to God when I meet God I meet myself
and I'm only qualified to deal with you when I had to deal with God and
myself you gotta ask why
why is he telling me
weeping may endure for a night
but joy cometh in the morning why is he telling the no weapon formed
against me shall prosper
why is he telling me this
why
that's how to approach it
oftentimes
the preacher who refuses
to move in the flow
of the psychological preaching
and insists
on debating in his sermon
he soon becomes bitter
yes
because now
he has baptized a lot of people
but they don't stay
and they will tell him
I love you brother pastor
but I need to grow
anybody out here had to grow
and sometimes to grow means to go
and this bitterness now begins to express itself in various ways
and one is
you go into a church
where they don't have a standard
ain't got no standard
you've heard that I'm sure
they ain't got no standard
they all going to hell over there
his bitterness now
overwhelms him even further because now there's no
presentation that he makes
that is not without bitterness
and you can't
build a church
being bitter
many of us sitting here
have to fight
personal difficulties in order to get to the pulpit
let me tell you one of my one of my one of my my
my worst time in my life
was
having to preach
while I was being divorced
and some of the worst
times in my life I would come to conferences like this and Bishop
Jakes sitting there with with his lovely wife
and everybody sitting and talking about a first lady
and and all this
wonderful accolades they're giving to their wives
and then I'm the speaker of the night
and I'm wondering
I'm wondering
how they really feel about it
my ex-wife came to a meeting one time and and and and and and somebody said or
she's not married to him anymore we don't have to find her a seat
and I said I said I said
ya'll please
put her where the other wives are please
put her right the middle right in front
with everybody else
you follow what I'm saying now getting up to deal with that issue
in front of a whole lot of folk
wondering
how somebody feels you
I said that to say this
in order for it not to come through your mouth
when you get up
between the seat and the pulpit
preachers have got to learn to
purge themselves
of whatever personal things bothering them
you've got to rid yourself
of what's personal because
that means you are about to put something out of your mouth that's not
coming from the Spirit
of God and it affects people negatively
I don't want to holler at you
its a battle
this is why most of us
do not want
to hear a whole lot of stuff
before its time to preach
because it influences the thought pattern and it brings negativity into
something that should be pure
so now you notice then
why
having done something wrong
messes with your ability to flow
yeah yeah being in sin
on your way to preach
it messes with the flow
because
you were about to make a presentation
about something
that you feel a little guilt about
amen
I've done it
and argued all the way to the church
yes
driving the car arguing all the way to church just arguing
the kids in the back seat we going to church
I don't know what
pull up in the parking lot and one of the saints come right by the door oh praise
the Lord
[laughter] yes
I then
have to get up to preach
with the wife sitting right in the front seat
daring you to open your mouth
[laughter]
come on preach it now
mister preacher
come on with it
see if you get an amen out of me today come on
amen
then you say some things and everybody's eyes go straight to your wife
[laughter]
[laughter]
is that really true
did what he say is it true
you'll notice
that we say
he's not anointed
or or or
he lost the anointing
but indeed and in fact
what you call anointing
is really just
focus
because whenever there's something
that's a little icky in your personal life
that's moving through your mind as you're processing your message
it cuts your focus
and when it cuts your focus you start mumbling words you start saying things
that aren't
coherent
because
there is duplicity and ambivalence
within
the messenger
and whenever you have this ambivalence and and it doesn't have to be sin sometimes
the mics aren't working quite right
and you begin to get a lot of thought to the mics
and then all of a sudden you have lost your focus
because that
has come in the way