Preaching 101-1

Jesus the ultimate revolutionary
is asking you will you go for it
I'm looking out of negative eyes
I find negative things for negative eyes
when I look out of pure eyes
I find pure things for pure eyes
that's why your love can't change me
'cause you ain't got enough to change me
what you ought to do is leave me alone 'til God change me
its the empowerment from God that enables you to go
from resurrection to insurrection
the real challenge is not my enemies
the challenge is will I rise to the occasion and say to the Lord
I'm so glad you died for me I want to kill some junk that's in my heart
the woman with the issue of blood shouldn't have been in public
but when you want something from God
you got to go for it
you can't let other people decide
whether or not you ought to move to the next level
but you gotta make up in your mind
if the Lord ever gets near me
I'm gone get what the Lord has promised
a transformation cannot take place until you go for it
I'm looking at a group of people that are too gifted to be broke
too gifted to be crying all the time
but you can't wait on somebody to fix your life
you gotta fix your life yourself
as long as Jesus is nearby
I getting ready to move on another level or a higher calling
move into a more radical place with go for it
available as a two message set on cd or dvd when you visit our website
or call 1800526NOEL
fresh oil
Bishop Noel Jones presents this provocative challenging and life changing message to encourage inspire and motivate you
to keep marching toward your destiny
now receive this fresh oil from Bishop Noel Jones
as it flows from the vials of heaven to saturate your soul
when it comes to preaching
and all of us or most of us in here
have to preach at least three times a week
I'm assuming that at least three times a week
and and one of the most difficult things
particularly when your church begins to grow
is the time to study
because as the church grows and you do more administrative
things and more management things
then that eats away from your study time
but it was not the management or the administrative things
that made the church grow
it was your proficiency in the word of God
do you see what happens as you
you have to manage more people you have to administrate in more situations
you find that it begins to eat away on your study time
and study is actually the strength for inspiration and instruction
it is in study that you receive instruction
and its in study you receive inspiration
and when you portray that inspiration and instruction
to the people of God
then they tell others and others and others and if the worship service is wonderful
the you have something to manage and administrate
if what happens in the front room
is awful
then you will soon have nothing to manage
or to administrate so the creativity of the preacher must always be guarded
and it doesn't matter what you do you have to take
some time
to study
amen
[amen] study
you have to study until it becomes a part of your life
its like working out
you have to keep working out until if you don't work out you feel guilty
the worst feeling that any preacher can have
is for Saturday night midnight
and you don't know what you're talking about
[laughter] in the morning
so study now now study
there's no substitute for it
they used to say just open your mouth and the Lord will fill it fill it with air
[laughter] now preaching public speaking says that when you get ready to speak
your introduction you tell people what you're going to do
then you do it
and then at the end you go over it again in the conclusion
you revisit what you did now that's public speaking
now if I were going to the movies with you
and you saw the movie and
and I said alright I'll go
I'll see it its a good movie
the first thing I don't want you to do
is tell me the story
[laughter] please please ah this is what happened
no don't tell me the story
because once you tell me the story I lose interest
'cause you've already told me everything
now that's one
now the fugitive was going on for a long long time
and every week you rushed to see the fugitive
you knew the fugitive was going to get away
[laughter] because if he didn't get away
the show would be over
[come on] [laughter] now that's called an episode
now you and I know that Jesus is going to get away every Sunday
[yeah] [laughter] every Sunday he's going to get away
but the reason you went to see the fugitive every week
is you wanted to see how much trouble
he was going to get out of
you see the difference now
in one you knew the outcome
but you went because you wanted to see
how much difficulty
in the other you don't want the end of the story
now why do you think that preaching is any different
when you get up to preach
and if you just give me everything right up front
you lose me
to grab somebody's attention
you gotta raise some issues
oh yes oh yes oh yes
its like its like you're getting up to preach and
and and you're going to present
let's say we're going to present uh uh Jesus and Lazarus
the whole thing about Jesus and Lazarus
the question you ask yourself now is why is John
repeatedly indicating
that Jesus
was a friend of these people
why does he do that because
there's a tension that he is establishing
there's one thing you've got to learn to do is
that we have to learn to do is
we have to establish some tension
not contradictory but ambiguity
why is Jesus so close to these people
but he wouldn't rush
you would think that since John is establishing so succinctly so clearly so explicitly that they are close
that if Jesus should have gone to anybody's house in a hurry when he heard that he was sick
surely now
it should have been to Lazarus
so right away now your audience is beginning
to wonder
what's really going on here
so it starts like this
uh-uh
[laughter] hahaha
as you continue you'll understand that the underlining point here is
that Jesus is about to reveal himself to his friends
because he reveals himself
to people he's close to
not to people who are far from him
its in relationship that you have revelation
so now he is about
to put his friends
in a whole lot of trouble
so he can reveal himself to them in a unique way
that's the whole line
that's the undergird of the whole story
and that is that Jesus is going to show them that he is the resurrection and the life so
he wants Lazarus to die
see now you've got the tension
Lazarus is dead
and the next verse says and I am glad
now we have tension because
here is the master
stopping when Lazarus is dying
and so now when that point is made
the uh-uh becomes umm
[laughter] hahaha
to create tension in a message
is to take one aspect of the message and put it against the other aspect
and move into argument
to come to solution
you already have the solution
but you present the problem
in order to preach effectively you have to have one foot in the problem
and the other foot in the solution
because you can't bring us to solution if you don't know problem
as our churches get bigger we become more isolated
from the people we pastor
because now we have counseling teams and counselors and
all kinds of things and so as we become more isolated
we become less connected
and when you become less connected
how do you keep your foot in the problem
because if you don't know what they are feeling
how can you find a solution
ooo I'm
that's why even though you have counselors its good for once a month or every other month
to meet with your counselors and let them go through the list of problems they dealt with
and then have them to give you their take on it and you get your take on it
and it sets you right back into the word of God
seeking an answer because you gotta have one foot in the problem
and one foot in the solution
the greatest preaching however comes from those of us
who have had our own struggles
I'm sort of running around in circles so I'm going to go back in a minute
let's talk about the tension to create tension you have to be argumentative
and you have to argue different aspects of the text
and give the people who you're preaching to an opportunity to see the other side
of what it is you're dealing with why because they need to exercise their minds
on both sides of the situation
now you make little statements that draw people in
Peter I would look at Peter and I would say to an audience
some of you are one good mistake
from being used
[laughter] hahaha now I just created some tension
[more laughter] because I am in
a holiness church environment
and you have the audacity to tell me
that God cannot use me until I make a mistake
Peter was one good embarrassment
from being used by God because before he denied Christ
he was one cocky arrogant
unusable person
because he thought he was all that and much more
but after he embarrassed himself and
almost lost his self respect
because here he is denying Jesus after bragging about standing up
and facing the music no matter what came against him when that one mistake
straightened his life out
but that statement created tension
'cause you know where you're going with it
now you've got the saints wondering
how much trouble is this preacher going to get in
[laughter] before he comes out
Jesus is gonna win
but they want to know how much trouble
he's going to have to deal with before he comes through
so its critical now to understand that you are not going
to give a brief outline of everything you're doing in an introduction
you're going to open up and set up the pieces so that you can keep the
attention flowing to the very end
now when you prepare then what I do
I write everything down as it comes to mind as God is speaking to me on a particular text I put it all down
then I go back through it
and decide what must I say where
initially because I deal with the substratum I deal with the undergirding concept of the text
my proclivity in my opening is to deal with the philosophical aspect
of the text theology
the theological aspect see what I want to do now is I want to begin
with the theological aspect
move into the psychological aspect
because it is in the psychological aspect that people's minds are changed
you do not change minds arguing philosophy
I I I will point out to right now that if you spend your time arguing
your philosophical position from a christian point of view you're going to isolate a whole lot of folk
because a whole lot of folk
a whole lot of folk don't care about your philosophical point of view as it relates to your denomination
alright let me talk to you now
let me talk to you I'm rambling a little bit but I'll go and put some structure to it
see there's a great shift
in Christianity today
we have actually become more ecumenical
we preach cross denominationally
we are now preaching across denominational lines
I grew up as an apostolic pentecostal Pentecostal Assemblies of the World
and you can't get no closed
more closed than that
[amen] ha ha ha
ha ha ha I'm talking about shut door closed
a pantyhose was a sin where I came from
[laughter] you couldn't listen to anybody
who was not baptized in Jesus name
speaking in other tongues as the Spirit of God gave utterance
and living holy every day
notice if you will
to get up every day and argue which baptism is right
is going to cause your church