Convictions

All right, well, we are smack dab in the middle

of a very strange three -way intersection of

preaching series. This is one of those weird

Sundays. Last Sunday, we wrapped up our study

in the book of Esther. Next Sunday, Adam is going

to be back up here in the pulpit, continuing

his brilliant series in Ecclesiastes. And the

following week, which is February 15th, we will

dive into a brand new series in the New Testament,

Paul's first letter to the Corinthian church.

So the question is, where does that leave us

this morning? Well, this is one of those interesting

Sundays where we get to hit pause and take a

little bit of time to talk about who we are as

a church and what convictions we hold to. As

you can see by the title on the screen, that

is the subject of this morning's time in the

word, convictions. I recall many years ago when

I was a young Christian back in the late 1980s

and beginning to take seriously what it looks

like to be a member of a local church. I remember

becoming more and more interested about what

was happening behind the scenes at the church

that Tani and I were a part of. At that time,

I was in the corporate world, and I was learning

all kinds of skills about what business leadership

looked like, but what really interested me was

what was happening back in that back room. of

the church. What about leadership in the church?

How do these men who lead the church, how do

they lead? How do they make decisions? How do

they get along? I wanted to see the back room

of the church. But back then, in that particular

body, that was not possible. And sadly, I found

out later on that much of what was going on in

the back room was not super healthy, but a little

bit dysfunctional. But that lesson stuck with

me as a congregant. I wanted to know what was

going on. And this is one of the things that

makes Oak Hill, a little bit unique among churches,

something I think is very, very important for

transparency. Any covenant member at Oak Hill

can come and observe one of our elder meetings.

You can literally be in the back room of our

church because we want you to be able to see

how the sausage is made. Have you guys heard

that? You heard that phrase? We want you to be

able to see how it's made in the back room if

you want to see it. It's not a requirement, but

it's something that's available to members. We

think it's really healthy, very valuable to watch

how our elder team, how we pray together, how

we study the word together, how we interact as

both brothers and friends, how we're concerned

about one another and one another's families.

If you come, you get to see what kind of issues

we face as we lead this church, how we go about

making decisions. And we hope by making all this

visible that you, our members, will become more

confident in trusting us as your leaders. And

that's so important in this day and age. where

there's a lot of church hurt out there and a

lot of unscrupulous men leading churches, we

think growing in that confidence and trust is

very, very important. Now, if you do take advantage

of that opportunity and come observe one of our

meetings, you'll often hear something take place.

One of our guys, not always me, but one of our

seven elders, will put an idea on the table for

discussion. And it might be something very small

and very sort of procedural, or it might be an

idea for a major shift in the direction of our

church. And so we will come together as a team

and we will discuss it. And the hope is in our

discussion that we will come to a conviction

about that particular idea. And to do that, we'll

walk through a series of steps. First thing we'll

do is... take that idea, that suggestion, and

hold it up to scripture and say, what does the

Bible say about this particular issue? Then we

will bring our various experiences in ministry

and leadership to the table and apply those.

Then we'll just talk about practical wisdom,

talking about, well, okay, if we do this, what

will that lead us as a body? Will it benefit

the sheep? And what's the process we would need

to get there? And here's the great news. About

95 % of the time, we come to a pretty quick conclusion

in absolute unity. And we will come to a conviction

together. The other 5%, that's for another sermon.

Yes, we do sometimes disagree, but it's rare.

We have a unity of mind on our elder team. So

we'll come to a conviction. Either yes, we're

going to move forward with this, or nope, let's

not. At least not at this particular time. By

the way, it's important for you all to know that

when those ideas come from leadership or you

hear about a change in direction, please know

that it's never just my idea. I know we have

this idea, this concept in our minds about church

and the so -called senior pastor, which is not

in the Bible, but the senior pastor who makes

all the decisions, that is not what we're about

at Oak Hill. It's always a collective decision

that comes from the entire team. A team, by the

way, you should just to help you grow in confidence,

has multiple theological seminary degrees. and

has decades, I don't know how many years, decades

and decades of experience in church leadership

and biblical teaching. So having a plurality

of voices at the table and never giving too much

decision -making power to one man, that is both

biblical and it is protective. That is often

how abuse happens in churches. You get one guy

who's so dominant in his personality that he

takes over and everybody else just sort of kowtows

to him and they rubber stamp everything he does.

And he just, he eventually gets to the place

where he can't be questioned and he can't be

challenged by anybody. So as long as I'm here

at Oak Hill, that is not going to happen because

I don't want it. I don't want it. The guys don't

want me to have it and you shouldn't put up with

it. Amen? Adam's laughing over here. He knows,

he knows. But having an elder team that develops

convictions together and then stands on those

convictions. is incredibly important to a healthy

church. Developing convictions and then standing

on them, especially in this day and age where

you all know this, there are so many opinions

and so many preferences out there and so many

sort of church fads and trendy movements that

are constantly flying around. Holding to solid

convictions keeps a church stable. It keeps the

church from being tossed to and fro by every

new thing that comes down the pike, every new

book that's written, every new ministry idea.

We stay stable. A church that is constantly chasing

trends and making dramatic shifts tends to give

members what we call ministry whiplash, where

everything is changing all the time and it creates

anxiety among the flock. It creates insecurity

in the body. So we want to avoid those things.

Now, when it comes to arriving at convictions,

obviously, Scripture is our most important guide.

If the Bible instructs us, that is our conviction.

If the Bible forbids it, that is our conviction.

But, of course, not every idea, not every suggestion,

every issue, not every situation that we face

as an elder team is explicitly found in the Bible.

So here's what that means. As a team, we have

to approach these things using broader biblical

principles that we see in Scripture. We have

to take into consideration both our freedom in

Christ, in those gray areas, but also the guardrails

that would take us too far outside of that freedom

to keep us from error. And in all things, to

make sure that any decision we make or any direction

we take ultimately gives glory to God and edifies

you, the body. These are the things that we think

about a lot. Now, here's something to remember.

Not all churches and not all elder teams will

look at an issue and come to the same conclusion

or come to the same conviction. You may hear

about another church that sees things differently.

Even though we would agree on much of our theology,

they see things differently. You might wonder,

well, why is that? What's going on there? Why

does Church X or Church Y do that thing, but

we don't do it? Or why does Church X have so

many nice things that we don't have? And by the

way, that's humanly very understandable. We all

do that. We play the comparison game, right?

We're like, wow, that looks really fun. What's

wrong with us? Right? It happens. Differences

are going to happen in the kingdom of God. And

when they do, when they're over non -essential

issues, right? Because there are essential issues

we must agree on. When they're over non -essential

issues. That's okay. We can have a difference

in those things. And in those cases, we want

to extend grace to each other and show charity.

In those cases, we just say, look, this is our

conviction. We're not saying it's right or wrong.

This is what we've come to, and this is our conviction.

Does that make sense? Good, so this morning we're

gonna hit a bit of a pause and reset here in

the new year to talk about some of the convictions,

the foundational convictions that we have as

a church. And my hope is for those of you who

are newer, this might give you a little bit of

insight into what we're about. And for those

of you who are OGs, you're veterans of Oak Hill,

hopefully this is a good refresher and reminder

for you. Now, there's a long list of convictions

that we have. I mean, I could be here for the

next three days. talking about things that we're

really convicted about. I only want to talk about

two today, just two convictions. That's really

all the time we have for in a one -off sermon

like this. But know that these are two things

that are very important to us. They are foundational

to us. And interestingly, they are two things

that I do get asked about from time to time.

Sometimes by new folks who are just asking good

questions. Sometimes by long -term members who

are, again, like I said, just wondering, wait,

why do we do that? I've gotten used to it. I

know it's what we do, but why do we do it? And

there are times when the motivation behind the

question, it just comes from that comparison

issue, which we understand. We hear about Church

X doing things this way or Church Y doing that,

and the question comes, what about us? Why do

we believe that? And why do we function as we

do? Here's the first of the two convictions that

we want to talk about this morning. And I don't

know if this is going to surprise you or not,

but here's the first one. And it is our preaching.

I'm preaching about preaching, which is always

a challenge. And obviously, this is very personal

to me because it seems to be what God has called

me to do with my life. And I have spent decades

and decades studying this topic, both looking

at it biblically. reading I don't know how many

books about it looking at church history trying

to understand what it is God wants when it comes

to preaching and let me just share something

with you even if you will never in your entire

life ever get up and teach a bible lesson or

preach a sermon you should know something about

preaching you should understand the basics about

preaching And the reason for that is this, wherever

you go in this world, because not all of us are

going to be at Oak Hill until the day that the

Lord calls us home, right? Wherever you go, you

should be able to walk into a church and know

whether or not you're being fed God's word in

a proper way. To be able to discern that is a

very important thing for every one of us to understand.

So here we are today, we're getting close to

embarking on what will likely be, Lord willing,

a multi -year preaching series. I mean, the guys

are doing like a little game now. Is it going

to be two years, three years, four years? I just

don't know. The Lord knows, but I don't know

yet. But it raises questions. Why do we preach

through entire books of the Bible? Why do we

do that? We just finished reading every single

word in the book of Esther, right? Every single

word. Adam is very slowly working through every

single verse in the book of Ecclesiastes. None

will be left out. I did the math last night.

Lord willing, over the next few years, we're

going to study all 437 verses in 1 Corinthians.

That's more than 9 ,300 words that we'll read

together in the English. Why do we do that? Why

don't we just do what so many other churches

do, just move quicker, go from series to series,

shorter, sort of lightning series, touch on just

the most entertaining topics in the Bible. Why

don't we do that? I'm going to tell you why.

But first of all, we're actually going to open

our Bibles. So grab them. I want you to turn

to John chapter 17. John 17. Now there's many

John 17 · chapter mention

places we could turn to in scripture. By the

way, both Old Testament and New Testament that

speak to the transforming power. Hear me now.

The transforming power of studying every word

that proceeds from the mouth of God. And that

is a foundational idea. that every word that

comes from the mouth of God is for our good and

for our edification and for our growth. But John

17 is one of my favorite passages. We're only

going to look at four verses here, beginning

in verse 14. Remember, John 17 is this beautiful,

famous chapter that we often refer to as Jesus'

high priestly prayer. This is towards the end

of the gospel story. Jesus is about to be arrested

and put on trial. And so in front of his disciples,

for the very last time, he prays. And he prays

to the Father with great passion. And in his

prayer, we see all kinds of amazing insights

into his relationship with God the Father and

his identity as the Son of God. All kinds of

great things. So as we read this, you have to

remember, this is mind -blowing. This is inter

-Trinitarian communication between God the Son

and God the Father. And we get to eavesdrop.

into that conversation. Don't take that lightly.

That's an amazing thing. So in verse 14, Jesus

says to the father, I have given them, my disciples,

I've given them your word. And this is an important

thing to acknowledge. Three times in the gospel

of John before this, in chapter 8, 12, and 14,

Jesus said something to the effect of, I do not

speak on my own initiative, but I speak for my

father who sent me. I speak what he tells me

to speak. And so as we come here to this particular

part of John 17, Jesus has clearly done this.

Father, I have given them your word. This is

God the Son fulfilling his unique role within

the Trinity, right? He is the one God the Father

decrees and the Son carries those out. And part

of carrying out the decree here is to speak what

the Father tells him to speak. I have given them

your word, he says. And what is the result? Verse

14 continues. and the world has hated them. Anybody

feel that? I've given them your word, but the

world has hated them because they're not of the

world, even as I am not of the world. So just

as Jesus belongs to the Father and has no part

in the wicked systems of this world, you and

I who are united to him, we also belong to the

Father. Our citizenship is in heaven, and therefore

we no longer belong to this. system down here

on the earth. That's what he's saying here. And

yet in verse 15, Jesus says, I do not ask you,

Father, to take them out of the world, but to

do this, to keep them from the evil one. Again,

they are not of the world, even as I am not of

the world. So Jesus prays for our protection

in the midst of this wicked world system that

we have to live within. And then we come to the

primary verse I really want you to see this morning.

Verse 17. Jesus prays, sanctify them in the truth.

Your word is truth. Now, those are some of the

most important words in the entire New Testament.

Because of who he is, the words that come from

God are the very definition of truth. You have

to know that, the very definition. And that Bible

that's now sitting in your hands, those words,

that is the only infallible source of truth in

the entire universe. Everything else is fallible.

Everything else is human. Everything else has

bias. What you're holding in your lap is the

only infallible source of truth in all of creation.

Do you understand the privilege of this? This

is huge. It's by this infallible word, Jesus

says, that God sanctifies us. He says, sanctify

them in the truth. That verb in the Greek, hagiadzo,

in a practical sense, it refers to setting something

apart from sin and marking it out as holy. This

is how God changes us, transforms us. He marks

us out. separates us from sin, marks us out as

something holy. So in essence, Jesus is praying,

Father, set aside these, my sheep, set them apart

from the wickedness of this world, refine them,

purify them, make them more and more holy in

their days upon the earth. And here's the key,

do it by your word. That's what I want. More

than anything else, Jesus is saying, sanctify

them by your word because your word is what?

It's truth. Now here's the point for today's

sermon. If that statement is true, and we say

it is, if God sanctifies us by his word, then

that truth should be at the very core of how

we approach preaching. Right? If that is true,

if that's how we're sanctified, that should direct

how we preach in Christ's church. Now, let's

look at another passage. Go back to the Psalms.

We're gonna go back to our call to worship passage

from earlier this morning, back to Psalm 119.

Remember, this particular psalm is famous for

its exaltation of God's word. It dedicates 176

verses, 176 verses to the glory of God's precepts

and statutes. Lest you thought this was just

a New Testament thing, right? Psalm 119, verse

Psalms 119:105

105, this very famous verse, your word is a lamp

to my feet and a light to my path. How many of

you guys have been through an earthquake? When

the lights go out and it's pitch black, you love

seeing that little bit of light. It's a game

changer. Trust me, been through many of them.

It's a lamp to your feet and a light to your

path. The infallible word lights up the path

of truth. It lights up the path of wisdom for

believers so that God's ways can clearly be seen.

Yet even as we have this path shown to us, we

also know this truth, we all stray from it at

times because why? We wrestle with the flesh

in our days upon the earth. So in verse 107,

if you look at that, it tells us what to do.

It says, I'm exceedingly afflicted. Anybody feel

that way in life? I'm just afflicted. There's

a lot going on. I feel pressure. So what do we

do? We cry out. Look what we cry out. Revive

me, O Lord. According to what? According to your

word. Catch this now. It's not our effort or

our determination that brings revival. It's going

back to the truth of God's word. When we're afflicted,

we go back to what he has said clearly. And we

trust in his promises. This is how we do it,

right? I think about church history. Back in

the days of the Reformation, it was said that

as the Bible was opened in that generation, Reformation

was released. Before the Bible was opened, it

was dark. The light wasn't being seen. Open the

Bible, preach the word, and Reformation. Luther

says, I didn't have to do anything. The word

did it all. I just opened the Bible and let God

speak. Same thing here. That's how revival comes.

But we know this to be true as well. The world

and its systems, they're not going to give up

fighting against us, right? They're not going

to be friendly to us. They want to inflict spiritual

harm. So verse 110 says this, the wicked have

laid a snare for me, yet I've not gone astray

from your precepts. So God's word becomes part

of our spiritual armor. As we're going through

life and man, we all see the snares, right? The

traps that are laid for us, the world just begging

us to come their way. But when we stay rooted

in God's word, we don't go astray. And for how

long do we get to rejoice in God's word? Verse

111, I have inherited your testimonies. How long?

Forever. God's word will go on forever. Because

why? They're the joy of my heart. Ask yourself

that question. Is God's word the joy of your

heart? Forever and ever, we will celebrate every

word that proceeds from the mouth of the Almighty.

But for the here and now, while we're still on

the earth, we have an obligation. Look at verse

112. What's the obligation? I have inclined my

heart to perform your statutes forever, even

to the end. This is an intentional posture that

we take to incline our hearts toward God, toward

the truth of his word, right up until the day

that we pass into eternity. Here's the point

of all this. With all of that laid out, both

Old Testament and New Testament, we would do

well, friends, not to let a single moment go

by, let alone a Sunday, without diving into God's

word to glorify him and to be sanctified by it.

Why would we waste a Sunday doing anything but

that? This is what honors him. This is what sanctifies

us. So we ought to take the preaching of God's

word seriously every single time that we gather.

And if you want a high and lofty idea of this,

John Calvin, the great reformer, believed that

in any true church where the gospel is rightly

preached and the sacraments are rightly administered,

he said that the pulpit of that church represents

God's throne for revealing divine truth. And

that true preaching, when it comes from the word,

should be considered by the congregation the

very voice of God speaking through the lips of

his servant. That's a big vision, isn't it? That's

a heavy burden. And I feel it every single time

I stand behind this pulpit. And so does every

other guy in this church, every elder who gets

up here. We take it very seriously because we

know every time we open the word, lives and souls

are at stake. And it's not to be taken casually.

So with that in mind, let me share with you a

few important principles related to our conviction

about preaching. For the immediate goal of the

preacher on Sunday mornings, the immediate goal,

it's very simple. It's twofold. Explain the text

and apply the text. That's what you should be

listening for. Explain the text, apply the text.

In other words, here's what God has said, right?

Here's how that impacts your walk with him. And

here's how you need to respond. Make sense? Those

are the important things. Now, there's many ways

to do that in preaching. In fact, preaching is

going to look and sound very different at different

types of churches because God uses his servants

with their unique personalities and their unique

bents and their unique voices and all those things.

So it's going to look and sound a little bit

different, but something should always be present

in biblical preaching. Let me give you a list.

Proclaiming. There should always be a proclaiming

aspect of preaching, proclaiming truth. Instructing.

We're always instructing the congregation in

some way. Persuading. Persuading. In other words,

you see it on the page, but let me persuade you

that it's actually true and you should do it.

Persuading. Correcting. Maybe you came here with

a wrong view, and so let's look at the word and

let it correct us. Exhorting. Right? This is

that, hey. Let's go. Get up. Let's go. Let's

do this. We know it's right. Let's do it. We

exhort. What else? Rebuking. Yeah, sometimes

it requires rebukes, right? Because we're stubborn

and we're holding on to things we shouldn't.

So there's a rebuking aspect to it. Then there's

the encouraging aspect. And this is where the

grace overflows, right? So you're like, okay,

I'm forgiven. The cross matters, right? So I

can encourage you as well. And then there's the

inviting. hey, come with me, let's do this. And

maybe it's come to know Christ, maybe it's come

to grow in Christ, but we're inviting one another

in to do it together. But the ultimate goal as

we explain and apply scripture is, of course,

glory to God and second, to build up the believers

in the faith. This is what Paul famously said

in 2 Timothy 3. You all know this verse. He says,

all scripture is inspired by God, God -breathed

and profitable. That's a great word. All scripture

will profit you in these ways, for teaching,

for reproof, for correction, for training in

righteousness, and here's the ultimate purpose,

so that the man of God or the woman of God may

be adequate or complete, equipped for every good

work. 2 Timothy 3 .16 is a great verse to memorize.

That's what every man who comes up to preach

here at Oak Hill wants. to see every one of you

grow towards that sense of completeness in the

Lord, to be built up in your faith and equipped

for whatever kingdom work God calls you to. But

it comes through the preaching of the word and

the teaching of the word. So let me just pause

there. And before we go any further into what

good preaching is, can I mention a few failures

in preaching? I'm kind of an expert at this too.

Been there, done this. but some things that are

red flags, some things that as you're traveling

throughout the world, you hear or see things.

These are some ways that we can not do it in

a biblical way. I'm going to give you, I think

I got four of them. Here's the first one. I'm

going to call this, oh, I want to tell you what's

on my heart sermon. Okay, this is where the preacher

routinely gets up on Sunday mornings and shares

things that he really wants to tell you. He really

wants to tell you what he wants to talk about,

but it's not always grounded in scripture. And

even when he does appeal to the Bible, oftentimes

it's grab a verse here, grab a verse there, rip

it out of the context in order to make his point.

And ultimately what that means is the big idea

of a sermon often comes from his mind, not the

mind of God. It might not be evil, might not

be bad, but it's his mind more than it is the

Lord's. And in many cases, you'll find this happening

at churches. And this is, I'm gonna give you

one of my hobby horses this morning. It happens

at churches that don't have pulpits. Have you

noticed this? There is an actual history in the

theology behind pulpits. They do actually matter.

What happens in these situations is oftentimes

a guy that has the skinniest little stand possible.

Have you seen this? It's off to the side. And

all he does is walk back and forth and make it

look more like a TED Talk than preaching a biblical

sermon. Okay, off my hobby horse. We call this

the, I want to tell you what's on my heart sermon.

The second one, which is already up there, I

went to seminary and I'm determined to make sure

that you know that sermon. This is a danger for

me. Just being honest, right? You know when I

get nerdy about history? Yeah. I have to be careful

about this. This is where the preacher routinely

tries to prove how educated he is and oftentimes

flies right over the heads of the audience with

unnecessary details. Now, there is a wisdom to

what we call putting the cookies up on a high

shelf. If you don't know this, backroom stuff.

There's a whole discussion in preaching about

where the cookies go on the shelf. Okay. In other

words, do I put the cookies on the bottom shelf

so everybody can understand it? Do I lift it

up a little bit to make people sort of stretch

to understand? Do I put it at the very top so

nobody can reach it? It's an actual discussion.

So we've got to be careful that we don't just

put it so high with unnecessary details that

all you're really doing is proving as a preacher,

I'm pretty smart. That's not helpful. So in that

case, folks walk out intellectually challenged.

But they also walk out practically going, I don't

know what to do now. And that's not good. Make

sense? Okay, third one. This is the opposite

of that one. I call it the, I'm in such a hurry

to apply this text that I don't have time to

show you where it comes from sermon. This is

where the preacher jumps right to life application

so quickly and spends so much time on it that

you're scratching your head going, wait, is this

actually from the Bible? Because I'm not sure,

you haven't really showed me that yet. You haven't

proven to me that this is actually a biblical

principle. And that's not helpful either. And

then the last one I'll mention is just the I

have to phone this one in sermon. And this often

happens when the preacher has either had a terrible

week or he's going through something personal

or there's family, whatever it is, he didn't

have the time necessary to really put something

together. Or, yes, it's true, sometimes preachers

get lazy. And they don't commit the time on their

calendar to put in the work that's required for

such a serious undertaking. And it's serious.

And so what happens in this case is the sermon

comes out without any coherent structure to it.

You all feel like it's all over the place. There's

no clear transitions. The ideas don't really

seem to connect. And at the end, you're not really

sure where he was going in the first place or

what the whole point of the message was. because

it's so sort of jumbled up. So these are some

of the things you've got to watch for. These

are some of the things that you should be aware

of, the common failures. And look, I did some

calculations last night, and I may be crazy,

and Tanya can correct me. I think I've preached

somewhere between 800 and 900 sermons over the

years here at Oak Hill. And I know I've laid

some eggs on some of those sermons. I know, right?

And the other team lets me know, hey, that was...

You may have missed it. Look, we all do this.

This happens to every single preacher. And when

that happens, I appreciate your grace. And I

want you to know that even at my age, I am striving

to learn and grow and to get better at this calling

that he has on my life. I want to get better

and better at preaching every single year until

the day comes he either calls me home or pushes

me into retirement. because we should be lifelong

learners and always growing, always putting in

the work, right? Cooperating with the Spirit

of God to bless the body more and more. So, all

right, all that to say, we're coming now back

to the original question. Why do we preach to

entire books of the Bible? Why? Well, here at

Oak Hill, whether it's me or it's Adam or Jeff

Steele or any other elder, we practice something

called expository preaching. I know some of you

heard that term before, and you may think you

know what it means, but it's good to talk about

it. I put a subtitle on the screen there. Letting

the scripture itself set the agenda and drive

or shape the message. Right? Letting the scripture

itself set the agenda and drive or shape the

message. Every Sunday, what I try to do, and

this is my constant prayer before I walk up here,

is to get out of the way. so that you don't remember

me in any way. I've likened it to, if you know

anything about sports, the referees, they're

supposed to disappear. They call the game, but

if you remember the refs at the end of the game,

they've done a terrible job. You want to remember

the players, what they did. It's the same thing

with me. I want to disappear. I want to deliver

God's word, and you remember what God said, not

what Jeff said, or what Jeff wore that day, or

whatever, right? I'm not what really matters.

It's not about me. So you don't want, it doesn't

matter if I'm funny. It doesn't matter if I hold

your attention. None of that matters. It's always

about letting God speak through his word. And

the best way to do that, this is our conviction,

okay? Other churches may do it differently. This

is our conviction, is that we should preach through

entire books of the Bible from beginning to end.

After all, that's the way they were written.

And that's the way they were designed to be read.

Imagine yourself for a second. Picture this scenario.

You're a believer in a first century church.

And the big news comes, the apostle Paul has

written a letter. It's been copied and circulated

and it's now arrived in your hands. And you're

the preacher. And you get up on Sunday and you

say, Paul's written a letter. And then you open

the scroll and you go to the middle and you read

like three verses. And then you close it up and

you go, But let me grab the scroll from Peter

or John, and I'm going to read a couple of verses

there to make my point. Do you know what that

congregation would do? They would question your

sanity. They would say, just read Paul's letter.

I want to read all of it from beginning to end

because Paul has a whole big idea and a flow

of thought and an argument, and we want to hear

all of it. Don't just jump around. Does that

make sense? So expository preaching works its

way through the entire book of a Bible, explaining

and applying. By the way, sometimes moving quickly

and sometimes slowing down, depending on the

context and the complexity of the passage. But

ultimately, we want to teach you every word of

every book. Here's the advantages to doing it

this way. This is hopefully some things that

will convict your heart as well as it's convicted

ours. Number one, here's the advantage of this.

It's the best way to make sure that the preacher

doesn't stray from the text and just start doing

his own thing. Right? Hey, we're going to cover

these six verses today and then next week we're

doing the next six. So it keeps that preacher

on track. He's not out there doing his own thing.

Number two, it authorizes the sermon. Meaning

that... As the message comes out, you know it's

from God and not from the guy. And that naturally

happens. When you work your way through consecutive

passages, one after the other, it can't help

but be God's message, not your own. It authorizes

the sermon. Number three, it teaches the congregation

how to think through a whole book. And part of

our job as pastors and elders is to help you

to read, study, understand, interpret scripture

for yourself. This helps you. You follow along

passage to passage. You start to understand as

we lay those on top of each other, the flow of

the argument. What is it the author is trying

to say? It helps you. as we're doing it. Number

four, it introduces the congregation to the whole

counsel of God. We are told that we should know

the whole counsel of God, both Old Testament

and New Testament, not just selected scriptures,

not just things that the preacher wants to read,

but the whole counsel of God. And number five,

this is my least favorite, it forces the preacher

to have to deal with really hard subjects. I

don't get to go around things. Which so many

preachers do. Be warned. They will work around

things. When I look ahead to 1 Corinthians, it's

daunting. I'm going to have to deal with a whole

chapter on church discipline. And a chapter on

male headship and head coverings for women. Pray

for me. And I'm going to have to talk about divorce.

And I'm going to have to talk about food sacrifice

to idols. and a huge section on the gifts, the

gift of tongues and prophecy and more. Really

hard things. It's going to take extra work on

my part, but I'm excited to jump into it. Let's

go. But I could choose the opposite path. I could

say, well, we're going to teach you 1 Corinthians

topically, and then I could manipulate the series

by avoiding all those really hard passages and

touch on the subjects that are going to please

the crowd and make everybody feel like you're

okay. But that's not our goal. is it? And that

brings me to the opposite of expository preaching,

something we call topical preaching. Now, there

is room for topical preaching in the life of

a church. There is. In fact, sometimes it's really

helpful in a particular season for an elder team

to say, hey, we're going to hit pause and for

six weeks we're going to cover this important

subject. We've done that, for example, on communion.

We've done that on membership. We've done that

many times. By the way, this is a topical sermon

that you're hearing today. So there are times

for it, right? But here's the thing. A church

should not have a steady diet of topical preaching.

Not a steady diet. Because when it does, it means

the preacher is setting the agenda. Not God.

The preacher is determining what subjects you

should hear about and which ones you shouldn't

hear about. And where you find churches that

don't want to preach on hard things for fear

of offending or for fear that people might leave,

in those places you will always find a steady

diet of topical preaching. And in those places

you'll find entire chapters, entire verses, entire

books that will never be touched because of fear.

They'll never be heard. And that is by design.

So instead of me telling you what you need to

hear, I want to let Scripture show you. what

you need to hear. Make sense? Okay, did I beat

that horse to death? Okay, good. Yes or no? Does

everybody understand? Adam at okillbible .com

with any questions. Adam is so busy, I don't

know why. Okay, second conviction I want to talk

about. This will be much shorter, so don't panic.

But let me talk about the second thing that we

really want to talk about. And this is what I

call normative ministry in the church. At Oak

Hill, we're convinced that normative ministry

looks like this, steady, faithful, and ordinary.

Now, that may not sound controversial, but let

me expound on it. We live in an age where the

goal of most churches, whether it's talked about

openly or not, the goal is growth in numbers,

always. And I know this to be true because I

know too many pastors. And I've gone to too many

pastors' conferences. And you know what the first

question guys ask each other when they go to

conferences? How big is your church? 100 % of

the, am I right? All the time. It's the number

one question. How big is your church? I know

too many guys in church leadership. This is their

obsession. And there's a reason for it. It's

sort of built into us as human nature. You know,

this equals success. Big church, successful.

Small church, not successful. And it can become

their identity. It's how they measure their worth

before God. And when a church leader is driven

by that kind of goal, they're always in the grip

of a few great temptations. Number one is the

temptation to compromise in the area of strategies

for the sake of just growing the church, for

putting people in seats. Compromise whatever

it takes. Abandon biblical principles so that

we can pump up the numbers and project, quote,

worldly success. And then say, look what God

has done. But it's a compromise. And so the guide

in those types of churches in the back room is

not really what scripture says. It's what works

best. It's just practical. What works best to

put people in seats. This is more common than

you might think. So wherever you go in this world,

make sure you have your eyes open and look for

those red flags. The other great temptation of

these kinds of churches, it's more subtle. It's

the idea that lots and lots of activity equals

godliness. Especially lots and lots of really

big events, big exciting events. That equals

success in ministry. We fill up the calendar

with all kinds of programs and we seek after

mountaintop experiences for our people that keep

them excited so that they'll come back for more.

And it's a constant spinning of the plates to

make sure everybody's getting their dopamine

hits in the church. Can I say that? Just keeping

them excited. Hey, what's the next thing? In

fact, if you pay close attention to most church

announcements on social media. and I follow all

the churches so I get to watch them, or even

on Sunday mornings, you will hear the word excited

so many times it'll make your head spin. We're

so excited. Everything is so exciting. We're

just excited. Ah. It's the mantra of church marketing.

And you'll find many churches filling up their

social media with this constant drumbeat of big,

exciting news. And then it's conferences and

guest speakers and retreats and concerts and

celebrity appearances, all supported by big lights

and big sound by the big worship team. And it's

all too common. Now, I don't want you to get

the wrong impression. All the things I just mentioned,

they can be good and healthy and actually edifying

to the body. They can be a healthy part of the

life of a congregation if the goal and the motivation

is biblical and correct. And that's a big if.

Now, we plan events at Oak Hill, right? Right?

We just last week, we had tacos. Was it exciting?

I mean, I was pretty excited. They were delicious.

Thank you, Ken. So, you know, we celebrated our

anniversary. That was fantastic, right? We do

church at the beach, which is exciting. I mean,

almost, in ministry, almost you can't stop yourself

from saying it. We do a chili cook -off. We do,

you know, scramble events. You know, and we do

have retreats, right? Men's retreats. Look, they're

good things, but here's where it can go wrong.

Is that what we're really building the church

on? The next big thing. This is the conviction

that we have. One mountaintop experience after

another is not good. Just constant this, constant

this, right? The dopamine hits. Kick the market

plan into gear. Get the people really excited

about the next big thing. Flood the calendar

with a million options. And here's the fallacy

of it, that that will automatically produce spiritual

maturity. All the activity will just, it'll magically

make people grow. If people are just participating,

if they're just involved in everything. But we

found that that's not true. One of the great

truisms that I... that I learned in ministry

many years ago comes from Mark Dever, and I'll

put the quote on the screen because this is so

valuable for anybody that ever goes into ministry,

right? What you win people with is what you win

people to. So if you attract people to your church

with big events, what do you have to keep feeding

them to keep them happy? More big events. In

fact, you've got to get bigger and bigger, right?

It's like a drug. More events, more things. Otherwise,

what? They might go, Oh gosh, we're a little

slow on big events, but oh, that church down

the street, big event coming up, right? Or if

you bring them in with tons of programs and you

got to keep launching new programs for every

little need in the body. You know, we've got

a group for every, for left -handed women in

college or, you know, we got to have a specific

group for everything, right? Because at some

point somebody may go, oh, you know what? There's

not a group that meets my, oh, that church has

that group. And they're out the door. What you

win them with is what you win them to. Do we

have any left -handed college women? Okay, yeah,

yeah. But you get my point, right? What you win

them with is what you win them to. So as an elder

team, this is what we believe the antidote to

that kind of mindset is. Just steady, faithful,

ordinary ministry. Day after day, week after

week, month after month, year after year, it

is the regular grind of walking with one another

through life and ministering to each other. Now,

I know that doesn't sound exciting, but it's

beautiful. It's actually what the Bible describes.

So again, if the word is truth, look, again,

retreats and all those things can be okay, but

they're not found in the Bible. What is found

in the Bible are things like Regular fellowship

and consistent prayer and ongoing discipleship

and outreach and evangelism in our community

and seeking unity as a body and mutual encouragement

and serving one another and gathering on Sundays

and engaging in the preaching of the word, opening

ourselves up to accountability and confession,

bearing one another's burdens, loving each other

well. That is steady, faithful, ordinary ministry.

It's found in the word, rooted in the truth.

And we believe that is normative Christianity.

Those are the things we want to win people with.

Because if you'll buy into that, if you'll say,

that's what I want, man, we got opportunities

for you to do that all day long. And it's good

and it's biblical. That's what will win you too.

And you can be a part of this amazing community

of believers. And yes, by the way, we're going

to sprinkle in fun events. That's okay. That's

actually really good, right? Think of our church

events that we have like a delicious piece of

cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory. It's

like, I mean, you take me to Cheesecake Factory.

Have I said that out loud yet? Oh, man, double

fudge ripple, whatever. But you can't have that

as your steady diet. But when you get it, it

is amazing. It's the bomb, man. It's just so

good. And that's how church events should be.

Those should be really rich, precious times,

but it can't be the steady diet. Does that make

sense? In church life, things can be occasional

and awesome, and they can be received with thanksgiving

and enjoyed to the fullest. God gives us all

things to enjoy, but it's the living out of the

ordinary essentials of the faith. that should

get us the most excited. So let me close with

this. Let me come back to this. What are you

supposed to do with this that I've just laid

out today? Let me give you a couple things. First,

I really want you to consider what I've shared

this morning. And I want each of you, not just

to believe me, but go ahead and hold what I've

said up to scripture and to practical wisdom.

Test it. That's a good exercise for all of us.

Second, Ask any questions you might have. If

what I've said this morning raises a question,

will you reach out to me? There is never a bad

question in church ministry. Reach out to me

or to another elder. Say, I need some more clarity

on this. I want to make sure that I understand

this well. Third, be encouraged that your leaders

actually think about these things. That our elder

team takes them seriously. That we spend the

time and the energy to develop convictions about

them because they matter to you. They matter

to all of us together. Be encouraged that our

goal is always to bring glory to God and to see

you grow spiritually, never to compromise what

we know to be true, never to chase after trends

or try to market ourselves into worldly success

or church growth for the sake of numbers. And

finally, number four, don't just rely on our

convictions, develop your own. It's good that

if you follow our example, right? Follow me as

I follow Christ. but develop your own convictions.

Paul told the Roman church that's exactly what

they should be doing. He said, look, in non -essential

matters, each man should be fully convinced in

his own mind. You should develop convictions.

Explore these ideas by the way of the word and

in prayer and consultation with your leaders

and let's do this together. Let's get to work

building the kingdom of God with steady, faithful,

ordinary ministry that powers this local church.

Amen? Thanks for hearing me out. Let's pray.

Father, these issues of ministry philosophy,

of church life can be so confusing, God, because

of all the activity that's happening down here

on the earth and well -meaning folks and folks

that may not be well -meaning, but but so many

different variations and varieties of church

to look at and to try to understand. And it can

all be overwhelming, Lord. So many books being

written. And Father, I just, I pray today that

more than anything else, we would just come back

to your word and we would focus our hearts and

minds there on biblical principles. What does

it look like to be a part of the greater body

of Christ, but also a local body of Christ? And

because of that, Lord, how does that impact us?

And what should we do next? Father, I pray that

you will continue to guide and lead our elder

team as we seek unity in these important convictions,

that we would take them seriously and that we

would lead this flock of sheep with care and

just being careful, Lord, to love them well and

to not give them whiplash, but to walk with them

patiently and kindly as we... as we take this

journey through life together. And that's what

it is, Lord. We want to love each other well.

So help us to do that. And Father, now as we

sing praises to you once again, may we sing with

all honesty. May it come from the depths of our

heart as we praise you for your goodness in our

lives. Help us to do that well, we pray in Christ's

name.