How To Balance Saint-Sanctifying, Seeker-Sensitive Preaching (part 6)

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In this series, I’m summarizing some of the things effective preachers do to hit both outsiders (unbelievers) and insiders (saints who entered the building with ears to hear) with an insider-directed message (cf. 1 Corinthians 14:24-25 for an example). These are ways in which men like Jonathan Edwards, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, and Tim Keller (of Redeemer Presb’ in NYC) reach both audiences.

So far we’ve noted the following effective rhetorical devices:

  1. Categorizing your listeners according to their spiritual condition
  2. Searching the hearts with probing questions
  3. Motivating listeners through both love for God and fear of God
  4. Attack the sin behind the sins

Today’s tip is: Speak the thoughts and reasoning of sinners (both the justified and unjustified)

In describing Edwards’ approach, Carrick highlights the need to try to put your finger on “the secret language” of the hearts of our listeners (The Preaching of Jonathan Edwards, p. 302). This involves trying to figure out what the non-Christian and Christian might be thinking about the particular theology being communicated.

Apart from Keller’s unique, Christ-centered hermeneutic/homiletic, the one thing I’ve benefited from from Keller’s approach is his ability to articulate how his listeners are thinking about the preaching portion. This involves, of course, reading and listening to commentaries about our culture (newspaper, news reports, magazines, books, films). It involves listening to what people are saying whenever they declare their thoughts about life.

Carrick described Edwards as having “an incisive knowledge of the human heart” (p. 269). Add to that the ability to put words in our listener’s mouths, the things they should be saying. It’s an effective combination that helps “unmask the man.”

I must admit that this is the one area I’ve had to work on the most and am still working on. I find it much easier to exegete the Text than the pew. I’ve also found that the more I study my own depraved heart, the easier it is for me to speak the secret language of the hearts of my congregants.

Preach well for sake of God’s reputation in the Church and in the world.

Randal

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Categories: communication, pastoral preaching, relevance, results, sermon development
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