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You ever heard a sermon like this?
“You ain’t doing this!”
“You ain’t doing that!”
“You better straighten up!”
And then the preacher concludes the sermon…
OK…the Closing song is….
Have you preached that sermon?
Have you heard sermons like that?
It is almost like a template…switch the subject to a number of things….
You just berate the people about their shortcomings…and then you close the sermon…
Ok…you preached like that…
You know what…
That approach to preaching has a significant problem…
You want to know what the problem is?
1) Where is the Good News?
And related to that….
2) Where is the power for better living?
The people could be thinking, I know I ain’t doing right…I knew that before you started preaching…but where is the power to help me in your sermon?
And finally….
3) Where is Jesus….where is Grace?
Where did your preaching leave me?
I was hell-bound before the sermon…you told me I’m hell-bound in the sermon…and I now I go home..hell-bound…
Maybe a little more informed about the extent of my problem…
But still in no place to change my direction…
OK…Cox…you saying that I can’t tell folks they ain’t doing right?
Nope…you ain’t listening…
How bout you preach something like this…
“You ain’t doing this…
But God has forgiven those of us who stand with God…”
See good news…
“You ain’t doing that…but God has made a way of escape where we don’t have to keep doing that…”
Ahh…you mean I don’t have to be hell bound?
More…
“You ain’t doing this but God has empowered us…God has straitened us up…God has fixed our feet…God has fixed our sight…God has opened the door…God has made it possible…
Oh I feel my help coming…
“God died so now I don’t have to die…Yeah I know I messed up..but God…”
I know I ain’t lived how I should have lived…But God…”
OK…yall done got me to preachin up in here…lol…
In any case…the key that I am giving you today is don’t send anybody to hell in any of your sermons unless you give them the way to heaven…
I need to say that again…
Don’t send anybody to hell and sit down without opening and celebrating the way to heaven…
Yeah…I feel like saying that one more time…
Don’t you dare preach one of God’s children into hell without telling that child how to get to heaven…
That’s what I am talking bout when I say preach good news…
And it ain’t just about heaven in glory..
Don’t tell anybody about why and how they messed up their life down here, without preaching bout a God who steps down here and helps us through the problems, even self inflicted ones, down here…
You know why people ain’t always responding to your sermons…maybe just maybe you might be sending them to hell and you ain’t showing the way out…
But when you show them the key to heaven that God gave you to preach…then the folks cannot help but praise…
I know there are times that the people must be admonished…but remember the key…if you preach about your folks doing wrong..always preach about that way that the Jesus made at the cross…
See Good News is at the base of my homiletic. Yeah you better talk about the ethical demands of the gospel..ok…but you also better talk about some good news…
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