Preaching to the Affections without Manipulating Them - John Piper, Voddie Baucham, Miguel Núñez

there's an assumption behind this topic about preaching to the affectionate that that's a good idea why is that a good idea I mean we shouldn't preach to the mind I mean wouldn't I think Martin lloyd-jones said if you try to target the affections you're gonna want it men manipulating people I think it's the issue that sure so is it the mind or the affections or how do you do both or yeah I think it'd be great if somebody were to write something about that that could get could be helpful for us here but I if you ask is that the mind of the affections my answer is yes yeah yeah then we absolutely preach to the mind and preach to the affections and I think that starts with our own affections because as we encounter the Word of God and the Word of God encounters us we are affected by the word yeah I think that I think that's where it begins I think once our mind is able to see the greatness and the majesty of God it would be impossible that our emotions will not be affected yeah God has been called all kinds of things but I have never heard anyone calling God boring so boring yeah I guess my best illustration of that is when I first went to the Grand Canyon I have I have seen it in pictures and have heard about it and then I got closer and closer and closer and once I was at the border of the Grand Canyon I was just I was marveling at the greatness and the the colors and how majestic this look and I was so moved by it my emotions were now being removed I bent forward and as I'm looking toward the left and I'm looking toward the right something came to me that says this is the creation imagine what the Creator and all that he was happening was that it was discovering the world of the Grand Canyon that I never saw before yeah so as long as preaching will unpacked yeah the greatness of God the emotions will be moved it is impossible to have one thing with us at least that's the goal and and there are people though McGill who are bored by God no all right now they're bored by God and and or by the way God has represented all I know which is why this topic matter yeah because I like you implied I think if a person is bored by God he's representing God pretty bad that's right in other words his emotions are saying God's boring if God is not boring which is which is why we must preach for the affections my mantra which you hid it at the beginning was God is most glorified in me when I'm most satisfied in him which means if that's true and I live for the glory of God I can't preach and say oh it really doesn't matter that you're whether you're satisfied with God just matters that you understand him perfectly just understand him perfectly but you'll have to be moved you have any affections for him that that's a God who's half glorified they are the truth is known and nothing to their emotions or their heart if preaching aims for that it is aiming to dishonor it is rejoice in the Lord always again I say rejoice taste and see that the Lord is good sing to the Lord a new song sing to the Lord all the earth I mean it just the scriptures hit us that way so certainly as we preach the scriptures we ought to be thinking that in that way but at the same time there is a danger in preaching to the affections in a way that becomes manipulative and so then when we write our sermons instead of thinking about what it is that were to communicate and what it is that this text is really getting at what we start thinking about is how do people respond and how do I get the greatest emotional impact and that's when removals Linda might be late what's the difference between work and the crowd for that for that goal that we say we want only we want to be authentic and and preaching in such a way that you don't give a hoot about that how do you how do you preach in such a way to his awakened authentic god-honoring emotions rather than than height I think if we preach to the emotions to these for the sake of the emotions just so that we could feel good about ourselves and that's how we're gonna end up being manipulative but I don't think we should do that we should preach about God and as he's being reveal and the mind is able to comprehend who God is then the emotions will follow we are commanded to love Lord thy God with all your mind and all your heart yes so our nature our entire nature should be involved in worship yeah and that's our emotions are part of that so if I'm going to submit my entire nature to God in worship is because those emotions have been touched but they need to be taught by a revelation of his truth not by a manipulation of the emotion for the sake of emotions so it's kind of misleading to say preach to the emotions because Roy Jones is probably right that you should go after the emotions indirectly that is through the mind to the difference between emotionalism and emotion that's godly is whether you you have awakened it with truth isn't it that's what I'm saying a pastor and the difference being intellectualism and true use of the intellect is that intellectualism discounts the emotion yeah so and we just desperately as preachers don't want to go to either one of those right it only emotionalism and we know intellectual ism we want both did the person who I've said this in a sentence that I have never forgotten from a point 35 years ago is what is edwards and he said I consider it my duty to raise the affections of my hers as high as I possibly can which sounds really dangerous like he's gonna work this crowd as high as I possibly can provided I raised them with nothing but the truth and then he said one more thing and in proportion to the truth there was there's there's hell truths which shouldn't make people pop yes or be happy should make it yes yes and there's heaven type truths that shouldn't make people sad make them dancers there's proportionality in the kind of truth and you're always with book expositing in the hopes that that that grand canyon effect would happen because you just spread it you just dug a canyon for them with this text and I think it's important also when I think about preaching to the emotions not absolutely right we don't we don't preach with a view toward manipulating the emotions but I think there's something to be said for preaching that acknowledges proper emotional response yeah I think that's one of the things that you do so masterfully is you're you're in attacks near preaching the text and there are these moments where you acknowledge our human condition and interaction and response to this great truth and what it ought to bring about but but doing that not in the sense of feel like this act like this so on and so forth but addressing addressing the mind with these theological truth but this theological truth about how we ought to respond to it emotionally and if we're not responding to it this way then it's because we're not seeing it the way that we ought to and and so I think that's very important a from from that part of addressing emotions at our preaching right right and if we do faithful expository preaching as we spoke earlier then there will be less chances that we will be at manipulating the emotions because we're just trying to present what God revealed about himself and that's important for this generation that as somebody said here's through the eyes but then think through the emotions and that's not what we want we won the generation to think through the mind so that the emotions will follow second area because of the revelation that the mind is apprehended yeah so can I cut open a can of worms not a big one because okay okay okay they can do it this is a we can lose just for us this is just for us and so now people say to you and they say to me you know to to brand black you know all that intellectual stuff you're the essence of your culture is this emotional preaching in this emotional worship so now you come with expository preaching toward people's intellect for you you're denying your culture you're denying your your heritage you're denying your ethnicity you're trying to be jump up or you're trying to be white now I don't know if you have heard this but I've heard it on more than one occasion so there's the can of worms well as you know Hispanics are and I'm Hispanic are very emotion and that is one of the problems with with the Hispanic culture many times that the emotions are being moved not necessarily by the truth that is being presented but rather by the cultural background upbringing where people may have and that's when they are easily manipulated I wasn't believing once with another preacher and and he did this he did this exercise he said ah and really sensing the presence of God here amen and then the crowd went and then and he said no no no he's really here I'm Danny crying louder amen and then he said you don't get it this God is really here and people went just crazy and then he stopped and said you know what I'm not sensing anything you were just manipulated by me wow I thought that was a great exercise to show he wasn't saying anything about God at that moment right he wasn't really presenting any great lecture about God he was just moving the people according to the culture or bringing them when you say there is a man and that's what we need to guard against so we have I think some culture need to learn more about the emotion of the right aspects of the emotion right the affections that Jonathan Ayres will call it and religious affections yes and then some other cultures like mine is to learn about the exercise of the mind in apprehending the truth you know what I'd like to be known as what's that best black preacher ever was or like you know I mean I don't I don't know I don't think I don't think when you said we're gonna try to be like John I want to be I want to be the best of both worlds that's what you guys are the best of us was it every every Church not just culture every church is gonna have its own flavor of responsiveness over time but the the truths we're trying to get at here are not unique to any one culture right we're not we're not saying preach to the emotions if you're in a certain culture I'm saying every human being is wired with a heart and a head we can all learn from each other and and you said something early I'll close a close with this cuz I know we're supposed to be done preaching this stuff to ourselves so that we are moved this is going to be the key yeah whether people are awakened to that truth because if I preach like what I'm saying is of modest importance that's what they're gonna think yes and that's what they're gonna feel so thanks brothers gonna be together thank you you

Channel: Sheila L.

Views: 14,849

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Keywords: The Gospel Coalition, John Piper (Author), Voddie Baucham, Miguel Núñez, Affections

Id: Ey1L7hy6Jxg

Length: 12min 46sec (766 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 30 2013