Tips for New Expositors - The Expositor Podcast

[Music] welcome to the expositor podcast with dr. Steven J Lawson dr. Lawson is the founder and president of one passion ministries the expositor podcast is focused on taking your preaching to the next level now here's dr. Lawson in this session I want to address tips for new expositors we all have to start somewhere all new expositors have to start at Ground Zero that's where I started that's where every other expositor has started and the same will be true for you and those are wonderful days I remember when I first began to preach the Word of God and there was a joy of discovery every time that I would prepare a message every time I would stand up to give it and that joy continues to this day but there was a special joy about those early sermons almost like the first time you kissed your wife I mean there was a special excitement about that and so it so it is as you begin to expose it the scripture so what are some tips as you begin your ministry as an expository things I could say so this is not a comprehensive list I'm just cherry-picking some some key ideas to help you and these will be very obvious to you as well but number one I would begin with a short book if you're graduating from seminary and you've never preached expositionally more than just a few times in Sunday school it's probably not the best idea to start with Isaiah pinko verse by verse through the entire Book of Isaiah or even a long gospel like Matthew I would start with a shorter book I know when I graduated from seminary I started with Colossians there's a lot of expositors who have started with Colossians or it could be Philippians it could be Titus it could be 1st or 2nd Timothy but it's a manageable size you can get your arms around shorter shorter book and you don't feel as intimidated as you would if you were preaching a longer book so the first thing I would say is I would start with a shorter book in the Bible or a shorter section within a larger book for example rather than preaching the whole Gospel of Matthew you could begin with the Sermon on the Mount which is just three chapters Matthew 5 through 7 there's an old saying it's hard by the yard but it's inch by the inch so the more you can narrow down the number of chapters that you would preach to begin with I think would be of help to you the second is to find good study aids to be able to find some good commentaries and some good expository sermons that can age you and your sermon preparation finding good commentaries is relatively easy and if you're a graduate of seminary you've already had an exposure through the campus bookstore and papers that you've had to write going into the library it may be harder to find some expository sermons on the book that you would choose to preach through but as you would find those they give you an example it's not that you would copy it it's not that you would necessarily imitate it in its whole but you can see how another experienced seasoned expositor broke up a passage how he crafted an outline how he introduced the message him how he used key word studies and cross-references how he applied it that would be a tremendous help to any new expositor and in 3rd find the literary unit find the the paragraph of thought and here's just a key for you new expositors tend to take more verses per sermon older expositors tend to take fewer verses per sermon and the reason for that is very simple and the longer you preach the more you know and the more you know the more you have to say and as I began preaching I had far less to say then because I knew less then and so I was covering more verses and so as I would sit down to prepare a message I'm getting my arms around a larger cluster of verses I think you would find the same true in your ministry and then the fourth thing I would say to you is deal with the text dig down into the text do not depart from the text just be a mouthpiece for the text you don't have to be clever you don't have to be creative you don't have to be entertaining you just need to be a mouthpiece for this text and say and teach what this text says and teaches and then show its relevance to the listener but the point I'm making right now is stain the text you don't have to come up with all kinds of original insight again if it's new it's not true we go back to old paths you don't want to find anything in the Bible that no one else has ever found and as you're digging into the text just unpack it and deliver it as as you preach and I would also encourage you to have a simple outline whether it's three headings four headings five headings an outline helps you divide the passage it's almost like taking a pie and cutting it up into different slices or pieces it becomes much more manageable as you have an outline and it keeps you on track it prevents you from veering off and away from the text and going off on a long journey so that would be my encouragement for you and the last thing I would say is write a manuscript write right out your sermon right out what you're going to say be very comfortable and well acquainted with that manuscript before you preach whether you take it into the pulpit or not you've already given prior thought to what you would say and I think that you would find that to be very helpful well what an exciting time this is for you and your new ministry and in your life and as you begin to be an expository to really learn and that's just a jump into the deep end of the pool and learn how to swim and just to begin this week by week by week process of expounding the Word of God God will use you in a great way as you trust him thank you you

Channel: OnePassionMinistries

Views: 10,230

Rating: 4.9885387 out of 5

Keywords: Bible, Study, Men's, Men, Word, Scripture, Verses, Romans, Teach, Preach, Steve Lawson, Steven J Lawson, One Passion, One Passion Ministries, Christ, Jesus, Church, God

Id: 6w_DjzBPVBM

Length: 7min 31sec (451 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 09 2018