(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Alright, we're here in Ezekiel chapter 6, and we're going to be finishing up our sermon series on teaching principles. And it's been a three-part series, and if you remember, the first sermon we talked about basically just being understandable when you preach. That your main job as a preacher is when you preach a sermon or when you teach, or when you teach anything, whether or not it's a sermon or outside of that, the person who's listening needs to be able to understand what you're saying. So you don't use these Bible college terms that nobody knows. You actually use words that people actually understand, because their goal is they can understand the sermon and apply it to their lives. Now last week we talked about being bold but gentle and meek when we preach, and we talked about how there's a certain way we should say things even if we are preaching very hard. And today's sermon is going to be basically on educational but interesting. So the balance of we're actually teaching people, but you do it in an interesting way. Because the Bible teaches both of these things that obviously we're the pillar and ground of the truth. We need to be teaching, but we should try to do it in an interesting way. Also, this would apply outside of when you're preaching sermons and when you're teaching anything, but I wanted to preach the sermon series to help you young guys out that are looking to preach from time to time. I wanted you guys to get some experience and learn some things that I didn't know when I was a new preacher. Now turn to Ezekiel 25. Ezekiel 25. And if one of you guys could get me maybe a cup of water, I forgot to get some. And we're in Ezekiel chapter 25. Actually, go back to Ezekiel 6 for a second. Sorry about that. Keep your place in Ezekiel 25. Go back to Ezekiel 6. I forgot to show you the verse I wanted to. Ezekiel chapter 6. And I want to show you a verse here real quickly in Ezekiel 6, and we'll look at Ezekiel chapter 25. Thanks, brother. And in Ezekiel chapter 6, verse 11, notice what the Bible reads. Thus saith the Lord God, smite with thine hand, and stamp with thy foot, and say, Alas for all the evil abominations of the house of Israel, for they shall fall by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence. And so the Bible says smite with thine hand, and that would basically be similar to basically pounding the pulpits. That's what the Bible's teaching. You say, why do you pound the pulpit? Well, it gets people's attention. So when you're falling asleep during the sermon, it's like, ah! What was he talking about? It wakes you up. And so the Bible says that you smite with your hand. This is a technique you use when you preach. And the Bible says you stamp with thy foot. Basically, you're passionate or loud about something, and it's a technique you do to get people's attention. Now, obviously, when you're preaching a sermon, you shouldn't just the entire time be doing that. What you're trying to do is highlight certain times. Look, if the entire sermon I'm screaming, the result is you're just going to drown me out. If the entire time I'm quiet, you're going to drown me out. What you do is you pick certain moments to get passionate about something. And honestly, this is hard to fake. And so usually when you're preaching hard against sin, if you really mean it, it causes you to be passionate. And this is what the Bible teaches, but I want you to turn to Ezekiel 25. Here's what you need to understand. If you're preaching a sermon and you are not that excited about it, the listeners will not be that excited. When you preach a sermon, you must make it very important in your own head, or people are not going to grab attention to that. You want to hear somebody who's actually passionate about what they're saying, so every single sermon you've got to find a way to be passionate about. Now, this is not the easiest thing, because, quite honestly, there are certain topics I'm more passionate about than other people. And so if there's something I really care about, I'm going to be more passionate, but it's something you need to learn how to do when you're teaching anything, but especially when you're preaching sermons. But the first point is this, that false prophets, they tend to be interesting. False prophets, they tend to be interesting. In Ezekiel 25, verse 6, the Bible reads, For thus saith the Lord God, because thou hast clapped thine hands, and this is similar to smiting with your hand, but clapping your hands, and stamped with thy feet, which is the same, and rejoiced in heart with all thy despite against the land of Israel. And so what the Bible says about these false prophets is they are interesting. You say, why? Because what makes them successful as a false prophet is because they're interesting. That is how they get people's attention, and you must realize false prophets, they do tend to be interesting. So we're teaching about how to preach sermons and how to teach things, but I'm also trying to show you something, that just because somebody is interesting, that doesn't mean they're right. There are a lot of people that are interesting speakers that are ungodly and wicked people. In America, T.D. Jakes is the great example. T.D. Fakes is very dynamic. I mean, he will preach, and you can take a 20-second clip, and if he doesn't say any heresy, you're going to think, man, he's on fire today. That is great. Who is that preacher? Oh, it's a Pentecostal preacher. It's like, oh, whoops. He sounds great when he speaks. You know, you say, why? Because successful false prophets, they are going to mask the fact that they're not teaching anything in their heretics by being interesting, okay? He is a very good speaker. You can look at history at a guy by the name of Jim Jones. Who knows Jim Jones? He's the famous cult leader who went to Guyana, and I remember hearing a 30-second clip of him preaching, and I remember I basically saved that on my phone, and I was giving it to other people to listen to, because he sounded like the greatest preacher I've ever heard for 30 seconds. So this guy said he was the son of God on earth. There's no new thing under the sun. You say, you know, I'm not going to say anything else, but look, that's always existed, okay? He said he's the son of God on earth, Jim Jones, okay? But you could hear a 30-second clip in his younger days before he got really into drugs, and he just was way out of it, and he sounded very dynamic, and I could see why he'd get so many people to follow him, okay? He was very interesting, but what was he actually teaching? Well, he's teaching, I am the son of God here on earth. I remember when Barack Obama, before he became the president, I was visiting my parents from college, and they were watching Fox News, and I didn't know who this guy was, but he started, you know, teaching or saying whatever, and the crowd just started chanting, Obama, Obama. This was right after Osama, Osama bin Laden, and I'm like, what are they saying? And I told my parents, he will become the next president, and my parents said he's not even in the running. But in his early days, which I don't know what happened to him either, he was a very good speaker, and that is why so many people followed him, and people that are phonies, oftentimes they are good speakers. When I was in Guyana on a missions trip, I preached at this school to about this classroom of 50 people, and I preached to them, but they had double-booked us, so right after me was a Pentecostal preacher. Now, the way the room was, it was very crowded, so I really couldn't get out of there after I got done preaching. So I had to listen to this Pentecostal priest for 15 minutes, but he was so dynamic, and you could hear clips of what he was saying, and you're thinking, amen, and everybody's screaming amen, but he mentioned so much heresy in what he was saying, and he actually wasn't really saying much at all. It sounded like he was saying something because he was passionate, but in reality, if you paid attention to his words, he didn't really teach anything. And see, that is what false prophets do. They get very excited and energetic, and people think they're a good speaker, but number one, what are they teaching you? See, we as Christians, whenever we hear sermons, you better make sure what you're hearing is true, no matter how interesting it is. Turn to Deuteronomy 13. You say, how does that apply to us? It applies to us because of the fact you will listen to a lot of sermons online. There's a lot of like-minded pastors, and as far as I know about these people, they are like-minded, but you better make sure what they're saying is true, because I promise you there have been phonies before. There will be phonies in the future. You better make sure that, well, just because everybody loves them, you better make sure what they're saying is actually true, that every word coming out of their mouth is true, and that is true whether it's with somebody who's a phony or someone who's a saved person, because the Bible says you search the Scriptures and make sure those things are correct. Just because they're energetic and excited, what are you actually learning from them? Look, what I've always said and what I believe is that my favorite sermons are the ones where I learn something. Now, when people are kind of at the younger stages of Christianity, oftentimes they get really excited about sermons, but honestly, if you've been saved for a long time in soul winning, you want to learn something. Isn't that true? And so the truth is that the most important thing that you're doing when you're preaching is to actually be teaching something, okay? Not just screaming, but actually teach somebody something new. Now, look at Deuteronomy 13, verse 1, where the Bible reads, If there arise among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them. And so what we see here is a false prophet that makes a sign that actually comes true. That doesn't change the fact they're a false prophet, though, because what are they saying? They're saying, go serve some other god. Look, false prophets, they make predictions all the time. There's a famous false prophet in Africa, and he really went out on a limb several years ago, and he said that, you know, I had a vision, and there's going to be a woman that's the president of the United States. Now, here's the thing about this. It seemed like a sure thing because nobody thought Donald Trump was going to win. So he had this vision that this woman was going to become the president the next week, and then, of course, Donald Trump became the president, and that made him look like a fool. You say, even if it had come true, though, that doesn't mean he's a good person, though. Just because you say something that happens to be right that doesn't make you a good person. Everybody who's a false prophet believes some things that are right, okay? You have to look at everything that they're saying. But it talks about giving a sign or a wonder, and a sign or a wonder is something that you're going to see and say, man, he must be from God. And false prophets, they mask the fact that they're not teaching you anything by being entertaining. You say, what exactly is this? That is the Pentecostal church. That is their whole church. They teach you nothing, but they're interesting. They're entertaining. Yeah, it's entertaining watching someone roll around on the ground and scream. Well, it's really entertaining. It must be of God. It's like, are you kidding me? And it's like, yes, that's their whole religion. They teach nothing, but they're very entertaining. They practice at a young age to learn how to be entertaining, but they don't have to worry about actually teaching something. If you preach a real sermon, you have to actually think about what am I actually teaching people? I can't just get up here and scream and throw stuff and just, Brother Ehrman, come here. I'm just going to deck you. It's like, but that's what the Pentecostal church does. It's very interesting, but what are they teaching? Verse number three, Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the Lord your God proveth you to know whether ye love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Ye shall walk after the Lord your God and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him and cleave onto him. Now, notice what it says in verse three how God is going to prove us. You say, why does God allow all these false prophets to exist? He allows them to exist because He's testing us. That's what the Bible teaches. God allows wickedness and sin out there because, quite honestly, the world is going to be difficult. God does allow the devil to have some sort of reign here on earth. He's the God of this world, the Bible says, about the devil. Obviously, God is in full power, but He does allow us to go through tests and trials in our lives. And so what He always tells us in the Word of God is, no matter what you're hearing, you make sure that what is being said is true. Even for people that are good people, they are going to preach things that are not always 100% right. I promise you, I've said things that are not 100% right. I can't remember the example offhand, but I listened to my sermon from last week, and it was put on YouTube, and there was something where I was preaching about something, and I said the exact opposite. I misspoke. And it's like, you know what? Guess what? People that are men of God can misspeak sometimes. I've been preaching against repentance of sins for salvation, and then just said the exact opposite in one snippet. Now, for five minutes, I was ripping on it, but sometimes you just misspeak. And so when you're listening to the sermons, I want you to test and make sure everything I'm saying is true, because everybody makes mistakes, okay? Now turn to Romans 16. Romans 16. Romans chapter 16. Romans 16. Now, this does not just apply when preaching sermons, but when you're hearing somebody say whatever it is, somebody's teaching you something or talking to you about something, make sure that what they're saying is true, and it's not just some eloquent speech that they're making. Notice what it says in Romans 16, verses 17 and 18. Now, I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and defenses contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned, and avoid them. For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple. The Bible speaks about someone who would come into a church and destroy it, and by using good words and fair speeches, they basically cause all kinds of havoc. Look, you know, the Bible says that if you're deceived by this person, you're a simple person. It means you're ignorant. It means you're naive. Look, our church, as it grows, we will have false people come into this church and try to cause problems behind the scenes. That is inevitable. You say, why? Because that's what you see in the Bible. And if you are naive, you're going to fall for it because the Bible says they're going to deceive the hearts of the simple. How are they going to do it? By being very eloquent in what they say, and people are going to fall for it. Look, if somebody comes and just says, well, you know, I don't know, Brother Stuckey, he shouldn't have done that, and they start to subtly cause problems in the church, watch out for that person. Why? Because inside their heart, they might be doing it intentionally trying to cause problems. And if you are a simple person, and you're naive, you're going to fall for it. Just because somebody sounds eloquent when they speak, you must make sure that the words they're saying are accurate. Okay? The most important thing is what are the words, not how are those words delivered. Okay? It says fair speeches because this is a speech or something they're telling someone that's done in a very eloquent and deceiving way. Turn to Proverbs 7. Proverbs 7. Proverbs 7. Proverbs 7, verse 21. Right after the book of Psalms, Psalms is in the very middle of your Bible. The next book is the book of Proverbs. Proverbs 7, verse 21. And there's one other time it mentions fair speeches in the Bible, and it's here in Proverbs 7, verse 21, where it says, with her much fair speech, she caused him to yield. With the flattering of her lips, she forced him. And it talks about a woman who is a harlot. Okay? Here's a woman who's trying to deceive a guy into basically committing fornication. Fornication, adultery, or whatever. And she does it with a fair speech. But be very careful if there's some woman that just says, oh, I just care about you so much. What is she actually trying to get you to do? You say, why does the Bible mention this? Because of the fact it's a real issue in the world? There are plenty of guys that are Christian guys. They lose their virginity because of some woman with a fair speech. Now, obviously, we know there's guys that do the same thing to women. But what's what they're actually saying? It doesn't matter how eloquent they are in what they're saying. What are they actually trying to get you to do? And it's interesting because it says, with the flattering of her lips, she forced him. That is the same terminology the Bible uses for raping someone. Forcing someone. And yet, with her words, and you have to understand, especially you guys that are single guys, be very careful until you're married. And if you are married, be very careful. Make sure that you're not spending time with someone you're not married to or you could cause problems. Make sure, look, I don't hang out with girls that I'm not married to. I hang out with my wife and that's it. You say, well, for a second, it's just for a business thing. You better be very careful because the Bible speaks about how you can lose your virginity. You need to keep your purity. And it says, with fair speech. And this is something that people do. They mask what they're saying with how they're saying it. Now turn in your Bible to Hosea 4. Hosea 4. And so that's kind of a bit of an introduction, but let's go to point number 2 where the fact is when you are teaching something, the number one primary thing is that you are educational. Okay? That does not negate the fact that you should be interesting. We'll talk about that later on. But number one is this. We must be educational. This is our second point. We must be educational when we're teaching something, especially when we're preaching sermons. Hosea 4, verse 6. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee that thou shalt be no priest to me, seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. The Bible speaks about God's people being destroyed for lack of knowledge. You say, why is it that people grow up in Baptist churches here in the Philippines, and yet they basically forsake the ways of God and don't live for God? Because they learn nothing in church? They're destroyed for lack of knowledge? We've all been to those churches where you know you show up on Sunday morning, you're going to learn nothing, absolutely nothing. You will learn nothing, and you won't even be motivated to do something in your life. Absolutely nothing you learn in church, and you just simply go because of obligation. And the Bible says in Hosea 4, God's people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Church is the pillar and ground of the truth. And yet most churches, they don't really care about that because they're more interested in pleasing people. Okay? Now turn to Hosea 6. Hosea 6. But you know, even outside of preaching a sermon, look, when your kids are growing up, they need to be educated and learn. Because if you don't have knowledge, you will destroy your life. You need to have knowledge. Look, when my son gets older, I was homeschooled starting in middle school, and our son will be homeschooled once he's of age. It's like, you know what? I'm going to take it very seriously though. My wife is going to take it very seriously and make sure our son is actually learning. You say, why? Because he needs a good education because if you don't have knowledge, you're going to be in trouble in this world. And look, it's not easy to make it here in the Philippines. You need to be educated at a young age and prepare yourself for life. You say, why, Brother Stuckey, do you preach so much about finances around here? Because I want you to be able to make the choices that you want to make. I want you to be prepared for life. The Bible says God's people are destroyed for lack of knowledge, but even outside of sermons, just not having knowledge in life is going to destroy you. But even when you're older, you should never reach a point in your life where you're not trying to learn something. We should always be learning new things and be educated, be smart people. Hosea 6, verse 6, the Bible reads, For I desired mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. Notice how what God desires is that you have knowledge about Him. That knowledge is found in the Word of God. You say, Brother Stuckey, would God rather that I put, I don't know, 50,000 pesos in the offering or that I read the Bible every day? He'd rather you read the Bible every day. Now, yes, I believe in tithing. I believe the Bible teaches that. But look, you don't have to go above what the Bible says and say, well, you know, I'm forsaking my Bible reading. I don't pray, but here's more money to church. No, that's not acceptable. He'd rather that you have knowledge of Him and you're expected to read the Bible. Now, look, of course, we love when people donate. We love when people tithe. But more important than just giving your tithe, more than just going above and beyond, is just having knowledge of God. It's more important that you read your Bible according to what God says. Turn to 1 Samuel 2. I will do my very best at Verity Baptist Church Manila to give you the truth of God's Word in heavy doses, to teach you as much as I can, but you're gonna learn more about the Bible if you go home and study it for yourself. Look, I have learned a lot of great things from great preachers that are men of God, but I have learned more by reading the Bible for myself. When it comes to sermons I preached, over 90% are just things that I got from memorizing or reading the Bible, or an idea that came to my mind. Every once in a while, I'll listen to a sermon and think, man, that's a good sermon. I should preach something similar sometime. Most of my sermons though, I'm reading the Bible or I have something that comes to my mind, and you in your life, you will learn more about the Bible if you go home and study it. You say, why? Because an hour sermon three times a week equals three hours, but if you spend an hour reading the Bible a day, you're gonna be reading a lot more, and it's like, quite honestly, when a sermon's being preached, everybody kind of fades in and out. That's why you stamp with your hand, right? You fade in and out, so you're only getting so much of that. But if you go home and read the Bible for yourself, you're gonna learn new things, okay? You need to go home and read therein all the days of thy life like the Bible tells you to do. 1 Samuel 2, verse 3. 1 Samuel 2, verse 3, the Bible reads, Talk no more, so exceeding proudly. Let not arrogance come out of your mouth. For the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by Him, actions are weighed. The Bible says God is a God of knowledge. Look, God expects you to be an educated and intelligent person. You say, how do you do that? Look, the more you read the Bible, the more intelligent you're gonna become. God expects you to be someone who loves knowledge and wants to read the word of God and learns. Now, for us that are raising kids, we start that at a young age with our kids, get them to love reading God's word, because when I first started reading God's word, I didn't really enjoy it, as I mentioned last week, because it was all new to me and I didn't know it, and it was something that took a lot of effort. We need to start our kids out on the right foot where they learn the word of God, and so when they open this, they already have a general understanding, so it's gonna be more interesting to them. God is a God of knowledge, and so the primary thing at a church or when you preach sermons is are you teaching something to the people? Now, I don't want you to misunderstand this, because your goal should not always to be teaching something new, like some new doctrine, but did you know you could preach a sermon on soul winning and say the exact same thing but use a different example and say it in a different way so it still impacts people and people are still learning? See, I think really great preaching is when you take something that's been preached 20 times and you use a story no one has ever thought of applying and it kind of drives home the same point. Look, when you preach sermons, you're really preaching the same 25 sermons over and over again. You're just kind of repackaging them, kind of changing it a little bit, using different stories, using different examples, in reality though, you're just preaching the same thing over and over again. I preach against drinking alcohol all the time. I preach against worldliness all the time. I preach about how you should go soul winning all the time. It's the same thing, but you got to learn to repackage it differently so people are still learning. And you say, how do you do that? Well, you don't pick out a Bible commentary. What you do is you pick out your Bible and you learn and you use new examples. You say, why? Everyone's heard that Bible commentary sermon before. It's not something new. Everybody's heard it before. It's not interesting. It's pretty boring when you've heard it 20 times. You need to learn something new from your Bible. And if you're going to be someone who preaches the Word of God, you must always be learning something new and growing. Turn your Bible to Malachi 2, Malachi 2. What you have to understand is that when churches are so focused on entertainment, rather than education, it shows what is inside of their hearts. All they care about is just entertaining the people and fun and games. And look, we have soul winning and afterwards we play board games as a church. We do these things. Those are fun. We have fellowship activities, but they will never replace the soul winning. They'll never replace long sermons when you're learning the Word of God. It will never replace the things that God tells us we need. Now, in Malachi 2, the Bible reads, verse number five, My covenant was with Him of life and peace, and I gave them to Him for the fear wherewith He feared me, and was afraid before My name. The law of truth was in His mouth, and iniquity was not found in His lips. He walked with me in peace and equity and did turn many away from iniquity. Here it speaks about a priest who would actually be teaching the Word of God, and it says the law of truth was in His mouth. He's actually teaching the Word of God. No iniquity found in His lips. He helped turn people away from iniquity. This would apply both as you're teaching God's people. You're helping them turn from iniquity in their lives. Verse seven, For the priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at His mouth, for He is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. It says they should seek the law at His mouth. You see, when you come to church, you ought to be coming excited to learn the Word of God. You come to Verity Baptist Manila, you say it's an hour away, but you're coming because you're seeking after hearing the truth of God's Word. And that's why people come to this church. Look, we have a lot of great things at this church, but the primary thing is you want to learn the Word of God. That is why you come here. Now, many people go to churches, though. It's not to seek the Word of God. It's just for entertainment, fun, or they don't want to feel guilty about not going to church or whatever. But a true church, people are coming because they want to hear the Word of God preached. They want to learn something new, and they want to make changes in their life. And if that's not why you go to church, there's a problem there. You ought to come to church because turn to I Timothy 3. I Timothy 3. And so in I Timothy 3, I Timothy 3, verse 15, it says, But if I tarry long that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. A church is meant to be the pillar and ground of the truth. The primary thing this church is built on is the truth. That's what you're learning. That's what a church is about. When you preach sermons, you must be thinking about, how am I going to preach something so people are actually learning? Now, sometimes when you write sermons, you might have a lot of good information. It does not mean that it's packaged in the right way so people are going to learn very well. It's like if you're teaching anything, you're going to learn structurally in a good manner for people to learn. And so when you're preaching sermons, you must look at your sermon and make sure, is this organized in the right way so people can actually learn? Turn to Ezekiel chapter 6. Ezekiel 6. And so when you're preaching, yes, you need to be educational. We don't deny that. That's the primary thing that people are actually learning. But you should be interesting when you preach sermons. That is an important part of preaching. We'll go back to preach Ezekiel chapter 6. We'll see this. Ezekiel chapter 6. And it says in Ezekiel 6 verse 11, Thus saith the Lord God, smite with thine hand and stamp with thy foot, and say, Alas for all the evil abominations of the house of Israel, for they shall fall by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence. And it says, smite with thine hand and stamp with thy foot. This is something you should do when you preach. Basically, you get excited about certain parts of the sermon. You preach against something. If you are at a church, and the person preaching never preaches against something, they never lay down the hammer, there's a problem there. Let me show you a difference too. Because what most Baptist churches will do is just this. Hey, you know what? Sin is still bad in 2019. Now what did I say? Nothing. Sin is still bad in 2019. Wow, every single church would agree with that. The Muslims would love that. Yeah, amen. The Hindus would love it. Sin is still bad in 2019. So what are you actually teaching? That's exactly what I'm talking about. How preachers will pretend to preach hard, but they're not. They'll pretend to preach against something, and they're not. You have to be specific. You have to actually teach something, but you should have certain things that you're willing to cry aloud about and get excited about. You say, why? Because that is what makes people make changes in their lives. You must be crying against something. And if the person preaching is never doing that, it shows either that he's not trying to do that, he's just a phony, or he's trying to do that to the spirit. Because you should be preaching hard against things. Turn to Isaiah 58. Isaiah 58. Now look, this is something. These teaching principles, I'm giving you these things because quite honestly, a lot of these things are going to be kind of new to you. You know, many people when they first start preaching, being dynamic is just not very easy for them. For some people, it comes easier than other people. All of these lessons, these are things you want to work on if you want to get better at preaching. This is a very important part of preaching. Now look, most people when they start, they're very nervous when they preach sermons. When I started preaching sermons, I was very nervous. You know, honestly, the way I learned to basically cry aloud is when I drove in the car, I would basically preach sermons for practice when I was by myself. Now, the problem is here, if you're writing in a jiffy, screaming, then I don't know, it's probably going to not work for you. But I would drive in my car and just kind of practice yelling because it didn't come naturally to me. And it's something that I learned how to do. So these are things that, yeah, you might have to learn these things, but these are things that if you want to preach regularly, or if you want to be a pastor one day, it's something you need to learn. There's many parts to preaching. Now, here is the thing though, most people, when they start, they're most concerned about being entertaining when they preach. That should not be the first thing to preach. This is important, but you see, this is the third lesson out of three. You say, why? Because I think it's the third most important. I don't think it's as important as basically just being understandable when you preach. I think last week's sermon about being bold but gentle and meek is more important. Most people, though, when they start, they're so concerned with their presentation. This is something you should work on. Quite honestly though, you better make sure your sermon actually makes sense. And people are actually learning before you focus on this. Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet and show my people their transgression in the house of Jacob their sins. Now, in Isaiah 58 verse 1, the Bible says we are to cry aloud and lift up our voice like a trumpet. You say, why? Because you're showing people their transgression in the house of Jacob their sins. When you're preaching against a sin, that is when you cry aloud. When you're preaching for people to make changes in their life. But most of sermons, you're just teaching people. Like I said, you don't spend the entire sermon just screaming. There's certain things that you are yelling about, but certain things you're just kind of teaching. But when you're preaching against sin, you're going to cry aloud about it. Now obviously, we don't believe in this, but think of the street preachers that preach against repentance of sins. They're always screaming because when you're preaching against sin, it's natural to yell. And that's why it looks so crazy because the average person just sees somebody screaming That's why when we go out there, we go soul winning and just talk to people one-on-one. We don't scream at people when we're going soul winning. You say, why? Well, because we're not telling them to repent. We're telling them to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, so we don't need to scream at them. We're just telling them to believe. But in church, there's a difference because I'm not trying to get anybody saved here this morning. As far as I know, everybody here knows the gospel. I'm just trying to show you this principle, though, you can take outside the word of God because think about if you're teaching anything and there's a certain part you're really trying to highlight. You kind of lose somebody's attention. What do you say? You know, students, listen up to this. You say, why? Because you're trying to get their attention back. It is important not to just be monotone the whole time. You want to have ups and downs in your voice. Now, this is not something that's easy. It's something that takes a lot of practice, but it is something you should work towards doing. Notice what it says in verse 13. But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men, for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in. Now, when Jesus is preaching this, he is preaching against the Pharisees. Do you think he's just talking or he's basically crying aloud against them? He's crying aloud against them. He's preaching against something. Now, I have listened to a lot of audio Bibles before, and I've listened to them go through Matthew chapter 23. And here's the thing about audio Bibles, they probably usually go along with the fact of a long-haired Jesus and a really wimpy Jesus. And I've heard them go through Matthew 23 to try to make Jesus just so loving and never hateful. And they're just like, but woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye shut up the kingdom of heaven. Look, I'm sorry, but I don't think Jesus was talking like that. I think he was actually crying aloud. Look, when you call somebody a hypocrite, look, that's pretty strong language. And so he's crying aloud against them. Why? Because they're phonies and they're not allowing people to go to heaven because they're false prophets. And look, if there's anything we want to cry against, it's the false prophets out there. There's nothing that's worse. You say why? Because they're leading people to hell. Look, as much as I hate Vice Pangit, he's not leading people to hell like some of these false prophets are. And in the Philippines, all the false prophets are evangelizing. And KESO Memorial Circle every week, there's tons of them out there, tons of different churches preaching a false gospel. Resolve Park, there's tons of them out there. They're all preaching a false gospel. Those are really the enemies destroying people from getting saved. And that's something Jesus is crying against in verse 13. Verse 14, woe unto you, scribes and pharisees, hypocrites, for ye devour widows' houses and for pretense make long prayer. Therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation. Woe unto you, scribes and pharisees, hypocrites, for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte. And when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves. Now, I want you to notice verse 15. I want to show you something. In verse 15, when Jesus is preaching against these false prophets, notice how it says ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte. And when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves. What Jesus is saying is that these false prophets were very zealous to make one proselyte. Now, one thing you'll commonly see people say is that if somebody basically gets mad at church and turns out to be a phony, people defend it by saying, he can't be a phony, he's so zealous. He went soul winning more than anyone. Well, actually, that lines up with the Bible. Matthew 23, verse 15, the most zealous people are oftentimes the one that are the false prophets. Look, if somebody gets kicked out of this church, hey, if you've got an actual reason why you don't think they're a bad person, that's fine. But don't tell me, they're more zealous than everybody. I'll say, well, Matthew 23, verse 15. Just because they're zealous, they're zealous to mask the fact they're a false prophet. Just like a false prophet will be entertaining to mask the fact they're not teaching anything, oftentimes the ones that are the most zealous people turn out to be the bad people. You say, why? They have ulterior motives. Now, look, absolutely, be zealous for soul winning. I'm not saying, oh, brother, second, I'm so afraid to do extra soul winning now, you'll think I'm a false prophet. Hey, by all means, soul winning. Praise the Lord, that's great. But just because somebody is zealous does not make them a good person. They could just be doing that because they're trying to fool you. Because the Bible says in verse 15, they compass sea and land to make one proselyte. That is a lot of zeal where they're going to make one person a false prophet. Now turn in your Bible to Jeremiah 28, Jeremiah 28. And she said, brother Stuckey, why are so many Baptist pastors very boring when they preach? Well, number one, they're not teaching you anything. Right. And honestly, people generally like to learn. You know, you see people get bored in public schools and they get bored. Look, I used to be a math teacher and I noticed something when I taught math, that there are basically three groups of people in the classroom. They're the ones that found the material very easy. They're the ones that found it extremely difficult. And there were those that were in the middle. Do you know the ones that acted up in class were the ones that found it very easy and the ones that found it very difficult. The ones in the middle, they never acted up. Because people generally like to learn. And I thought back to when I was in, because I was in public school before homeschooling and I was thinking there was one class that I always got in trouble in and it was math class. You say, why? Because that's my favorite subject. It was a subject where it came more naturally to me than grammar and other things like that. Generally they want to learn and yet church is boring because people aren't learning anything. It's the same way in public schools. People get bored if they're not learning anything. That's one reason. And the other reason is they're not actually preaching against anything. They're not doing what we just talked about and so they end up being boring. So not only should we be crying against something when we're being entertaining, but we should also use memorable examples. Now I should probably do this more than I do. And this is something that people have to remember. Get them to remember pictures and things like that will have more of an impact. But if you remember when I was talking about our life fading like a vapor, I use the example of dropping water on the ground saying you can't gather it up because that's what the Bible teaches. But it's an example that people can remember. Or when Brother Ehrman came up here and I put on a book bag, those are probably things that you're more likely to remember. You say, why? Because people remember examples. I remember one of those words in the US like 10 years ago. It was a good sermon. And the reason why I really remember it is because he had this giant branch. And Jeff Owens is a decent guy. I'm not praising him or criticizing him. He's a saved guy. But he had a giant branch he was using talking about how pastors would basically be fighting off the false prophets. I don't forget that. You say, why? Because it's something you just remember. And memorable examples are actually a good technique. Now in Jeremiah 28, I'm giving you a heads up, but we can actually learn something from this false prophet of why he's successful because he uses an example that people can resonate with. Jeremiah 28 verse 5, then the prophet Jeremiah, and no, the prophet Jeremiah is not the false prophet. He's the good prophet. Then the prophet Jeremiah said unto the prophet Hananiah in the presence of the priest and in the presence of all the people that stood in the house of the Lord, even the prophet Jeremiah said, amen, the Lord do so, the Lord perform thy words which thou hast prophesied to bring again thee away captive from Babylon into this place. Nevertheless, hear thou now this word that I speak in thine ears and in the ears of all the people. The prophets that have been before me and before thee of old prophesied both against many countries and against great kingdoms, of war, and of evil, and of pestilence. And if you're gonna preach the word of God, you should be somebody preaching against false things. If you're a man of God, you should be preaching against the country you live in. You say, many countries got problems. There are a lot of problems in this country. And if you're gonna be someone who actually preaches the word of God, you need to try it out against that country. Now remember, Jeremiah was told that he was put above basically the leaders and above the country. God puts us in a position where he can actually impact those people. In today's world, we have the online ministry that brings people all over the world. Brother Matthias just moved here from Denver. This preaching goes all over the world with people here. But you know, even before the online ministry God found a way to get his word out to the entire world. He puts us above the kings and leaders. He gives us the opportunity to actually preach and the word of God gets out there. Notice what it says in verse 9. The prophet which prophesied the peace when the word of the prophet shall come to pass, then shall the prophet be known that the Lord hath truly sinned. And so look, if you're gonna prophesy in peace and it does not come to pass, then you're going to the Bible teaches. Now if you're gonna Now here we see Hananiah and Hananiah is basically Joel Osteen's distant relative. He's his great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather. Cause if you ever heard Joel Osteen he doesn't preach against anything. He was on Larry King and he was talking about sin and he said I don't like to use the word sin in church. It's like you don't like to use the word sin. It's like you obviously don't like to use the word sin cause it can be offensive when you talk about sin. Yeah, it really can be offensive. But church can be thrown around for the truth. And so here we have the distant relative of Joel Osteen. Notice what it says in verse 10. Then Hananiah the prophet took the yoke from off the prophet Jeremiah's neck and break it. And Hananiah has spake in the presence of all the great yoke of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon from the neck of all nations within the space of two full years and the prophet Jeremiah went his way. And so he and I basically uses a visual example. Now we do the same thing when we go slowly. Think about how we're explaining the gift and we'll explain how eternal life is a gift. We're gonna do a Pentecostal free for all of them. I'm not saying that every single sermon you just do these crazy examples. I talked last week about one-upping people. Jeff Owens had a branch. We're gonna cut down a tree. We're just gonna carry a tree in here. Obviously you do it within a reason. Obviously things are decently in order. But visual life is a gift. And that's what we do. And that's what we do. And that's what we do. And that's what we do. And that's what we do. And that's what we do. And that's what we do. And what you do. And that's what you do. And that's what we do. And you know you're gonna fix this thing. Right? You're gonna fix this thing. And that's what I want you to notice what it says in 2 Timothy chapter 2. This is the verse that we looked at last week. 2 Timothy chapter 2. And it says in 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse number 24, And the servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach. See, what the Bible says is that when we are preaching the Word of God, we must have an aptitude or ability to preach the Word of God. Now, there are many different things that will make you have more of an ability to preach the Word of God. It's something that takes effort. Your number one thing I would say, and I'm kind of giving a recap of the series, the sermon will be a little bit shorter. There's just not as much to it. We've got a lot of stuff to do today as well. But, you know, obviously the number one thing for you guys that like to preach, or if you're teaching anything, is you just need to know what you're teaching about. And so basically, number one, read the Bible a lot. That's why a very Baptist church, there's a standard, and there's other rules as well, but you must read the Bible ten times cover to cover before you can be ordained. You say, why? Because you need to have an ability to teach. And quite honestly, if you've only read the Bible one time, you're going to run out of sermons really quickly. Now, you need to be reading the Bible every single week, but you need to have read the Bible quite a bit because you need to have the knowledge to actually teach something. Otherwise, it could be like, for example, if I went back into math tutoring, and let's say all I knew how to do was algebra. How am I going to teach calculus or geometry or trigonometry if I don't know how to do it? You have to actually know what the Bible says. Now you say, Brother Stuckey, how do I know what to preach if I'm preaching a sermon? You preach on something you really know very well. Look, there's nothing wrong with preaching a sermon on salvation, especially if it's something you know very well. Now, there is something wrong with preaching a sermon on, I don't know, like, n times Babylon if you don't know much about it. You say, but that's very interesting. Well, you have to actually be able to teach something accurately. You don't think something you don't know. Whenever people talk about, you know, what sermon should I preach? It's my first sermon on my preaching night. I usually tell people to preach on salvation so when you're in the King James Bible. You say, why? Because generally, the first things people learn are salvation so when you're in the King James Bible. Preach on what you know. It doesn't have to be something new. You have to learn. Pick a topic that you know very well and try to teach something in a new way. I'm not saying a new doctrine. Try to teach and make it interesting. Use a story that people maybe aren't familiar with. I remember hearing Pastor Jimenez preach a sermon before he was a pastor called Borrow Not a Few. Has anybody heard that sermon before? Borrow Not a Few is a great soul and sermon and what made it such a great sermon is I never thought about soul when I was reading that but when I heard it preached, I was like, man, I'm trying to get it to re-preach a full sermon on it because it's a very interesting sermon. But you take something that you know very well, okay, when you're preaching. That's part of having an ability to preach. And so as a recap of the sermon series, the first sermon we talked about, number one, you make sure that people actually understand what you're saying. That's the most important part of the sermon. If everybody were to walk out of the sermon and say, I don't know what Brother Scott was talking about here today, there's a problem with what I said or how I said it. Now if you walk out of here mad because of what I said, it is what it is. It happened on the floor, it will happen again. That's not my fault. There is a fault, though, if you leave and nobody understands what I was even talking about. I'm not even saying whether they agree, I'm saying they don't even understand. So it'd be like if you're going soul winning and you're preaching the gospel to people and nobody ever understands again. There's something you're doing wrong soul winning. Now there are some times they're not gonna understand because the Bible speaks about people that just don't understand and are terrible to the soul. A lot of people that don't get saved, they just don't fully understand because they've been growing Catholic for 30 years and it's hard to get rid of 30 years in 15 minutes. But if nobody ever understands, there is a problem with that. So number one, you have to make sure you're understandable and not edifying yourself and trying to edify other people. Number two, you need to be bold when you are preaching but also preaching a way that's gentle and deep. And number three, you need to be educational but at the same time you want to learn how to do it in an interesting way. Let's go to the Lord first. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here today. We just ask you to bless and serve in your lives. Help us to apply this whether we're preaching sermons or preaching the gospel or teaching anybody, teaching your kids and training them. Help us to learn to be the number one educational God but help us to learn how to be the more interesting God. I ask you to help all these young preachers that are learning God. Help them to get practice preaching and learn how to preach and work and always become more bold but also gentle and deep. And be educational God but also interesting and at the same time God. I pray this Jesus name, amen. Amen.