Video Transcript: Session 13 Admonition

Welcome back, as we continue this study of preacher preparation presentation  in class on making, and preaching, sermons, and this is session 13, preparing in this section called Preparing to preach. Now, just to give you a flyover view,  again, we've been in the section about preparing to preach, we talked about if  you're going to preach, you've got to prepare for that. And now what are some of the ways you prepare? Well, you prepare by praying, certainly, but also getting  others to pray for God to empower your speech for God to use what you are  talking about. And so we prepare by praying, we prepare by studying the  Scriptures. And so we looked at exegesis, and eisegesis and homiletics, and  hermeneutics and those kinds of words that are talked about how are you going  to approach scripture. And now we've been for several sessions now, looking at  various types of sermons or styles of sermons that you could preach within your  preaching repertoire. Well, today, we're moving on that. This is the next to last  last kind of sermons. And just kind of Scripture, I guess we could call the  warming sermon. In fact, this is the kind of sermon probably that, that the Old  Testament prophets preached most. Most of the time. I'm reading Jeremiah, and my morning devotions right now, and thankfully, I read the New Testament  passage as well, because Jeremiah is constantly giving warning to the people,  you know, if you don't stop, you don't stop living the way everybody else in the  world lives. If you don't start obeying God's directions and directives, then you  know, there's going to be this disaster that comes upon the nation. So this, this  is a style of communication. That is an important one for the preacher to be  aware of. Now, the person who probably helped me the most of this is this man  here, his name is Henry DeRoy. And Henry, is now with the Lord, that this is a  picture from his obituary. But when I was a new pastor, been in ministry about  three years, and frankly, I was a little depressed about how things were going.  There was not the growth that I had anticipated in the congregation. And I'd  expect to see great things happen. And I was seeing some people come to faith, but the elder there seem to be a church that was just struggling with personal  and interpersonal dynamics that were unhealthy. And I felt like I was struggling  all the time. I was excited, then when I got a notice from my denomination, that  there was going to be a workshop on spiritual gifts, and how to develop a  workshop for your church on spiritual gifts. And so I went with eagerness. And I  got to this workshop was going to be a three day long workshop. And it was to  be taught on a Friday night and Saturday retreat in your church. Well, I got  there, and there were several surprises as I got there. The first surprise was that I was the youngest person there, by far, you know, I was at that point, about 28  years old, and everybody else there have a second surprise that have a lot more experience in ministry than I did. But the third surprise that maybe the biggest of all was the fact that these people with whom I interacted in various small groups, and then in large groups, these people had been in ministry longer than I had,  have far more experienced than I had, were a pretty cynical group. And when 

they told stories, they told stories about disasters, in their ministry about  problems, trying to get things into the church, difficulties with change, et cetera,  et cetera, et cetera, to the point where I started taking on their cynicism, I  realized much later in my life, that that's a characteristic for me. But I began  sharing the stories and I began telling my own my own disappointment, and that  seemed to be kind of a that's what the topic was for the three days. On the third  day, as we were nearing the end of this workshop times, Henry DeRoy, the  leader, one of the leaders of the workshop, grabbed me at a break time, and  grabbed me by the arm and he hauled me off into a stairwell. He looked at me  and kind of got in my face. He wasn't angry, but he kind of in my face and he  said, I think you have a lot of potential for ministry. But if you hang around  people like this, you're never going to fulfill it. If you hang around negative  cynical people, when you become negative and sinful, cynical, God won't be  able to use you the way I think he wants to use you. And so you got to surround  yourself with positive people. So I'm just giving you a word. And that was  monumental for me. Interestingly enough, years later, I became the president of  our home Missions Board in my denomination. And I got to interact with Henry  DeRoy, who was an employee of the Home Missions department. And I asked  him as we were at a banquet, celebrating the many good things that were  happening in church planting and that sort of thing. I grabbed Henry at a break  and I said, Do you remember that conversation? Now it's been, like 15 years  prior. Do you remember that time when you hauled me off into the stairwell? No,  he said, I don't remember it at all. And just struck me that this was just part of his life. This was part of the way he did ministry. Now, what I'm talking about here,  this kind of confrontation, this kind of admonishment is a style that can be used  and often is used in preaching. The word is Noutheteo. And it means to warn,  admonish, instruct, to lay on someone's heart, it comes from two Greek words,  neu, which means the mind and theteo to put into. Now, here are some of the  various ways that this word has been used in the New Testament. It's used only  eight times, but it describes part of the ministry, particularly of Paul. So here's  some ways, just some quotes that I pulled out of the various things that I've  looked at, in regard to Noutheteo. It's putting sense into someone's head. It's  indicating duties and obligations. In other words, when you're doing Noutheteo  preaching, you're indicating this is what you said you were going to do. This is  what you said you were going to do. But putting sense in someone's head  saying, you know, what you're doing is going to lead to this. And so it's that kind  of warning situation. But here's another one Noutheteo has the connotation of  confronting with the intent of changing one's attitudes, and actions. And so the  goal is not to dump your stuff or dumped your own anger, the goal is change in  the people to whom you are speaking. Now, most of the time, this probably  works best one on one, right, that you see someone who's going the wrong way. Paul said that to know this great blessings for those who turn someone from 

their sins. But it can happen and is a very appropriate to happen within the  setting of God's people when they're gathered for worship. Now, here's another  way that someone else put it said, This is not done with Judgementalism. In  other words, I'm not coming to judge you for what's wrong. But I'm doing this  with warmth, as a warning a friend away from something dangerous. That's the,  that's the cue. I'm not coming just to bash you over the head because you're  doing something wrong. I'm warning because I care about you. I care about  what you are doing. Here's some other ways that are choose to set right. I want  to set somebody right to impart understanding. So I want somebody to  understand the creeping creeping commercialism in our country, and the  creeping, kind of ignoring of God that's happening in our country, or to correct or I like to word to counsel, someone that has a lot of wonderful connotations that  I'm going to counsel you. I'm not just beating on you. But I want to counsel you, I want to help you see what's true, and set you on a good path. In fact, one of the  it's an old book now, probably because I'm old. But you'll notice the title of this  by Jay Adams, he just died recently at the age of 91. But he wrote this book  years ago competent to counsel notice sub line introduction to Nouthetic  counseling. When he writes the book, he says, anybody is what he said to be  anybody with good Bible knowledge can be an effective counselor. And that's,  that's the point here is that he wanted to see the church raise up many people  who could counsel in the sense of Nouthetic counseling, admonishing someone  helping someone's attitudes and actions to be set right, or putting the sense into  somebody's mind. That one counselor, friend of mine says there's nothing  common about common sense. But Jay Adams, turned this into a whole system, which became very well used among Christians for many years. And this book  and a follow up book were ones he used for a long time. Now, this word,  Noutheteo, is used eight times in the New Testament. And we're just going to  run through those so that you can see what they look like. First of all, here's  Paul, he says, so be on your guard. Now. This is Acts 20. He's defending his  ministry and he's admonishing. He's setting right attitudes and actions on the  part of the elders of Ephesus who have come down to Miletus to say goodbye to him because Paul is on his way to Jerusalem, and he knows that that's going to  end in his death. So this is be on your guide. Remember that for three years, I  never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears. That idea warning  that's the way to translate the New International Version, by the way, other  translations that you may have will say, I never stop admonishing you night and  day with tears. That idea of, I want to set you right. And so look at my ministry. I  was there for three years. This is one of the things I did over over and over  again. I admonished to I warned you about right living versus wrong living.  Here's one from Romans 15. Paul's writing to the Roman church, he has not yet  been there. He hopes to go there. He sets out a theology. In this letter that we  call the book of Romans, the letter to the Romans. And toward the end is 16 

chapters. This is in chapter 15. Toward the end, he talks about the fact that  God's equipping people and he says, I myself am convinced my brothers and  sisters that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with knowledge, and  competent to instruct one another. Now, there the word Noutheteo is translated  as instruct, you know, why do Why do translators choose the words they do?  Again, if you look at some translations, they will say, to admonish one another,  or some will say, to counsel one another, that we have this capacity because we  are filled with the Holy Spirit. And because we have the word of God, we have  this capacity to take this next step of instructing each other, setting people's  actions, and attitudes, right? setting their minds straight on what is true, and  what is not true. Now, here he writes to the Corinthians Now, you know, the  situation in the church in Corinth, andf there were divisions in the church, in fact, in Chapter chapters, early chapters, one, two and three, he talks about these  divisions that existed that the church of Corinth, instead of coming together, was starting to splinter apart. And so you found people in one of the early chapters  saying, Well, you know what, some of you are identify, say, I'm of Paul, and  some say, I'm of Apollos, this other preacher in that period of time. And some  say I follow Peter, and Paul said, wait a minute. Who do you think we are? We're nobody in fact, one of my favorite passages to preach on to read first verses of I  Corinthians 4, he says, This is how you ought to consider us we're servants or,  or the picture that it gives us. We're under rowers, you know, one of those old  ships where you have this series of row people down underneath, and there's  somebody banging the gong, and the rowers don't say where the ship is going.  They simply row and they're commanded to row. And that's how he says, that's  how you think of us, we're people will take our ore and we're rowing. But we are  not the captain. That's only Jesus can be captain. And he says, I'm writing this to you, not to shame you, but to warn you, as my dear children or to admonish you  as my dear children. I love that statement, because I picture how I was with my  children when they were young. You know, there were times I admonished them. I warned them, I counseled them saying, you know, you know, that stove is hot,  you got to stay away from there. Because if you get near there, when it's hot,  you're going to get your hand burned. And that's going to be a bad thing. Or, you know, you can't go out of my sight. Because there are possibilities of things that  could happen in this large crowd in which we are now sitting that I don't even  want to contemplate and so I'm admonishing you to stay within my sight. Those  are the kinds of things that you do with children, right? And Paul is describing his ministry there as a warning as admonishments as counsel as instructions,  setting the attitudes and the actions, right. Putting sense into their minds. Okay,  that's Colossians 1, he writes to the people of Colossae, and again, he had  never been there. That church was started by somebody else, but he wrote to  them at the same time he wrote the letter to the Ephesians. And he says, He is  the one Jesus in other words, that we proclaim, admonishing and teaching 

everyone with all wisdom so that we may present everyone fully mature in  Christ. We're admonishing again, this is the NIV New International Version uses  the word admonishing here, or this one, in Colossians. Let the message of  Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all  wisdom through psalms, hymns and songs from the Spirit singing to God with  gratitude in your heart. That one of the tasks that we have as people together  and certainly you and me as preachers is occasionally to admonish each other,  to warn each other to set attitudes and actions right. Now, again, that will often  happen one on one, but sometimes, it'll happen in the preaching event. There's I Thessalonians. Now we ask you, brothers and sisters to acknowledge those  who work hard among you who care for You in the Lord and to admonish you.  Now he's talking about the leaders in the church there. If you remember the  situation that he's writing to in the church in Thessalonica, that there were  people there who were saying of Jesus is coming back. So let's just stop  everything, and let's do our own thing. And, as Paul says, among other things, it  says, look, there are people among you, whose job is but to care for you, and to  admonish you and acknowledge them, honor them. And then again from I  Corinthians, We urge you brothers and sisters, warn those or admonish those  who are idle and disruptive, encourage the disheartened help the weak, be  patient with everyone. Now, that is a description of people who are not working  anymore, because why work? And Paul counsels that church, he admonishes  people in that church and tells the leaders to warn these people, admonish,  instruct, set their attitudes right about being people who are not idle, or  disruptive. But that's what you are to do encourage disheartened, help the weak, be patient with everyone. He's talking about People who aren't working anymore because why work? And then, finally, yet, he's talking about people that are  being idle and disruptive. And this is II Thessalonians he said yet do not regard  these people as an enemy. But warn them, admonish them as you would a  fellow believer. So we are just to shake the dust off our feet and move on  beyond them, we are to be people who care enough for them, that we admonish them. Now, this kind of sermon, of course, is challenging. And I, when I look at  my history of sermons, I found that this is not necessarily one that I do regularly,  I tend to be more on the encouraging side of things. But there are times when  you realize that people are becoming more secular. And they need a word of  admonishment. There are times they are I preached, not too long ago about  spiritual warfare in a church that's being split by division. And I was able to say,  you know, one of the reasons I chose to preach this message today is because  the enemy is at work in the world, we've got to acknowledge them, or we're  talking about, you know, Ephesians 6:10, and following that great passage on  Spiritual Warfare, and the armor of God, and pray, always on all occasions, and  et cetera. So one of the reasons I chose to preach this is because you've got to  know that when things are happening in this church that are good, you know, the

enemy is going to take notice. And one of his great tactics strategies is to bring  division among believers. And it's our real potential here. And in fact, it's starting  to happen. That's the kind of word of admonishment. People don't absolutely like that all the time. But that's part of our job as leaders is to admonish people to  warn them to Noutheteo them. Now, I'm trying with each of these styles to give  you a little taste of it. And so what's coming next is a video. That's a video of Jim Cymbala, pastor of the Brooklyn Tabernacle. And he tells marvelous stories  about how that church grew for eight people into now 1000s and Brooklyn  Tabernacle Choir and their music and all that stuff. But our this, this talk was  given, I think, back in 1984, so it's a long time ago, but it's been a classic  admonishment kind of sermon for church leaders. And as he later told the story,  he said that he had another speech planned. This was at a praise gathering, Bill  and Gloria Gaither used to host these praise gatherings regularly, near their  home. And this was one of those places where hundreds of people gathered for  1000s of people gathered for a few days to sing, and to hear inspiring teaching,  etc. And he was asked to do this. And so he had a speech all prepared, and the  night before he's praying, and God basically told him, No, this is time for a  Noutheteo sermon. And he spoke about prayer in the church, as I've given you,  eight minutes out of what is a 54 Minute Message and tune in and enjoy Jim  Cymbala, as he talks about my house, shall be called a house of prayer. But  what I want to say to you is that God's work from the very beginning is not like  you and I often imagine it God's Word, God's house, the Christian religion, is  always supposed to have the aroma of prayer. Preaching Yes, but not my house shall be called the House of preaching. Music. Yes, but my house shall not be  called the House of music. My house shall be called the House of Prayer. There  were choirs but it was called the House of Prayer. There was the reading of the  word but My house shall be called a house of prayer. So The Bible tells us that  when Jesus Christ died and resurrected and went back to heaven, and he  began his church, which the gates of hell shall not prevail against, he keeps the, he kept the same line running through the formation of the Church, which was in his father's house. Have you ever noticed that the Christian church was not born while someone was preaching, but while people were praying? Have you ever  noticed that in the second chapter of the book of Acts when the church was  born, they were doing nothing, but just waiting on God and praying. And they  were just sitting there. And as they were praying and worshiping and waiting and having heart communion with God, and God shaping them and cleaning them  out and building faith into them, and doing those heart operations that only the  Holy Spirit could do? The church was born, the Spirit was poured out. My house  shall be called House of Prayer. In the fourth chapter, Peter and John are  arrested, and they're slapped around and threatened don't you preach anymore  in that name. And what do they do? They don't go and protest. They don't go to  the Supreme Court. They don't try to get some political leverage. They go back 

to a prayer meeting. They go back and say, Behold, the threat Oh, god, look  how they're threatening us. But oh, God, we lift our voices together to you, oh,  God, behold their threats and give your servants boldness that we might preach  the name of Jesus, in the name of Jesus, and the place where they prayed, was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God  with boldness. My house shall be called, House of Prayer. They had this instinct  when in trouble, pray, when intimidated, pray, when challenge, pray, when  persecuted, pray when you're in trouble, pray. In fact, this thing called prayer,  whatever it is, is so unique. It's not like what we're used to, you know, we talked  about pray, we say prayers, most of them. A lot of them are mental prayers. This thing called praying is so deep that when the Apostle Paul got converted, and he was first Saul of Tarsus, this violent persecutor of the church, Jesus went to, to  Ananias and the Lord appeared to Ananias in Damascus and said, Go to this  man, this Jew, this church persecutor named Saul of Tarsus, and pray for him  and Ananias said, you know, know about this man, this man is trouble with a  capital T. And Jesus says, As if this was proof that everything has changed. No,  Ananias, you can go for behold, he prayed. He prayed, you can go now because he's in that room blind somewhere waiting for you. Because he actually for the  first time in his religious life is offering a true prayer. And because he's praying,  you can go and not be afraid. It was as if that was the sign whether somebody  was the real deal with God. Behold, he prayed. And that same Apostle Paul  when he writes to Timothy, and he wants to encourage them how to do God's  work. He says this, first of all that I want supplication. First of all, in your church,  Timothy, first of all, before anything else, supplication and prayers and  intercession, and thanksgiving to be made for all men. That's, first of all, it  doesn't matter what your tradition is, or what American Christianity says. The  Word of God says, first of all that I want supplications because we got to  remember Timothy, My house shall be called House of Prayer. Later on, in the  same chapter, he says, and then I remembered Timothy, I want men everywhere to lift up holy hands without wrath or doubting, and I want them to pray. That's  the sign of a Christian church. Paul says, men pray with holy hands without  wrath, or, in fact, the book of Revelation says that when the 4 and 24 The 4 and  20 elders fall at the feet of Jesus, they have these golden bowl bowls. And you  know, what's in the bowls? This incense, that is so fragrant to Christ. It's the  prayers of the saints. I mean, what must be the God that he keeps it in bowls  and as just when just imagine when you and I kneel or stand or pray seated,  and we really open our hearts to God, somehow those things are kept. They're  so precious to God. My house shall be called a house of prayer. And we have in  the day that we live in a lot of revisionism going on but it's not coming from  Washington. It's coming from the church. We're revising what a church is today,  the Bible says, And they continue that early church If they continued steadfastly  in the apostles doctrine and in fellowship, and then the breaking of bread and in 

prayer. Now we've revised that and said, If you can get people for one hour on  Sunday morning in the building, that's the church, that's not the church. We can  use every device, we want to get people for one hour and keep it early, and  keep it moving, and keep it going. Because people have important things to do  that day. That's not the story of the Christian church. That might be the story of  my church or your church. But that's not the church Jesus built. And the history  of revivals down through the ages have told us that whenever things have grown crass and commercial and secular and hard and worldly, God sends a revival  and what's always the sign of the revival, behold, they pray. The church begins  to pray. Moody goes somewhere in England, and they begin to pray. Feeny goes to upstate New York, and they begin to pray. The great awakening happens in  America and they begin to pray, who was the fancy preacher? Nobody, they  prayed. Where was the great music? Oh, they made great songs. But that  wasn't the great thing about it. It was they pray. Prayer preceded it, prayer kept it going, and the minute prayer ended, the Spirit of God lifted. And we got back  into one of those tougher times for the Church of Jesus Christ. You folks, young  people who are going to the schools, let me tell you that someone who went to  college as a basketball player on a full scholarship and traveled around the  country playing basketball, never had the privilege of going to a school, like you  folks are going to. The greatest thing anybody can learn in this building is how to pray. How a call on God so that God intervenes in the situation? They continued  steadfast and the apostles doctrine, fellowship, breaking of bread, and in  prayers, and that's the church and I talk to well known ministers. I talk to men if I mentioned their names, a lot of you would know a lot of the names and they tell  me privately off the record, hey, listen, I know them dazzling them with my books and my sermons. But brother Jim, something's wrong. Because except for  Sunday morning, one hour, I can't get a soul into the church. If I call a prayer  meeting, not 1/10 of the congregation would come. They'll pay $20 for a concert, but Jesus can't draw the play all kinds of money to hear somebody do  something and that's wonderful. I'm all for that, but doesn't awaken us that if the  prayer meeting was called, that nobody would come when God said My house  shall be called a house of prayer.