Taking a scripture out of context is called texual preaching. It is the worst kind of preaching.
Homilitics: The “Art” of Preaching
I preached for more almost 3 decades, and I loved it. It was NOT God so I put it down. Quit cold turkey on my 25th anniversary after I preached a message called “What do you have to burn.” The Lord spoke to me and said “Pam, you have to burn sermonizing. It is NOT of ME!
It is called “homiletics.” The ART of preaching.
Taught in seminary to ministers, I know from experience that the preaching resounding from pulpits today has pitifully little to almost nothing to do with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I should have taken the hint when I first started sermonizing. I didn’t because preaching gratified the Hollywood nature of my flesh. The Lord spoke to me in a dream and said “Pam, when you preach, don’t forget to mention my name. I was a bit embarrassed. Yet every time I got in the pulpit, I remembered His words. I also will never forget how difficult it was for me to comply. It was quite the struggle. You see, the purpose of a sermon is to draw scriptures out of their natural context in either an entertaining or provocative manner for the purpose of either causing those who hear “to choose Jesus Christ” or to mature spiritually in Him. Built into the entire purpose of the sermon is the wrong premise. WE DO NOT CHOOSE CHRIST. HE CHOOSES US. Therefore when we preach this way, we grieve and we quench the Holy Ghost. Why? Because sermonizers use their stage like a performance to usurp His work. The Holy Ghost does the drawing. The Holy Ghost does the convicting. The Holy Ghost does the converting, and He will not use our performance to do His work. The job of the preacher is simple. We tell the story of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
What is the story of the gospel of Jesus Christ? Here it is in a nutshell.
So what is this act or performance that continues in churches, in conferences and conventions, acts that you can turn on Christian radio and listen to and watch on Christian television 24/7?
Preaching is an art. It’s an art of public speaking. The problem with public speaking is in both the presenter and the listener. The presenter is forced to not only consider but to cater to the preferences, the like and dislikes of the presenter. Most listeners are resistant to anyone who speaks to them from a public platform for more than 15 minutes on “anything!” Poor attention spans is a problem for not only churches, but schools, training seminars, community meetings and other gatherings. Most truths have to be repeated over and over again. So this is the reason why you can ask any churchgoing, professing Christians to explain the cross and the resurrection, the doctrine of justification by faith, how to walk in the spirit, and he or she will struggle to define or explain. The essentials of the gospel are lost in the preacher’s desire to capture the attention of those who are dull of hearing.
However, the true problem is with the preacher. I was the type of preacher that people either loved or hated to hear. I wanted them to love me. However, when I got up to speak, my method and my subject matter was either like John the Baptist or the Apostle Paul. I preached a hard word. Even so, when the Holy Ghost called me out of the church, He schooled me gradually and periodically. The first thing He said while I was still a denominational pastor was “Pam I cannot use you in this place. You are a light, hidden under a bed.” I left the denomination yet while I was pastoring the church that I myself founded, He said, “the people act like they are supporting you. They seem to love to hear you speak. However, their ears are dull of hearing. They are all living a lie. They are all hypocrites and they are filled with demons. Your church has become a dwelling place of demons.” So I closed it.”
I was a good preacher. I loved preaching primarily because I thought God was using it. He is not. The sermon is a dead thing. I buried it and I press on.
My last sermon convicted me. The thing I had to burn was preaching.
Consider this real life case of a control freak with a name change. This is a woman who once was my late pastor’s wife back in the ’80s. In fact, it was under her husband that I was licensed to preach 30 years ago today, Oct. 25, 1981. I’ve had the opportunity to study Sister Black at least 20 years.
Sister Black is a well known, beloved, influential lay leader in her denomination for decades.
Much could be written about Sister Black. Prior to his death, Rev. Black was in a constant but subtle battle with Sister Black to rule his own congregation in his own despotic way. Rev. Black did everything he could to block his humble acting wife from taking over. Sister Black was always the hurt one, portraying herself as suffering for the Lord, by not being understood by her coldblooded husband. She fooled me for at least a decade, until I started seriously observing her. I could do so because we spent time together in Christian service and on a quasi-social level.
Once Rev. Black died, at the center of Sis. Black’s thoughts was usually not the Lord Himself but her own spiritual journey. Her priority in conversation is most often turned to her newly appointed pastor and his particular approach to leading “her” church and how the members have to seek counsel from “her” because of what the pastor is incapable of providing. Since his appointment to Sis. Black’s church she and Rev. Johnson have been persistently battling each other over various church projects.
The warfare seems to be centered in a battle between new members and those who have been members prior to Rev. Johnson’s appointment. For example, Sis. Black was co-chairing a project with another member and Rev. Johnson has been avoiding Sister Black and solely communicating with the other co-chair. Now these are Sis Black’s exact words: “Isn’t the Lord’s sense of humor so wonderful? The co-chair fell and broke her leg and can no longer function in the job. Now Rev, Johnson HAS to speak to ME bevause the other co-chair is out of commission. Isn’t the Lord grand?”
If this is not an example of a neurotic control freak, then I don’t know what is. I wonder if the sick thoughts to FORCE Rev. Johnson to speak with her directly did not cause the co-chair’s accicent. Why? Because Sis. Black sincerely believed that God broke the leg of one of His children so as to force Rev. Johnson to have to communicate solely with HER! This is a reprobate mind if I ever saw one yet Sis. black believes that she is a part of the remnant church. Admittedly, her pastor DOES have his problems, but Sis. Black used her ecstatic, kundalini spirit type of experiences as a weapon to contend with him. For example, she will appear to be completely consumed or “caught up” in the Holy Ghost—faling back and wailing loudly. Others respond by jumping up from the pews to either restrain her or to hold her up to keep her from falling and hurting herself or those who may be sitting near her.
One of her outstanding spiritual fits occurred as the service was being brought to a close. While the congregation was singing the doxology, suddenly Sis. Black fell “under the anointing.” In other words, she fell backwards into an euphoric state, a form of being slain in the spirit. Most of the congregants left the sanctuary, but a group of 10 or more women stood by her and ministered to her for another 45 minutes. Sis Black retorted, “Rev. Johnson didn’t even stick around to minister to me. Well, too bad, we all got caught up in the glory cloud and we had ourselves another wonderful worship service, praise the Lord! Pastor just went into his office, slammed the door and sulked.” My question is, “How was Sis. Black even conscious or focused on what Rev. Johnson did if she was “so caught up in the spirit.”?!
The bottom line is that Sis. Black is a religious control freak that desires a pastor–any pastor— to humble himself to HER so that she controls every aspect of church life. She had every opportunity to enter ministry herself, but the devil likes to use her to keep other pastors in bondage. Her “opponent,” Rev. Johnson is one of the denomination’s most popular sermonizers, yet he is a homosexual, raising adopted male children as a “single parent.” The late Rev. Black was a cold, lifeless pastor who hated bible study and who restrained anyone who seemed to be genuinely saved. He was also an adulterer, almost understandable— living with a woman like Sis. Black.
The visible church has several of these kinds of people in them. The true story of Sis. Black, Rev. Black and Rev. Johnson is typical in the church world where I served as a minister for 25 years. Today-October 25-is my 30th year in ministry. The good news is that the organized church is not the Body of Christ. Therefore, if you desire to come out of the bondage of religion, you can do so. The Lord will not work in the organized church in its present
condition, so you need to commit yourself to become free. Judgment has come to the household of faith because God’s people are unable to repent. Control freaks of this kind are completely out of touch with who they really are and therefore they can not even approximate normality because to their spiritual strangeness has been accepted by them to be normal. If you want to be set free to grow in Christ, then the phone lines are open at 518-477-5759.
Each e-book available through Pam Sheppard Publishing is a message of truth and love that blows the trumpet in Zion around the globe. the author is bold enough and caring enough to share the truth out of the depths of her heart. She edifies the real Body of Christ, she perfects the saints and she prepare us for end times and the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. https://endtime_ebooks.myshopify.com
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