Preaching and Preachers

The Shape of the Sermonthink of this? What do you think of the following divisions of thisverse?' They would exchange these and almost have a competition inthat respect. Now that is professionalism-and we are all subject toit. But it is thoroughly bad from every standpoint. We should neverhandle the Word of God in that way. So avoid cleverness and smartness.The people will detect this, and they will get the impression thatyou are more interested in yourself and your cleverness than in thetruth of God and their souls.Then there is, of course, what has been described as, 'Apt alliteration'sartful aid'. There are those who believe that it is helpful thattheir headings should all start with the same letter of the AlphabetthreeBs or three Ms, etc. They must introduce this alliterativeelement. I hesitate to say that this is actually wrong, but I am sure thatit is a snare to many men. In order to get the third heading to startwith the same letter as the other two they sometimes have to manipulatetheir matter just a little. But that is precisely what I say we mustnot do. I have always been puzzled as to why those who regard themselvesas 'devotional' or holiness preachers should have been mostaddicted to this practice. For myself, I am acutely allergic to thepractice and generally find it to be a hindrance to the truth, and anannoyance. Avoiding every suspicion of artificiality or cleverness, ourheadings should appear to be the inevitable way of dividing up thematter.There are a number of further points about this question of headingsor divisions in a sermon. Take time over this because the wholepurpose of dividing up the subject in this way is to make it easier forthe people to take in the Truth and to assimilate it. That is the solereason for having divisions. We should not be believers in 'Art forArt's sake'. As we do this in order to help the people it should be donewell.The question of the form of the sermon, to which I have referredpreviously, also comes in at this point; that is why you should taketime over this. But sometimes you will find that it is extremely difficultto get exactly the right form. You have got your message, and you2°9