Cutting It Straight

James A. Byrd

Description

Cutting It Straight will help you find God’s divine solution to the human problem in scripture and preach, teach, or present it in a powerful, relevant way.
If three points and a poem no longer keeps listeners from snoozing during your preaching, teaching, or Biblical presentations, Cutting It Straight will help you fine-tune your lessons.
Evangelist Dr. James A. Byrd explores how to develop dynamic expository sermons or powerful Biblical presentations that will be remembered by those who hear you in this resource guide for preachers, Bible teachers, church leaders, and Bible presenters.
He explains that “cutting it straight” means rightly dividing the word of truth by preaching the “whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27 NKJV) that requires expository preaching from the Old Testament canon that is uniquely Christian.
If preachers desire to accomplish that which God proposes, they must perform expository preaching from the Old Testament as well as the New Testament. They must “rightly [divide] the word of truth.” They must perform their duties while cutting it straight.
Find God’s divine solution to the human problem in Scripture and preach, teach, or present it in a powerful, relevant way by applying the lessons in this guide.

Sujets

• Religion
• Christianisme
• Philosophie et théologie
• Personal Growth
• Christian Living

Informations

• Publié par: WestBow Press
• Date de parution: 27 octobre 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781664282063
• Langue: English

Extrait

CUTTING IT STRAIGHT


The Key To Dynamic Expository Preaching and Powerful Biblical Presentations





JAMES A. BYRD








Copyright © 2022 James A. Byrd.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.



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Scripture marked (KJV) taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture marked (NKJV) taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www. zondervan.com The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.®

Scripture quotations marked (ESV) are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated into any other language.

Scripture quotations marked (NASB) taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.lockman.org

ISBN: 978-1-6642-8207-0 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-6642-8208-7 (hc)
ISBN: 978-1-6642-8206-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022919599



WestBow Press rev. date: 10/21/2022



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15:1(KVJ) “But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.” 54
I thank God the Father of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and the sanctifying Holy Spirit who convicted me when I heard the glorious gospel of God that saved me through faith in Christ when I believed and obeyed. I also thank all the men and women who allowed God’s grace to work thorough them on my behalf.
I thank my dearest wife Leatta, who has been with me through all my trials, listened to all my dreams, and supported all my endeavors. I must not forget to thank Betty, a Godsend who proofed and typed my manuscript.
I hope and pray that the readers of this guide will consider my humble attempt to share my Biblically based thoughts. The intent of this guide is to encourage the herald of God’s Word to speak as His oracle, forsake all human inventions of the mind, and speak the Word of God in sincerity and truth.
May God find favor with all of us so that our preaching will call men and women out of the darkness of despair into the marvelous light of salvation.
Dr. James A. Byrd



TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
Chapter 1 - The What And Why Of Expository Preaching From The Old Testament
Part I: Preparing The Messenger
Chapter 2 - Cutting It Straight By PluggingInto The Power Source
Part II: Researching The Message
Chapter 3 - Cutting It Straight By Anchoring The Message In The Word Of God
Chapter 4 - Cutting It Straight By Sharpening The Sword
Part III: Interpreting The Message
Chapter 5 - Cutting It Straight By Rightly Dividing The Interpretations
Chapter 6 - Cutting It Straight By Understanding The What And The Why Of The Text
Chapter 7 - Cutting It Straight By Rightly Dividing The Canon And The Covenant
Chapter 8 - Cutting It Straight By Rightly Determining The Relevance Of The Message In Light Of The New Testament And The Contemporary Culture
Part IV: Developing The Message
Chapter 9 - Cutting It Straight When Developing The Sermon/Biblical Presentation
Part V: Delivering The Sermon/Biblical Presentation
Chapter 10 - Cutting It Straight By Preparing To Sound Your Trumpet
Chapter 11 - Cutting It Straight When Sounding Your Trumpet
Part VI: Good News You Can Use
Chapter 12 - Getting A Jump Start
References












Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
—2 TIMOTHY 2:15 (NKJV)



INTRODUCTION
Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth [emphasis added]. But shun profane and idle babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness. And their message will spread like cancer. Hymenaeus and Philetus are of this sort, who have strayed concerning the truth, saying that the resurrection is already past; and they overthrow the faith of some.
—2 TIMOTHY 2:15–18 (NKJV)
Paul is writing to the young preacher Timothy, encouraging him to be a diligent worker for God, rightly dividing the word of truth. “Rightly dividing” comes from the Greek word orthotomounta, which literally means “cutting straight.” Some expositors suggest that this word is a metaphor that describes plowing a straight furrow, while others argue that the word symbolizes a stonemason cutting stones straight. I believe now is the time for those who preach the Good News of the kingdom of God to begin cutting it straight. This means rightly dividing the word of truth by preaching the “whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27 NKJV) that requires expository preaching from the Old Testament canon that is uniquely Christian.
The questions that beg to be answered are: What is expository preaching? Why is expository preaching from the Old Testament needed?
What is expository preaching? John MacArthur, Jr., in his book Rediscovering Expository Preaching , sums up expository preaching in three keywords: inductive, exegetical, and expositional. Expository preaching is inductive in that we approach the text without any preconceived attitudes or ideas about the text under consideration. Expository preaching is exegetical because the expositor must use a sound hermeneutical process to determine the original meaning of the text (1992, page number). In Expository Preaching : The Art of Preaching Through the Bible, Harold T. Bryson posits that the exegete performs the role of historian, grammarian, literary analyst, philologist, and theologian to discover the original meaning of the text (1995, page number).
Expository preaching is expositional and is accomplished by using proper homiletics to transport the original meaning of the text to the hearers of today. The Bible gives us an eternal definition of exposition in Nehemiah 8:8 (NIV): “They read from the book, from the Law of God clearly, and give the sense so that the people understood the reading.”
Expository preaching grounds the message in the Word of God. God’s Word will accomplish God’s purpose for our lives. The gospel prophet Isaiah writes, “So shall my word be that which goes out from my mouth, it shall not return to me empty but it shall accomplish that which I purpose and shall succeed in the thing which I sent it” (Isaiah 55:11 KJV).