Session 2 - Sermon Preparation

Basics of Preparing a Sermon (mp3, Eddie Byun, 1:16:43)

Q&A Session (mp3, Eddie Byun, 38:23)

The Uneducated Preacher (mp3, Christian Lee, 48:37)

Homework from Session 2:
1. Read the article “10 Tips for Avoiding the Pitfalls of Plagiarism“. Submit and sign a paper indicating you read it.
2. Using the lessons and principles learned, write a 3 point sermon using a topic or passage of your choice. Aim for a sermon that’s 10-15 minutes in duration (3-4 pages). Submit it by Sept 3rd 11:59pm via email. The next preaching seminar will be Saturday, Sept 6th, 10am at church.
3. Please keep up with your reading plans.

For those that missed today’s session, please do your best to makeup the first session. We covered the course overview and an intro, which can be found in the following file (please print the following handout):

Preaching with Authority - Session 1 (pdf)

There are two mp3 files that you need to listen to:

Preaching Course Syllabus and Intro (mp3, Christian Lee, 49:59)
Putting Preachers in Their Place (mp3, Mark Driscoll, 1:15:01)

In my intro, I quoted Spurgeon. For your reference, this is the complete article (Pastors - Studying and Reading) from which I read.

Homework from Session 1:
1. Read the sermon for Session 1 (see below). Submit and sign a paper indicating you read it.
2. Submit a written monthly plan for reading Christian books (that will help build your spiritual authority), sign it, and commit to it for the remainder of the year.
3. Purchase “Supremacy of God in Preaching” and one other book on preaching (we’ll need to do a group order through Amazon if the bookstore has run out of books).

Audio Sermon for Session 1

Advice to Pastors: Preach the Word
by John Piper (available as audio or in manuscript)February 4, 1996

Bonus Material:

The Ministry of the Word
by John Piper (available as audio or in manuscript)
November 25, 1984

How Not to Blaspheme God in the Pulpit
by John Piper (available as audio only)
March 31, 1999

A Passion for Preaching
by John Piper (available as audio only)
January 28, 1992

Eccentric Preachers
by Charles Spurgeon (available as a manuscript)

Biblical Theology: Watch Your Doctrine Closely
With the internet, we have access to a tremendous amount of resources available online. It seems no one goes to the library anymore. And with this access, there seems to be a deterioration in sound theology rather than a revival. Less people are holding to Biblical doctrines these days - doctrines that are the fabric of Christianity. As preachers, we cannot afford to preach out of speculation or philosophy. We have a finite number of times that God will grant us the pulpit. When we preach, we need to be unafraid to preach with authority, anointed by the Holy Spirit! But this authority cannot be conferred upon us overnight or through prayer, it must primarily be built on your study desk and in your relationship with Christ. We must study the Bible, we must learn through respectable preachers how to handle the Word, and as Spurgeon and the apostle Paul admonished, we must read, read, read! I believe if the apostle Paul was alive today, not only would he tell Timothy to bring the parchments, he would’ve told Tim to bring the iPod - full of the latest podcasts and sermons!

http://christiananderin.com

It’s quite trippy that I’ll no longer be single anymore! I won’t be able to make decisions by myself, I won’t be able to stay out late at night with students or with friends,… what a big change! And with this big change, I believe God is sanctifying and changing me in a way that I’ve never experienced before!

There were 10,000 students in attendance total and although we were crammed in for housing, we had a spectacular time staying at our nicely PIMPed out “Kumho Resort”. Everyday we had morning worship in English (led by KCCC USA) and we joined 10,000 students in the evening for worship in Korean (with English translation). At the end of each day, we got together to praise, share, and pray and many students expressed that our time late in the evening was key in receiving all the blessings they did during the week.

It was also great seeing all my friends at NY and LA KCCC.  It was cool because my American world collided with my Korean world when Pastor David from Jubilee and Pastor Eddie from Onnuri made the trip down to speak at our morning worship services. I got to do a seminar called “Spiritual Warfare” and I ended up leading several students through repentance and inner healing prayers. In brief, the times ministering to students was wonderful! God was doing a deep work in each person’s heart and the anointing was flowing!

I asked all ten students to write a mini-testimony from the conference so stay tuned for an inside look at the conference!

For all those who would like a copy of this wonderful resource, here it is: M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan. If you’d like it in a different language, click here.

Let me know if you decide to commit to it! We can go through it together! One of my favorite preachers and authors of all time, Charles Spurgeon, and another well respected author, John Stott, both recommended this Bible reading plan highly.

The congregation of JSEM responded with great faith today as the total love offering was more than double the amount we hoped would come in! Along with another love offering from the main church, we are sending Pastor Sam out to Chicago with almost five figures! Our church is not particularly wealthy, but today we gave as if we were! And praise God because I believe that as JSEM has given so generously, joyfully, and freely, God is going to bless our congregation tenfold!

Now that Pastor Sam has moved on, it’s time for me to step up fully. In 2007, as I was setting people free from demonic bondage every other week (through my deliverance ministry), the theme verse God gave me was Joshua 1:3, “I will give you every place where you set your foot…” God kept putting the word upon my heart throughout the year.

Now that it’s 2008, the hour has come for me to step up to a brand new leadership magnitude. The word I’m holding onto as I begin my new pastoral position at JSEM is found in the vicinity of 2007’s verse. Joshua 1:4-6, “Your territory will extend… No one will be able to stand up against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you. Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land…”

JSEM, it’s time to go into the Promised Land! Let us aim for Antioch and rise up with the spirit of Caleb, advancing the Kingdom of God to all nations!
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I stayed up all night working on this slideshow for Pastor Sam, enjoy! We’ll miss you Pastor Sam! I’m exhausted now! Good night!

First of all, the praise team has been such an encouragement to me! I’m so blown away by their fire to serve! Usually, college students have been known to flake out of their commitments. But not this praise team! All of them have shown forth an exemplary commitment, hunger for God, and servant’s heart for the last six weeks. They’ve been praying with a growing passion and God is really anointing this team to lead YICF into worship! Tonight was only the second time the praise team led worship and although we had little time to practice, musically we are already coming together and I was surprised at how strong the anointing was flowing in the room! It really shows that God is faithfully answering all our prayers but also that God is anointing this team because they’ve been seeking intimacy with the Lord!

I was also greatly moved at the many students that showed up at the 620 prayer meeting before the Large Group meeting began. I believe God is really raising up a prayer movement here at Yonsei! I can see it right on the horizon!

Tonight I preached a message called “Talk to Yourself (Psalm 42)”. Afterwards several students came up to me to tell me how much they were blessed by the sermon. I just want to thank the people who took the time to personally encourage me in this way (Sharon, Gloria, Anna, Peter Oh, Anita, Dami…). As I was preaching the message, I could see the anointing of the Holy Spirit really falling on the room and especially on particular people. God was moving powerfully on people’s hearts - “as deep cried out to deep”.

Lastly, I was greatly encouraged by the Barnabas Team. They took the initiative to prepare little gifts for the small group leaders and the praise team to encourage them! Because “receiving gifts” is my top love language, I felt much love from the Barnabas Team! (thank you so much guys)

Although I’ve known most of the students for only a month, God is moving so powerfully in their hearts that they are blessing me back so much and the love is just overflowing! I love it!!!

Thank you to all those back in the States who are praying for my ministry and faithfully sending in their support checks. None of this would be possible without your support!

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The Barnabas Team, taking the time to prepare the SJ’s and the Praise Team with gifts!

Coughing Like Crazy
Physically, I had a tough time preaching and leading the seminars because I was coughing the entire time. If it wasn’t for the help of so many students stepping up to shop, cook, lead games, print the retreat booklet, assign small groups, and pick people up from the Yongsan Army gate, I don’t know what I would’ve done! (Big thank you to everyone who served and prayed!) Although we’ve been together for only three weeks, the intimacy of this campus ministry is incredible! As I fall more in love with the students, it’s my joy to pay the cost to serve and build up their faith!

The Yonsei Credit Card
Before the retreat, I prayed that God would provide $ so we could feed all the hungry college students and amazingly, the school approved $250 and it was exactly the amount we needed to provide meals for the weekend! He is Jehovah-Jireh, the Lord our Provider!

Experiencing the Spirit
At the retreat, we ate, played games, had encouragement activities, had small group discussions, and just laughed and danced as we praised God together. I led seminars on the ministries of the Holy Spirit, examining both the indwelling ministry of the Spirit and the empowering ministry of the Spirit (based on Robert Heidler’s “Experiencing the Spirit”). I shared with students real life video clips of the manifestations of the Spirit (including a video clip of Erin’s mommy) and tried to get all the discomforts of seeing such bizarre things like tongues, shaking, and slaying, out in the open (to hear Erin’s testimony about her mom’s revival, click here). At the end of the retreat, students responded by standing to be prayed for. I was surprised to find the vast majority of them standing to receive prayer, hungry for the power of God to manifest. I’ve done this seminar at my church, JSEM, many times and the manifestations have varied. For whatever reason, it was rather quiet this time around. But as I’m meeting with various students and hearing what they experienced, although quiet, the Holy Spirit really touched some of them very powerfully and He is doing a deep work in many of them. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst, for they will be filled!

Despite the somewhat anticlimactic conclusion of the retreat, I know that God has so much more in store for the students and He’s going to continue to pour out His Spirit and bring revival fire to this campus! Please keep YICF in your prayers! ^^

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On a funny side note, I got to talk to Donny’s roommate John Lim a bit and found out that this brother that grew up in the Philippines knew Jooil and Hara (my NY KCCC Director’s children). He also used to live with “Mo”, JSEM Julianne’s boyfriend (btw, happy b/d Julianne!).

After shopping, the first ones to arrive at Donny’s place: Olivia of Australia and Hae Won of Indonesia!

Susy (from Chile) and Izzie (from US) lending a hand to the dinner team. What is that in the bowl?

Oh… it was curry! Yumm!!!

To jump start the retreat, our sister Stella (from Biola) led us in the blanket-name game! You can clearly see the dirty tactics employed by one of our small group leaders, sister Anna!

The competition was fierce as the other team used unorthodox methods to throw us off!

…but we came out victorious!

The Barnabas Committee led us through some more icebreakers… this team was supposed to be a copy machine! I wish I got it on video, it was very creative!

My fiancee Erin, acting as the cutest milk carton you’ll ever see!

Ministering the Word of God as we are about to begin some praise!

Because my voice was gone from all my coughing, we ended up bringing in a few guest worship leaders to lead us into worship. Here we are praising God with Israel Houghton leading the way!

Michelle and Sarah, waking up early to serve everyone breakfast!

Group shot after we wrapped up the retreat! Overflow 2008!

See all the Overflow Retreat pictures.

This past Tuesday, right before our “Large Group” meeting, we usually spend time in prayer. During the prayer time, I asked all the students to pray for the retreat. We prayed and trusted that God would answer.

Knowing how fickle students can be, I was expecting about 20, maybe a few more to come. But tonight, I got sooo overwhelmed because not only are all the people who signed up coming, but they are also bringing their friends too!  32 students?!  Yikes! I began thinking, “That’s too many people in Donny’s small apt! That’s too many mouths to feed! There are so many people, what if some of the students don’t receive the teachings with an open heart?” Man! The complaints began to “overflow” out of my mouth! I realized that I was grumbling and focusing too much on the “challenges” and crisis rather than on the One who can turn those crisis into incredible testimonies! As I thanked God and began to focus on Him, that grumbling spirit fled from me with the quickness.

Then as I was gchatting with Jae Hee (the student leader coordinating the retreat), she mentioned that although everything is overwhelming, we ought to thank God because all He did was “answer prayer”! I was like, “What do you mean?” Then she told me that on Tuesday when we had the 6:20 prayer meeting, I asked everyone to pray that God would bless the retreat and that so many students would come to the retreat that we wouldn’t know how to feed them all! When she mentioned that, it HIT ME like a TRUCK! God is answering prayer!!! God is answering prayer! Why am I so foolish to complain about the problems of having so many people? This is a blessing in disguise!

So despite how cramped we will be this weekend at the retreat! I’m confident that the blessings from this retreat will far outweigh the discomforts of a crowded 3 bedroom apt.

By the way, our retreat theme is “Overflow” (Psalm 23:5).

With some of the wonderful students that I met after the Yonsei Exchange Student Orientation (Feb 26, 2008).

Students sharing prayer requests during Large Group.

Hanging out with students after Large Group.

Being Easter Sunday, I preached a message called “The Resurrection of the Body” (mp3 available here). It’s a sermon that was inspired by a John Piper sermon called “The Radical Effects of the Resurrection”. I have been battling a sore throat and cough this past week and it was a physical struggle trying to preach today. My voice was shot and at the advice of my mother, I was gargling warm salt water all morning. I asked the prayer team to pray that I won’t cough during the sermon and amazingly, I think I coughed only once or twice (thanks Prayer Team)!

As I stayed up til 3:30am the night before preparing the sermon I asked myself, “Why am I putting my body under so much stress? I’m already sick, I should be sleeping now!” That’s when it hit me: I’m doing this because of the hope of the glorious resurrection! Instead of “eating and drinking”, this was my way of freely choosing discomfort in order to store up treasures in heaven. The message I was preparing contained the answer to my own inquiry!

Despite being sick, I prepared with all my heart, I called on the Lord for the anointing with all my heart, and I preached with all my heart. Then I left everything at the pulpit so the Holy Spirit can do His thang. After service, a handful of people expressed how blessed they were by my uncommon preaching on the resurrection of our physical bodies. Well I’m humbled to know that God used my first Easter sermon and first sermon as JSEM lead pastor to bless the congregation. As today marked the first Sunday of a new season for JSEM transitioning to a new leadership, I look back now and see how the Holy Spirit led me to specifically preach that our joy and hope ought to be rooted, not in a local church or its potential for growth or in the benefits of Christianity or in the pleasures of earth, but in the resurrection power of Christ and the future resurrection of our bodies!

Phil. 3:10 (NIV) - I want to know Christ and the POWER of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Speaking of bodies, after Pastor Sam’s birthday dinner, my body was ready to shut down and unfortunately, I passed out while Erin (my fiancee) was over my apt. She wrote me a cute letter before she took a taxi home. I wanted to share an excerpt:

“Guess what?! You passed out! I hope you feel much better by the time you read this. I just wanted to let you know how wonderful you looked up there today… During the praise I saw a vision of wedding dresses and at first I immediately associated it with our wedding coming up but I realized it symbolized a different wedding celebration… I can’t wait!!!… I love you darling and I fall more in love with you every time you speak! Thank you for revolutionizing what Easter means to me… ~ Always, Your Sweetie”

I have been blessed with the most sweetest and encouraging partner ever! I wouldn’t want anyone else to stand by me as I begin my pastorship at JSEM.

~ Christian

Taking a picture while on a missions trip to the Philippines (summer 2007).

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For further study on issues related to the sermon “Resurrection of the Body”:

• Do we receive our resurrection bodies when we die, or at the end of the age? (Desiring God Ministries, Jan 23, 2006, Q&A)
• Does Paul deny the physicality of the resurrection? (Desiring God Ministries, Jan 23, 2006, Q&A)
• Radical Effects of the Resurrection (John Piper, Apr 3, 2007, video/audio sermon from Texas A&M Rez Week)
• Radical Effects of the Resurrection (John Piper, Apr 4, 2007, manuscript)