How Did You Learn to Preach?

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00:00:02.580 | - Believe it or not, in seminary,

00:00:05.940 | John Piper got a C- in one of his preaching classes.

00:00:09.900 | Yes, a C-.

00:00:11.020 | It's hard to believe, but it's true.

00:00:12.780 | And he talked about it a few years back

00:00:14.340 | when he was asked where and how did he learn to preach.

00:00:17.580 | Here's what he said.

00:00:18.580 | - Watching my dad when I was six, eight, 10, 12.

00:00:23.860 | Watching how not to do it in lots of places.

00:00:29.720 | Being unable to speak from grade five

00:00:34.720 | to my sophomore year in college,

00:00:38.680 | unable to speak in front of a group.

00:00:40.640 | I think I was learning to preach during that time.

00:00:43.080 | Because I was so hurt, so wounded, so discouraged,

00:00:47.640 | so desperate that I had to go way down into God

00:00:52.040 | and way into scripture and way into pain.

00:00:54.880 | And God was making a preacher.

00:00:58.600 | I was shot in my mouth.

00:00:59.800 | You don't become an effective preacher

00:01:04.440 | by becoming loquacious and effective communicator at age 16.

00:01:08.920 | You become a communicator, clever communicator,

00:01:12.520 | but you don't become a preacher of the holy things of God.

00:01:17.480 | So that was a piece.

00:01:19.200 | I don't know.

00:01:27.160 | The courses that I took on preaching were marginally,

00:01:30.520 | I got the lowest grade in seminary in my preaching class.

00:01:33.880 | I got a C minus, I think,

00:01:36.560 | in James Dane's preaching class at Fuller Seminary.

00:01:39.120 | We never agreed on anything.

00:01:40.520 | Except the principle that every text should have,

00:01:44.880 | every sermon should have one point.

00:01:46.920 | He said that over and over again.

00:01:48.560 | So I made a terrible grade there.

00:01:50.780 | But there were other teachers that...

00:01:54.960 | I think the way I became a preacher

00:01:57.040 | was by being passionately thrilled

00:02:00.800 | by what I was seeing in the Bible in seminary.

00:02:03.100 | Passionately thrilled.

00:02:05.520 | When Philippians began to open to me,

00:02:07.720 | Galatians opened to me, Romans opened to me,

00:02:09.440 | the Sermon on the Mount opened me in classes on exegesis,

00:02:12.720 | not homiletics, but exegesis,

00:02:15.060 | everything in me was feeling,

00:02:17.240 | I wanna say this to somebody.

00:02:18.880 | I wanna find a way to say this 'cause this is awesome.

00:02:22.200 | This is incredible.

00:02:23.820 | So preachers today that go everywhere but the Bible

00:02:28.820 | to find something interesting

00:02:30.120 | or something scintillating and passionate,

00:02:32.480 | I don't get it.

00:02:33.720 | I don't get that at all.

00:02:35.760 | Because I have to work hard to leave the Bible

00:02:39.480 | and go somewhere to find an illustration

00:02:40.940 | because everything here is just blowing me away.

00:02:45.360 | And it's that sense of being blown away by what's here,

00:02:49.920 | by the God that's here and the Christ that's here

00:02:52.240 | and the gospel that's here

00:02:53.640 | and the spirit that's here and the life that's here

00:02:56.360 | being blown away by this,

00:02:59.800 | just kind of say, that's gotta get out.

00:03:01.920 | That's gotta get out.

00:03:03.400 | And then I suppose how it gets out,

00:03:06.920 | what is that?

00:03:08.740 | How it gets out, I don't know what that is.

00:03:11.200 | That's just the way I'm wired

00:03:13.600 | that I would say it a certain way

00:03:16.080 | and then it's owing to me being a lit major.

00:03:18.640 | That affects your language a little bit.

00:03:20.260 | And goodness, a thousand things go into your life

00:03:23.240 | and nobody can copy anybody else.

00:03:25.560 | And I don't know.

00:03:27.560 | God makes us who we are.

00:03:30.680 | I don't think there's much you can do to become a preacher

00:03:35.020 | except know your Bible

00:03:37.040 | and be unbelievably excited about what's there

00:03:39.860 | and love people a lot.

00:03:41.360 | And just wanna make the connection with people

00:03:42.920 | in what's there.

00:03:43.760 | - That was Pastor John Piper,

00:03:46.080 | who is home from his trip to the Middle East.

00:03:48.120 | And that means we will soon return with all new episodes.

00:03:51.080 | So please continue to email your questions into us

00:03:53.360 | at askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org.

00:03:56.120 | You can visit us online at desiringgod.org

00:03:58.360 | to find thousands of books, articles, sermons,

00:04:00.160 | and other resources from John Piper, all free of charge.

00:04:03.000 | I'm your host Tony Reinke, thanks for listening.

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00:04:07.780 | (upbeat music)

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How Did You Learn to Preach?

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