Appeals For Preachers

GOALS AND APPEALS IN PREACHING

1. The Goal of Preaching

2 Cor. 5:18-20 contains the summary purposes of preaching:

a). To communicate the revelation of God contained in His word and relate it to the needs of the people.

b). To beseech people to be reconciled to God. This means that the preacher’s purpose is to help men turn from their sins and accept Christ as their Savior.

c). To serve as ambassadors of Christ, representing Him in an alien world.

d). To stir the mind, emotions, and will of every person with the truths of the scriptures to help him become complete in Christ. (Col. 1:27,28)

2. The Aims for Each Message

a). Aim to meet the felt, perceived, and real needs of your audience through the ministry of the word of God.

b). Aim to inform, persuade, and to inspire your congregation to commitment to Christ, to the church, and to service.

c). Aim to eliminate people’s hindrances to knowing, believing, and acting on the scriptures. (Jm. 1:22) Some of these obstacles may be ignorance of the truth, prejudices, pride, laziness, jealousy, anger, immorality, dishonesty, lust, greed, devilish intrusions, temptations, or unbelief!

Don’t Aim Your Messages Above the

Heads of Your Audience

d). Provide appropriate incentives, rewards, and motivations for your listeners to want to do the entire will of God. Use appropriate balance of knowledge, emotions, and personal challenges.

e). Realize that different people are motivated differently. Allow for individual differences in the way you seek to inspire your congregation to obedience. Suggest how they can experience success (Josh 1:8); point out the consequences of not obeying God, show them the benefits that others have experienced in obedience, explain how God provided for the Lepers in 2 Kings 6,7 and how He will also provide for them if they trust God for their provisions. (Phil. 4:19)

f). Seek to have some illustrations that suit the needs of different groups in your church. For instance women’s needs, men’s needs, youth’s needs, children’s needs, elder’s needs, the sick, the destitute, the poor, the wealthy, the downtrodden, the rich people, the father, mother, and grandparents’ needs, new christian’s needs, mature Christian’s needs, the non-Christian’s needs etc.

g). Paul told the Thessalonians in I Thes. 5:14, ``Warn the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, and show patience toward everyone.’’ Learn how to approach people with a variety of messages. Don’t just use the same style of message, organization, or delivery for every sermon.

h). Seek to balance your information with your inspirational appeals.

i). Seek always to preach the word so that you can convince, teach, proclaim the truth, evangelize, edify, encourage, exhort, love, honor, appreciate, uphold, support, stimulate, comfort, heal, warn, chastise, and apply the truth in a relevant way to their lives.

Appeal to the following needs of your audience

a). People want to belong to a family. (The family of God)

b). People need to feel accepted for who they are not just who they might become someday.

c). People need to feel appreciate for their contributions (In their thoughts, words, and deeds)

d). People need friends to support, converse, and share their concerns with.

e). People need to have their faith strengthened. Share how God is working in your own life and in the lives of those around you.

f). Appeal to people’s sense of righteousness, goodness, and ethics in obeying God’s commandments. (Jn. 14:21)

g). Appeal to people’s need to overcome their fears of death, demons, trouble, adversity, poverty, anxiety, persecution, and attacks from enemies.

h). Appeal to people with the promises of God for specific problems. (2 Cor. 1:20) Learn to use a balance of emotional, logical, and ethical appeals.

i). Appeal to people’s need to be encouraged, directed, strengthened, and comforted during difficult times.

j.) Appeal to people’s needs to look not only at their own interests but also the interests of others as Christ did. (Phil. 2:3,4)

k). Appeal to people’s need to contribute significantly to the cause of Christ for eternity. Help them see that they may earn eternal rewards.

l). Appeal to people’s needs to accomplish, succeed, and achieve greatness for God. Jesus said, ``Whoever wants to be great, let him become a servant to all.’’

m). Appeal to people’s need to fulfill their duties to God. (Mt. 25:27)

n). Appeal to people’s sense of cultural and tribal motivations that do not contradict the values of scripture. (I Cor. 9:21-23)

o). Appeal to people’s history, heritage, and background as Paul did in addressing the Athenians on Mars hill. (Acts 17:16-34)

p). Appeal to people’s intelligence, rational thinking, and reasoning capacities. (Isa. 55:8,9)

q). Appeal to people’s emotions like their need to love and to be loved, their need to feel peace, their need to feel joy, their need to feel cared for, and their need to feel satisfied. Jesus said, ``Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be satisfied.’’ (Mt. 5:6)