Preaching God’s Word

A Hands-On Approach
to Preparing, Developing,
and Delivering the Sermon

Terry G. Carter • J. Scott Duvall • and J. Daniel Hays

Preaching God’s Word

Copyright © 2005 by Terry G. Carter, J. Scott Duvall, and J. Daniel Hays

Requests for information should be addressed to:

Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Carter, Terry G.

Preaching God’s word: a hands-on approach to preparing, developing, and delivering the sermon / Terry G. Carter, J. Scott Duvall, and J. Daniel Hays.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

ISBN-13 978-0-310-24887-3 (hardcover, printed

ISBN-10 0-310-25663-1

1. Preaching. I. Duvall, J. Scott. II. Hays, J. Daniel, 1953– III. Title.

BV4211.3.C37 2005

251—dc22 2005007676

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

To those from whom I feel the greatest love and support in all my endeavors—my wife and best friend, Kathy Carter; our greatest gift from God and wonderful daughter,
Tilly Gambill, and her husband, Brent,
a welcome addition to our family.

To Ashley, Amy, and Meagan Duvall, for being gracious and encouraging to their dad, who is also their preacher.

To my dad, Jim Hays. His preaching edified, inspired, and entertained me as a boy, and his powerful yet folksy sermon illustrations still live on in my memory. His preaching has always been the standard by which I have evaluated the homiletics of others.

Contents

Acknowledgments

Preface

Introduction

Part 1: Developing and Preaching a Biblical Sermon

1. Preaching a Biblical Sermon

2. Discovering Biblical Truth: The Interpretive Journey

3. Preaching the Meaning in Their Town

4. Exegeting the Audience

5. Communicating the Meaning in Our Town

6. Applying the Message

7. Illustrating Biblical Truth

8. Delivering a Biblical Sermon

Part 2: Preaching the New Testament

9. Preaching Letters

10. Preaching the Gospels and Acts

11. Preaching Revelation

Part 3: Preaching the Old Testament

12. Preaching Old Testament Narrative

13. Preaching the Law

14. Preaching the Prophets

15. Preaching Psalms and Wisdom Literature

Conclusion

Scripture Index

Subject Index

Acknowledgments

One would think that three authors would be able to handle all the details of writing a book. However, all writing projects require the assistance of many others, and so it is only appropriate to recognize some of those friends who made this work possible. First, we offer our deep appreciation to the encouraging people at Zondervan, and especially ...