truth cannot always be stated in the same force or effect in a proposition as in other more imaginative forms. Purposes of Evangelical Sermons The primary authority in the evangelical sermon is the Bible. Indeed, J. I. Packer, a preeminent evangelical, says that preachers are to make clear that sermons are not the preacher’s own ideas but are “God’s message from God’s book.” Preachers are not to talk about the text but to allow the text to talk through them.2 A major purpose of the sermon is to explain