SERMON REVIEW

Today, the sermon I want to look at is:

You are just as close to God as you want to be

by: Pastor Wilbert Unger

You can listen to the sermon at this link: Sermon

There is nothing really wrong with the sermon, but I think it can be used to teach a few important lessons.

1. What verse-by-verse teaching is not. During the sermon, the pastor does go verse-by-verse through 2 Peter 1:1-7. However, all he does is read a verse, give a commentary and move on to the next verse. True verse-by-verse teaching involves much more.

2. The need for an outline. During the sermon, information is given about 7 verses, but it is not presented in a way that can be remembered. I think outlining the passage is helpful.
Let me explain what I mean.

2 Peter 1:1-7
1 Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ: 2 Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, 3 According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: 4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
5 And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; 6 And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; 7 And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.

If you read that section of scripture, I think everyone can see the natural division in the text.

Verses 1-2 serve as an introduction:
1 Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ:
2 Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord

Notice the following about the introduction:

1. Introduction:
A. THE AUTHOR:
- SIMON PETER
- A SERVANT
- AN APOSTLE

B. The Audience:
TO THE SAVED
to them that have obtained like precious faith with us

C. THE DESIRE:
PETER WANTS grace and peace to be multiplied


That is a simple outline that everyone could remember. I could preach on the two verses in the introduction for about 4 Sundays.

Now everyone should clearly see that beginning in verse 3, the text clearly changes and it begins with a certain theme that goes to verse 11.

Then in verse 12, you have the word "wherefore." So verse 12 is saying, "based on the things before, you should know this."

So you should now be able to build more on your outline:

Verse 1-2

Verse 3-11

Verse 12-21

We have given the first section a title: Introduction

We still need to give the next two sections a title:

I will not post the rest of my outline; I will wait and see what the readers of the blog can come up with.

So get to work and e-mail me your ideas at:
tsrk30@sbcglobal.net