Page 112 - Homiletics I Student Textbook

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of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. ESV

This verse says we are to have the exact same attitude as Jesus Christ in coming to earth to pay the
penalty for our sin. Notice he came as a servant. He did not come to be admired or looked up to. He
came humbly to serve us. That’s the attitude we must have as a teacher. If we teach a group of people,
we are there to meet their needs and serve them, not tell them what to do.

This same passage even makes it clearer,

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Philippians 2: 3-4 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more
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significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of
others. ESV

Attitude is everything. If you are prideful, you will be a poor teacher. Another KEY to being a great
teacher is having a servant’s attitude.

When I teach a 40-minute lesson, I will generally spend between 3 and 4 hours preparing to teach the
lesson. Why so long? First, to serve the class properly, I had better find out accurately what the passage
says and carefully examine the Scriptures. If I mess up in my study, I have short changed the class of
really knowing what God has said. Secondly, I spend some time trying to work on a presentation that
will interest the class. I might create a Power Point presentation showing slides and background
information which will help them visualize a component of the lesson. Then I will practice giving the
lesson, trying to incorporate methods which will draw the interest of the class into the lesson. And
without a time of prayer, asking the Holy Spirit to fill you full of the Word for the class, your efforts will
be in vain. All of that takes time. So why do I do that? Because I am the teacher and I am their servant.
If they are to be fed God’s Word, I must prepare to feed them.

It’s like inviting guests to a meal. They enter your home and are
welcomed. You invite them to sit down at the dinner table and
show them their seat. Then you or your wife brings over the meal
that she has worked on for several hours and lays it before them.
You are serving them dinner. They came, you served, and they
went home filled. Teaching is the same thing. They come, you
feed them with God’s Word, and they go home filled. You serve
them as a teacher in the same way you serve them dinner.

4. Know and understand who you are teaching.

You don’t teach everyone in the same way! Jesus used a
variety of methods to teach those who came to him. Why?
Because each person He taught had a different need in their
life, was at differing levels of maturity, and varied in their
education, cultural standing, and position in life. So how He
taught depended on to
whom He was teaching.

How He taught depended on to whom He was teaching!
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