The Preacher's Emotional Condition, #1

Driving home: Man made in the image of God was made an emotional, a feeling creature. And the presence of his emotions is in itself an aspect of his image-bearing capacity.

Warfield's essay 'The Emotional Life of Our Lord' is cited as a masterful demonstration of Christ's full range of emotions (joy, grief, anger, disappointment, dread, love, compassion, pity), which were manifested in his words, physical actions, and bearing.

The Bible again and again asserts that God feels, God experiences emotions, and supremely in the God-man. And whenever you're thinking of the attributes of God, you're generally kept from all kinds of philosophical and theological abstractions. If you view God as He is, is exegeted in the theanthropic person. The only begotten, he has exegeted him. So when we turn to the God-man Christ Jesus, we see, as Warfield has so masterfully demonstrated in his classic essay, The Emotional Life of Our Lord, the full range of the emotional state expressed in our blessed Lord. Joy, grief, anger, disappoint...

9:59 - 11:12 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: This section explores the origin and moral quality of emotions, asserting that man's emotional constitution is a created reality, reflecting God's own emotional nature. Martin…

Martin describes Adam's joyful emotional reaction upon seeing Eve for the first time, after naming all the animals, as an example of virtuous emotion before the Fall.

When he perceived reality as reality existed, if that reality should have created an emotion of joy, Adam's emotional reaction was joyful. When God brought Eve to Adam, I cannot read that passage stripped of its emotional content. It's impossible to think that when the text says, let me read it, Acts, I'm sorry, Genesis chapter 2, Then he took the root, and brought her to the man, and the man said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman. She was taken out of man. It's impossible to strip that passage of the strong overtones of joy. The same Adam had

13:23 - 14:16 Read in full sermon

The point: Recognize that remaining sin touches our emotions and is ready to betray us, even in the pulpit, and understand the origin and moral quality of emotions biblically.

The involuntary physiological effects of fear (affecting adrenal glands, breathing, heartbeat) are given as an example of how emotions cause great bodily changes.

The one who wrote the article in Baker's Dictionary of Theology underscored that fact. Fear affects the adrenal glands, the rate of breathing and our heartbeat, involuntarily.

24:30 - 24:41 Read in full sermon

The point: Recognize that remaining sin touches our emotions and is ready to betray us, even in the pulpit, and understand the origin and moral quality of emotions biblically.

Anxiety's effect on digestive juices, sometimes leading to ulcers, illustrates the powerful physiological impact of emotions.

I mean, it's an involuntary response. Any kind of sudden fear has this powerful physiological effect. Anxiety affects the flow of the digestive juices until sometimes it eats holes in the stomach, a la the ulcer syndrome. The anxiety, releasing those juices and eating away at the lining of the stomach.

24:56 - 25:18 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin transitions to the strategic role of emotions in oral communication, which is preaching. He outlines three sub-points: emotions cause great physiological effects, they…

The experience of being 'so afraid I couldn't even yell for help' illustrates how fear can paralyze vocal cords and affect speech.

For example, the voice. When a person is afraid, there are times the fear actually causes a form of paralysis in the use of the vocal cords. You said, I was so afraid I couldn't even yell for help.

26:07 - 26:21 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin transitions to the strategic role of emotions in oral communication, which is preaching. He outlines three sub-points: emotions cause great physiological effects, they…

Reserved people cranking up their voice volume to 55 or 70 decibels when in danger illustrates the powerful influence of emotions on voice intensity.

Now, we can all relate to that. It was this emotion of fear that influenced the vocal cords, the breath control, the whole apparatus of speech, the whole matter of volume. When in danger, I have seen some of the most reserved people whose voices generally would never get above 1.2 decibels crank it up to 55 or 70 when they were in a situation that necessitated that cranking up of the volume.

26:23 - 26:54 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin transitions to the strategic role of emotions in oral communication, which is preaching. He outlines three sub-points: emotions cause great physiological effects, they…

The 'tremendous abandonment' and shouting of reserved English fans at a football match illustrates the contagious and powerful influence of emotions on voice and physical expression.

The intensity. All you need to do is go to a ball game and see people, even our reserved English friends, with the stiff upper lip and watch them at a football match when 80 or 100,000 people are there in a stadium and suddenly there is this tremendous abandonment in the use of the voice and the shouting and all of the rest. Why? Because they become emotionally involved with what's happening down there with those 22 men kicking a little ball up and down a 120-yard field.

26:54 - 27:25 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin transitions to the strategic role of emotions in oral communication, which is preaching. He outlines three sub-points: emotions cause great physiological effects, they…

A spurned lover's ability to draw upon new vocabulary and arguments to woo back a woman illustrates how emotion (love and desire) affects language.

Here's a spurned lover seeking to woo back the woman who has spurned him and it's amazing how the engagement of the emotion of love and desire for that woman can cause him to reach back and draw up resources from the whole matter of his vocabulary and the structuring of argument and all this. He didn't even know existed.

27:36 - 27:59 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin transitions to the strategic role of emotions in oral communication, which is preaching. He outlines three sub-points: emotions cause great physiological effects, they…

A loving father pleading with a son to avoid danger illustrates how emotion affects the vocabulary and language used.

And it's that emotion of love. That affects the vocabulary. The manner in which he structures argument. A loving father pleading with a son to avoid danger will affect the vocabulary that he uses.

28:01 - 28:16 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin transitions to the strategic role of emotions in oral communication, which is preaching. He outlines three sub-points: emotions cause great physiological effects, they…

A hockey player's physical celebration (running on skates, stick high) after scoring a goal illustrates physical activity born of exhilarating emotion.

I like to watch occasionally the differing responses. I don't watch a lot of television at all. And yet, occasionally, I picked up, for instance, the other night, about 15 minutes of an Islander hockey game. And I had to laugh my head off when one of those guys stuck the puck into the net.

28:29 - 28:47 Read in full sermon

The point: Avoid computerized preaching, which is merely spitting out programmed information without genuine emotion.

Football players' dances, jumps, and slam dunks after a touchdown illustrate physical activity born of exhilarating emotion.

And then he began, literally, to run on his skates. You know, just right across the hole with a red coat and his stick high. And then, of course, the various things that people go through when they've made a touchdown in football, dance their little jig, jump up, and slam dunk the ball. Over the crossbar and all of the rest.

28:47 - 29:05 Read in full sermon

The point: Avoid computerized preaching, which is merely spitting out programmed information without genuine emotion.

The contrast between human emotional expression and a computer's flat, emotionless voice, even when delivering tragic news, highlights the unique role of emotion in human communication.

Now, you see, it is in this area that there is a tremendous difference between man and the computer.

29:35 - 29:40 Read in full sermon

Driving home: For good or for evil, with truth or with error, he who moves men's affections and emotions moves men.

Witnessing an adult male sobbing uncontrollably creates an initial feeling of grief in the observer, illustrating the contagion of emotion, which can be cut off if the cause is irrational (e.g., crying over a bobby pin).

behold in another human being a certain emotion we are colored by that emotion for instance and then he illustrates this if you were to walk out of here and go into the next room and there find an adult male bent over sobbing his heart out tears splashing on the table just standing there beholding him what would that create in you some feeling of grief you'd say I don't know what he's crying over but there is an element of contagion now if you begin to question him and find out that he's crying over the fact that he just lost the bobby pin then suddenly your grief would be cut off and you'd sa...

37:40 - 39:09 Read in full sermon

Driving home: For good or for evil, with truth or with error, he who moves men's affections and emotions moves men.

The 'laughing record,' where one person's laughter becomes contagious, illustrates the involuntary and immediate nature of sympathetic feeling.

behold in another human being a certain emotion we are colored by that emotion for instance and then he illustrates this if you were to walk out of here and go into the next room and there find an adult male bent over sobbing his heart out tears splashing on the table just standing there beholding him what would that create in you some feeling of grief you'd say I don't know what he's crying over but there is an element of contagion now if you begin to question him and find out that he's crying over the fact that he just lost the bobby pin then suddenly your grief would be cut off and you'd sa...

37:40 - 39:09 Read in full sermon

Driving home: For good or for evil, with truth or with error, he who moves men's affections and emotions moves men.

The senseless passions of mobs, where men fight for unknown objects, illustrate the involuntary and immediate power of sympathetic feeling, devoid of rational cause.

point is our creator has formed us with this law of feeling this is the way God has made us in a word our sympathetic feeling is provoked not by the rational cause of the feeling we behold but by the mere beholding of the feeling again it should be remarked that sympathy is involuntarily and immediate the senseless passions of mobs where men are suddenly led to clamor or fight with vehemence for objects of which they are utterly ignorant and careless are familiar and trite illustrations of this power guys having a real Donnybrook balls you grab one and say what are you fighting about I don't k...

39:09 - 40:39 Read in full sermon

Driving home: If we have really perceived them and believed them, we have felt them, and if we have felt them, then we cannot preach them as though we have not felt them and are not presently feeling them.

A distraught mother pleading for help outside a burning building where her children are trapped is used to illustrate that intense emotional responses are not excessive but expected when confronted with profound reality.

of this book and if we have really perceived them and believed them we have felt them and if we have felt them then we cannot preach them as though we have not felt them and are not presently feeling them it's unthinkable utterly unthinkable now granted the manner in which the emotional energy is expressed will differ in every preacher the manner in which that emotional energy will express itself will differ in terms of voice tone and volume in terms of physical reaction in terms of discernible elements of that emotion seen in the glint of the eye in the gesture all of those things will differ...

45:06 - 46:35 Read in full sermon

Driving home: If we have really perceived them and believed them, we have felt them, and if we have felt them, then we cannot preach them as though we have not felt them and are not presently feeling them.

A wildly cheering crowd welcoming a conquering army that delivered the nation from oppression is used to illustrate that intense emotional responses are not excessive but expected when confronted with profound reality.

standing before the reality of a burning building and the impending destruction of her children is carried out of herself with earnestness who accuses fanaticism or attributes fanaticism to a wildly cheering crowd welcoming home a conquering army that is delivered it , delivered the nation from a vile oppressor who accused anyone of excess some of us were alive when second world war ended we're that ancient and we can remember the tongues of ticker tape that cascaded down streets of New York and the multitudes that thronged the streets and the shouting and the yelling went on for hours no one ...

46:35 - 48:03 Read in full sermon

Driving home: If we have really perceived them and believed them, we have felt them, and if we have felt them, then we cannot preach them as though we have not felt them and are not presently feeling them.

The sobs of a bereaved husband or wife at a casket are used to illustrate that intense emotional responses are not excessive but expected when confronted with profound reality.

standing before the reality of a burning building and the impending destruction of her children is carried out of herself with earnestness who accuses fanaticism or attributes fanaticism to a wildly cheering crowd welcoming home a conquering army that is delivered it , delivered the nation from a vile oppressor who accused anyone of excess some of us were alive when second world war ended we're that ancient and we can remember the tongues of ticker tape that cascaded down streets of New York and the multitudes that thronged the streets and the shouting and the yelling went on for hours no one ...

46:35 - 48:03 Read in full sermon

Driving home: If we have really perceived them and believed them, we have felt them, and if we have felt them, then we cannot preach them as though we have not felt them and are not presently feeling them.

The early deaths of Brainerd, Henry Martin, and McShane are cited as possible explanations for the toll that intense emotional response to biblical reality takes on frail humanity.

of the burning building and the impending destruction of one's offspring the deliverance of a nation from an oppressive tyrannical rule the broken heart of one who's lost a loved one if those things are not considered emotional excesses but the expected responses to reality why should there be any less of the emotional full range of human emotion manifested when we are dealing with realities that make those things appear by comparison as fantasy now they are not fantasy but by comparison we're dealing with heaven we're dealing with hell we're dealing with god and the claims of the almighty we'...

48:03 - 49:32 Read in full sermon

Driving home: If we have really perceived them and believed them, we have felt them, and if we have felt them, then we cannot preach them as though we have not felt them and are not presently feeling them.

An extended quotation from Gardner Spring's 'Power in the Pulpit' emphasizes that the highest intensity of feeling for God's truth still falls short of its deserving theme, and that all human passions find appropriate expression here.

the explanation for the early death of men such as Brainerd and Henry Martin and others and McShane that God just gave them such an unusual measure of that emotional response to felt I'm sorry to biblical reality that their frail humanity simply couldn't take it simply couldn't take it now yes it's Gardner Spring who makes some perceptive comments and I want to read a few of these to you brethren just to sort of bend over the nail on this observation that I've made in his excellent work Power in the Pulpit quoting from page 243 and several other places he says this the highest intensity of fee...

49:32 - 51:01 Read in full sermon

The point: Preach in a present relationship that engages the totality of your being, loving God with all your heart, mind, and soul in the act of preaching.

A quote about Whitfield's preaching, where a ship carpenter remarked he could usually build a ship in his mind during a sermon but under Whitfield, he 'could lay a single plank,' illustrates Whitfield's unparalleled intensity of feeling that enchained his audience.

elements in the preacher himself without which the attention of his audience cannot be secured they are the subject matter of his preaching and the interest which he himself takes in what he speaks the late doctor emmons was once asked by one of his brethren what is the best remedy for an attentive audience his characteristic reply was give them something to attend to by this but this is not all he must feel his subject it is as marvelous as it is mournful that the weighty and thrilling truths of God's word lose so much of their force from the little interest the preacher himself feels in his ...

55:29 - 56:59 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin reinforces his argument with extended quotations from Gardner Spring and Palmer's life of Thornwell, emphasizing that the highest intensity of feeling is still below the…

An extended quotation from Palmer's 'Life of Thornwell' describes Thornwell's preaching as a rare union of vigorous logic with strong emotion, where arguments were 'woven in fire,' and his body trembled under a 'divine afflatus,' yet always guided by logic.

can refer you to a section in sacred rhetoric by Dabney that whole section pages 233 to 260 you had to read at the end of last semester on persuasion he has some marvelous insights there pages 233 to 260 let me close with giving this account of the man who combined this element of the white light of clear perception of truth coupled with the warmth and passion of genuine emotional involvement and contagion it's in Palmer's life of Thornwell on page 548 and I read this on a previous occasion in another connection and I'm going to read it again you can't hear it too frequently describing Thornwe...

59:58 - 61:28 Read in full sermon

The point: Preach in such a way as to evidence proper emotional involvement, even if it means having 'ragged edges' homiletically, rather than being polished but cold and lifeless.

An astute observer's comment that theaters are filled because actors speak fiction as though it were fact, while churches are empty because preachers deal with facts as though they were fiction, highlights the need for preachers to genuinely feel their message.

what he's saying is obviously something important to him it might be important to me ought to at least give him a hearing but if he can't be stirred up to self interest in what he's talking about why bother me with it why bother me with it it doesn't move you you know life's too busy too many responsibilities why should I be concerned even to give a hearing and so far better brethren to have some ragged edges now it's not either or but if it were far better to have ragged edges homiletically some ragged edges in many areas but to preach in such a way as to evidence that we have come to grips w...

69:32 - 71:02 Read in full sermon

The point: Preach in such a way as to evidence proper emotional involvement, even if it means having 'ragged edges' homiletically, rather than being polished but cold and lifeless.

The observation that good actors literally become the characters they play, feeling their emotions and losing their own identity, is used as an analogy for the preacher's need to become 'incarnate' in the truth they convey.

the theaters are filled because the actors speak fiction as though it were fact and that's true a good actor is not someone who plays with his emotions he so becomes the person whom he's projecting that he literally feels the emotions of that person that's why most actors and actresses are such mixed up people because they don't have any sense of identity for six months they're this person and for seven months they're someone else if they play a Broadway for two years they're that person and I've deliberately read some of the interviews with people who've had to play unusually strong character...

71:02 - 72:17 Read in full sermon

The point: Make a choice: preach for 50 years and never really preach, or preach for 30 years and go home early with a good conscience, implying a call to passionate, self-giving ministry.

A quote from John Murray, 'Preaching without passion is not preaching at all,' is used to underscore the indispensable role of passion in effective preaching, even leading him to hear a black preacher with theological differences due to his passion.

even as Mary gave herself up to be an instrument in the hands of God the whole of her humanity was involved in giving birth to the son of God in an analogous sense the whole of our humanity is involved in giving birth to the truth of God in the hearts and lives of others now some of us who are more volatile emotionally maybe we pay a greater price in terms of our spent humanity but you have to make a choice do I want to preach for 50 years and never really preach or preach for 30 years and go home early with a good conscience now most people have an image of Professor Murray that is entirely c...

72:24 - 73:53 Read in full sermon