Cultural Rhetoric

So this Wednesday I was at my youth group and one of the leaders Josiah gave a very good sermon. The sermon was about forgiveness. This sermon made everyone there have a different point of view on forgiveness. His sermon gave me a different point of view on forgiveness because it is personally hard for me to forgive. Say if you trusted someone with something that is not able to be shared with others and they went behind your back and told people. Then those people told their friends and eventually the whole school knew. It would be hard to forgive them afterwards because you trusted them and they broke your trust. So this sermon made me realize that it will be hard to forgive, but it is the right thing to do because Jesus died on the cross to show us that he forgave us of all our sins. Jesus went through a violent death all to show how much he loves us and that he forgives us. Forgiving is going to be a struggle for everyone no matter what the situation is. I do think that his sermon w...

It is one of those clear early Wednesday night right after Christmas, a chapel I attended, yet what was said in the sermon, laid heavy upon my heart. The preacher talked a topic about ”lying”, a common topic, yet his speech draw my full awareness on my worldview and how I should treat others. My preacher first start out making a joke: some people, who would sometime pretend to stay in restroom longer, so people would assume they washed their hands in this cold day. I burst out laughing, this efforts seemed silly and pointless but it sometimes happens, he trapped my attention in to his sermon step by step with this introduction. Then he asked all his listener to participate in his question: when was you last time you lie? Yet it is not a question to answer loudly, it irritates me as I was under a stare from my conscious. The topic about lying, was talked over so many times that it is easy for us to ignore how unaware we really are, lying to a little child, deception between pe...

A couple years ago, I discovered a short sermon of David Wilkerson speaking about the state of the church today. Ever since, it has never been erased from my mind; it will always be imprinted on my heart. As I watched, conviction of the state of my own spiritual life was revived in me. Wilkerson’s passionate voice broke through my walls. As his voice rang out, I wept over the state of the church and of my own life. Not only was I convicted, a regret of my lack of passion for God started to emerge; a burden for the church and for God Himself started to awaken within.  Wilkerson stresses the problem in the church. He describes the church as the spiritual Jerusalem comparing it to the Jerusalem in Nehemiah’s days. In his time, Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians; it was obliterated, burnt with fire, and in utter ruin. Wilkerson points out that the church has become a place of lukewarmness. The church has replaced God with the “inventions and ministries of man and...

This speech is very special in my eyes. This short sermon is about how the holy spirit plays a role in our lives. The pastor tells us about the sins and struggles in our live and reliefs us at the end to say that they can go away if we are filled with the holy spirit. He grabs the attention of the audience in the most effective way and that is by using a visual explanation. He mentions that when we are filled with the holy spirit there is an overflow, just like the one in the glass of water and this overflow spreads the holy spirit to other people. A lot of sermons can lose your attention, but I think the pastor does a great job of explaining his point in a way that shows his passion about this specific subject.  I also think it’s great he gives credit to the holy spirit for being a important subject in the Bible. I think it’s very smart on him to use visual explanation because whenever these people see the objects he used they will be reminded of his sermon. Also, his analogies ...

     Two weeks ago we celebrated Thanksgiving. It makes me remember a great sermon about giving thanks.The pastor told us  For most of us it was a time for turkey, feasting and football. Across U.S parades were held, and black Friday followed afterward. Some stores are now opening late on Thanksgiving Day and I have even heard people use the term “Black Thursday”. The Christmas decorations seem to go up earlier and earlier each year. But Thanksgiving Day should not be the only day of giving thanks. Follow along with me as I read from Psalm 100.It 's about everyone should thank for Lord He created us and His lovingkindness is everlasting and His faithfulness to all generations.He told us before America became a country people eat turkey.This psalm was written long before there were parades and football games – long before America became a country – but it is plain that this psalm is a psalm of thanksgiving none the less.That means thanksgiving does not need to be cent...

At my youth group, the assistant preacher for Chesmont Church of Christ spoke in front of us and gave a devotional on forgiveness. He started out by talking to us about how hard it is to forgive someone that wronged you. As a youth group we agreed that it depended on how much the person had wronged us on whether it was hard or not to forgive someone. After that he said that even though we might find it hard for us to forgive the person that wronged us, God would always forgive them if they came to Him. He focused on the fact that we focus on how bad the sin was and how much we were hurt but God forgives everyone that comes to Him period. If Adolf Hitler had came to God then He would have forgave him, when David had committed adultery and killed a man he came to God and God forgave him. The speaker keeps emphasizing his point throughout his entire speech and the way that rhetoric was neatly woven into this devo was by making the audience feel guilty so that they would be more willing to...

I saw and heard rhetoric used in a sermon/lecture we watched in bible class by a man named John C. Lennox. The sermon was about the first seven days of the world as described in Genesis one. Lennox is a professor of mathematics and an author. Lennox wanted people to understand that the age of earth is never truly discussed, and that one can accept most scientific views on the age of earth while also believing the words of the Bible. The views he discusses aren’t simply the ‘twenty-four hour day’ views, either- they include time periods from as short as twelve hours to as long as ages. He makes it clear that the interpretations could easily all be correct, and that they may depend, as well, and the days might be of all different lengths. Lennox uses logos by referencing the Bible and science both to back up his statements. He also brings up different examples of possible views. For example, the day could be seen as the period of time the sun is up in the sky, or twelve hours. Acco...

Last summer, when I was in Korea, I had chance to listen one of the great sermon from the pastor. He was the pastor who came from Canada, and I got the ticket to go and listen to his sermon. He was having sermon about his travel throughout the world. He told us that he was a missionary before he become a pastor. So he traveled a lot of countries to spread the gospel. Then he started to tell on of his trip which he experienced a great miracle. He said he was persecuted by spreading a gospel. He said he gave up his life and waiting for his death. Then night before his judgement he had a vision and angel told him God will solve all the problem for him. Then he got up and there was a Bible next to him. The Bible was opened and it was showing Bible verse, John 3:16. It was about everyone who believe in God will be saved and live eternal life. After he read that verse, he had to go to his judgement. So he was getting ready to go to court and get his judgement. But as he arrived it was not a ...

How do you define “rich”? Having much money? Having much jewels? Or you prefer being rich in mind? There are two kinds of wealth you can have: be rich in this world and be rich spiritually. If you can obtain only one of them, which one will you choose? I think I am willing to be truly rich. Oh, do you ask me what’s  “ truly rich”? And how to get it? This sermon can give you a perfect answer. The speech I watched was presented by Tony Evans, the sermon he delivered was titled, “ How to be truly rich”. In this speech, Tony talked about Luke 12: 13 - 21 and this chapter narrates a story about a person that wanted Jesus to solve the problem: Jesus told a story of one person getting chosed for his father’s inheritance between his brother. The speaker always used a vivid and concrete way to tell us a plot or a story from Bible and then lead to the text from Bible. He also utilized many rhetoric methods to resonate for being  helpful for us to understand the content that Jesus wa...

I was in church on Sunday listening to a sermon being given by of the pastors.  This week the sermon was titled, “Let’s Face it, Jesus came to serve.”  This lesson was taken from Mark 10: 32-45.  The speaker was trying to get the point across that Jesus did not come to be served, but to serve us and show God’s love to us.  Focusing on Ethos, the speaker used his computer instead of a bible or any papers to teach.  His appearance was okay, but could have been more professional for the occasion.  He interacted with the audience quite often and used humor to keep people interested.  He also referenced many different movies many times, but most people did not seem to know what he was trying to refer to.  Referring to logos, he used much scripture in the beginning but none at the middle or end of the sermon.  He did use one quote that related to the sermon very well.   For Pathos, he used many hand motions and gestures, kept eye contac...

You know that things are going down in church when your pastor rates a sermon as PG-13. My church has been studying the Corinthian church in 1 Corinthians. The series is entitled A Beautiful Mess because the Corinthian church was sinful, but the people loved Jesus. This past Sunday, on December 3, my pastor, Paul Anderson, travelled through 1 Corinthians 5. In the beginning of the sermon, he drew a graph that demonstrated the proportional relationship between Confrontation and Commitment; meaning that, as a part of the church, it is the Christian’s duty to commit to love their brother or sister in Christ, and to confront them of their sin--sexual immorality. Unholy sex was everywhere in the Corinthian church. The problem is, it was considered normal. My pastor used the graph to explain how Paul wanted the Corinthians to act, as well as how we should act. If the graphical relationship was too close to Confrontation, you could be considered a jerk. If the relationship was too clos...

Sermon Link: Pastor Jeff's Farewell Message This sermon was preached by Jeff Seavey, former pastor of Living Water Church in Vancouver, Washington. This was his final sermon as the lead pastor of this church. At the time of his preaching, it was a bittersweet time for him and his family because they are leaving the church they've been at for the past 17 years but they are moving to the Los Angeles area to help their son who is in the music industry. They plan to share the gospel with those they meet through their son Daniel. At the beginning, he speaks of his thought process of creating his sermon. He walks everyone through it. It is his routine for sermon making. I believe this is very strong use of ethos. Not many speakers show the audience what it took to plan the speech or sermon. He allows the audience to see the thought and time it takes and that there is thoughtfulness in his plan. He used the second canon of rhetoric which was organization. He also talked throug...