Parents: Utilizing the Foolishness of Preaching

For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. I Corinthians 1:21 

Last week I ran into a book trailer video for a Hebrew scholar willing to stand for God’s Word meaning what He says about Adam. It was exciting to pass the 3 minute video around my social media so you could all “like” the video as well. You still can HERE. The scholar’s name is Dr. William D. Barrick.

Someone helped me find Dr. Barrick’s website and it was fun poking around to see what he offers. Being a podcast junkie with discriminating taste, it was especially exciting to see all the audio teachings he offers. As usual, I was expecting him to use big words to communicate big concepts aimed at well-educated grownups. I was in for a surprise.

The first talk I downloaded came from Dr. Barrick’s section on end time talks. I find that stuff fascinating, so even if his style was dry as dust I would learn something. His sermon titled

How does the doctrine of last things complete the doctrine of first things?

seemed the perfect place to start since Creation Science is the expanded study of the “doctrine of first things”.

Praising something too highly tends to backfire, so I won’t say much more about it. But here are some important things:

My husband could hear me shout from the other floor when Dr. Barrick said this:

‘Nuf said.

The whole sermon is a beautifully symmetrical layout of the storyline of Scripture. How the End and the Beginning tie together, a bit about the middle sections working toward the center, and a grand close with the “focal point” of eternity:

Jesus: His life, death, burial and resurrection.

The language Dr. Barrick uses is remarkably accessible. He introduces a few fancy terms, but describes them clearly. You might want to discuss what “inverse order”, “metaphorical”, “restoration”, “finite” (I used the analogy of a battery running down), and “intimation” (hint) mean with your younger kids, but other than that, an 8 year old can understand just fine.

I do wish he’d tightened things up a trifle. The whole sermon is 50 minutes long, which means you might need to take a break at some point.

God has chosen preaching above all things except His Word to bring people to Himself. Recognizing this, I’ve put a permanent link to Dr. Barrick’s sermon page in the sidebar so you don’t have to hunt for the link. My plan is to have my family listen every 6 months or so. We’ll be able to develop a framework to hang Scriptural ideas on and have a delightful reminder of why all we study matters.

But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. Galatians 4:4-5