Welcome to a special edition of Real Christianity. I'm your host, Dale Partridge, and over the past several months, I've had the privilege of interviewing 12 of the top theologians of our time.

We discuss everything from apologetics and church history to the biblical family and standing firm on sound doctrine.

The objective of this series was to strengthen the theology of listeners and give them the tools they need to boldly proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ.

So listen up, focus in, and prepare your mind for volume 1 of the Theologian series.

In this episode of the Theologian series, I interviewed Dr. Stephen Lawson of One Passion Ministries about the importance of expository preaching.

Dr. Lawson is the professor of preaching at the Doctor of Ministry program at the Master Seminary, and he's the author of nearly 40 different books.

Dr. Lawson was my professor in my Mechanics of Expository Preaching class and has become a friend over the past year.

If you haven't listened to him preach before, you are missing out. Not only is he engaging, passionate, and wise, but he's also extremely well versed in doctrine and theology.

He believes that you cannot have a healthy church without an expository preacher.

Today, you are going to learn why, as Dr. Lawson and I define and discuss why Christians should place themselves and their families under pastors who skip the showmanship and instead shine the light on Scripture alone.

So, grab your Bible and sharpen your pencil because it's time to tune into another powerful episode of The Theologian series.

Hey Dr. Lawson, welcome to The Theologian series. Excited to have you here with us.

Thank you. It's great to be with you, Dale.

Earlier, I guess it was last year, I had the privilege of spending about 15 hours with you over a five day period at the Master Seminary. I got to learn so much about expository preaching. It was a great privilege to learn the fundamentals and the mechanics of that.

You're actually now my professor here for my second preaching class.

Sadly, my experience tells me that many Christians don't really understand three things. One, they don't understand what expository preaching is.

And number two is why is expository preaching important? And why we would place ourselves and our families under a pastor who is an expository preacher. And then lastly, how should we as Christians tell the difference between these infotainment pastors that are so popular today and an expository preacher?

So that's going to be the majority of the discussion that we have today. And I'm going to walk through just a handful of questions. And then let's dive in. I'm just so excited about this. And this will be, you know, just for you that are listeners here. This will be just a bantering back and forth discussion.

But I'm going to let you do most of the talking, Dr. Lawson. So let's open up with number one. Just offer us the average church goer, a basic definition of expository preaching.

Sure. Expository preaching is just very simply biblical preaching that everything that the preacher has to say originates in the word of God such that he simply is the mouthpiece for the text of Scripture.

Expository preaching does three things. Number one, you read the passage. Number two, you interpret or explain the passage. And number three, you show the relevance of the passage and apply it to the life of the listener.

And that really comes from first Timothy for verse 13. Paul says, until I come, give attention. Number one, to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation and to teaching.

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