A lot has been written on social media recently about sermon plagiarizing – preaching someone else\u2019s sermon, although one of my preaching professors told us if you preach another\u2019s sermon it is called plagiarizing, but if you combine parts of several sermons, it is called research. My pastor-father used to say, \u201cWhen better sermons are written, I\u2019ll preach them.\u201d Sometimes they were and sometimes he did. A friend began his Chapel sermon at Southwestern Seminary by saying, \u201cIf you like this sermon, you can get a copy afterwards in the library. Look under Spurgeon – Charles Haddon.\u201d A faculty member preached a sermon in Chapel and a few months later preached the same sermon in a church pastored by a Seminary student. In the meantime, the student preached the professor\u2019s sermon in his church. The church members were upset, thinking the professor stole their pastor\u2019s sermon. All this to say, show me a preacher who doesn\u2019t occasionally use someone else\u2019s sermon material, and I\u2019ll show you a preacher who may have another problem. I always told my Seminary want-to-be preachers how to use someone else\u2019s material: (1) The first time you use it you say, \u201cDr. Crawford said . . .\u201d (2) The second time you use it you say, \u201cIt has been said . . .\u201d (3) The third time you use it, you say, \u201cI\u2019ve always thought . . .\u201d By then it is yours. I also told them that if they were going to use my material, at least improve on it. One student tried to justify his plagiarism by quoting a verse out of context, \u201cLook not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others\u201d (Philippines 2:4). Many years ago. my pastor preached a sermon that was familiar to me. Following the service, I went by my office and pulled off the shelf a book of sermons by Dr. R. G. Lee and found the sermon that I had just heard. I could have made copies and handed them out at the next church business meeting before making a motion to terminate the pastor, but I chose not to do so. I don\u2019t mean to attempt to justify sermon plagiarism. After all, there is that biblical verse that says, \u201cTherefore behold, I am against the prophets,\u201d says the Lord, \u201cwho steal My words every one from his neighbor\u201d (Jeremiah 23:30). I just think it is not a big enough deal over which to terminate someone. Here\u2019s another verse that applies \u2013 \u201cHe who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone . . .\u201d (John 8:7). And another verse \u2013 \u201cJudge not, that you be not judged\u201d (Matthew 7:1). Preach on! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A lot has been written on social media recently about sermon plagiarizing – preaching someone else\u2019s sermon, although one of my preaching professors told us if you preach another\u2019s sermon it is called plagiarizing, but if you combine parts of several sermons, it is called research. My pastor-father used to say, \u201cWhen better sermons are…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-monday-morning-manna"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2952"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2952\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2953,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2952\/revisions\/2953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}