Lawson prepared to lift up God’s Word at conference
By Allen Palmeri
Staff Writer
October 18, 2005
JEFFERSON CITY– Some things in preaching are non-negotiable. One such distinctive is the supremacy of the Lord Jesus Christ that is taught in I Timothy and II Timothy.
That is the theme that will emanate out of seven messages at the 2005 Missouri Baptist Pastors Conference from 8:45 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Oct. 24 at Second Baptist Church, Springfield. The conference immediately precedes the Missouri Baptist Convention’s 171st annual meeting.
Steven J. Lawson, who is awaiting his third published volume of the popular Holman Old Testament Commentary series, will preach four of the messages on what he considers to be the greatest themes in Scripture—the supremacy of God, Christ and the Word of God over everything in life.
“There really are not any greater subjects for us to address than these,” said Lawson, who is senior pastor of Christ Fellowship Baptist Church, a Southern Baptist congregation in Mobile, Ala. “All of these lead to the greatness of salvation being worked out in the lives of sinful men.”
Lawson is a trustee at The Master’s Seminary, Sun Valley, Calif., and author of 11 books including Famine in the Land, a call for pastors to be involved in expository preaching. In the Holman series, he has written one commentary on Job and another on Psalms 1-75.
His Psalms 76-150 commentary is written and is currently going through the editing process. Lawson has also participated in the Distinguished Scholars Lecture Series at The Master’s Seminary, lecturing in 2004 on “Preaching the Psalms.” His pulpit ministry is Psalms sensitive.
“I have preached literally verse by verse through virtually every single one of these Psalms here in our church, so it’s made for very rich and great preaching,” Lawson said. “The supremacy of God is what really rings through in my preaching, especially in the Psalms.”
Lawson is thankful to have 40-45 minute segments for his Springfield messages, although generally, by the grace of God alone, he said his audiences are attentive for at least an hour. He said the power in expositing the Scripture manifests itself in God captivating His people through the rich, beautiful, wonderful Word. Proper Bible exposition takes more time than what many congregations typically are used to these days, Lawson said.
“Sometimes I go places and I’ve got 30 minutes,” he said. “If you do everything that’s involved in Bible exposition, it’s pretty hard to get a 767 up off the runway, fly over the airport one time and then land it real quick.”
Lawson’s first message is scheduled to be delivered at 9:05 a.m.