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If over the centuries Christians have become used to sermons being a string of assertions, explanations, or exhortations - with a sprinkling of stories as illustrations - the sermons have not been preached in a manner consistent with how the Bible communicates reality. Most of the Bible is stories. Story sermons do today what Jesus did in his stories - they sneak up on people. Listeners can ward off moral exhortations, and they become resistant to three points, a poem, and a prayer. Intellectually they can parry with information doled out in a series of reasoned arguments. But stories win us over before we understand what is going on. Stories quietly tip the scale of our minds toward agreeing with God's graciousness.
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