Recipe for a bad sermon: whimsies, spiritual mistiness, sweet stories, speculations, and a dash of the Word for credibility.
…What sermons in Europe then exhibited that simplicity with which Paul wishes christian people to be always occupied? Nay, what one sermon was there from which old wives might not carry off more whimsies than they could devise at their own fireside in a month? For, as sermons were then usually divided, the first half was devoted to those misty questions of the schools which might astonish the rude populace, while the second contained sweet stories, or not unamusing speculations, by which the hearers might be kept on the alert. Only a few expressions were thrown in from the Word of God, that by their majesty they might procure credit for these frivolities. (Selected Works of John Calvin, ed. & Trans. by H. Bevridge, vol. l, p.40).
Sound like anything you’ve heard on TV lately?
I can’t watch evangelist? on television. There is too much heresy per sentence to stand.
I feel your pain.