Eleven of the deepest things I know about preaching

1. When you start, you don’t have any idea of how holy this matter of preaching is

-Dennis Kinlaw…   “Next time you preach.  Don’t tell us what Dennis Kinlaw thinks. Spend enough time on your knees/Bible….  Tell us what God thinks.”

-Pick up your Bible…Why does Ezekiel 2 and 3 read as it does?  (1:1, 28b, 2:1-3:4) He tells Ezekiel to fill his stomach, but he also says in verse 10, take it into your “heart” and your “ears”. -Preaching is not hard, any fool can do it (and many fools do).   Preaching the Word…ah, that is the part that is hard!

-The question that dominates everything else… The only question that honestly matters is, “Is there a word from God today?”   (All other measurements of a sermon are chaff)

-Jeremiah, an incredible man of Kingdom reliance and maturity.  Read the book and underline every time you see the phrase “My words”, or “the word”, or “this word”. (As I did one time, I remember just weeping.  Over 180s in the book)  

Do you remember Uzzah and the Ark of the Covenant?  Let me remind you of the story, II Samuel 6.  Uzzah grew up with the Ark, for decades it has been an item sitting in his father’s house (Was it like the treadmill in the corner where you hang the shirts, lay the towels over to dry?)  And so when it comes time to move it…well, “naturally” Uzzah is one to do it because ‘he knows it like the back of his hand’.  (Complete the story)

2.  You don’t write a sermon, you discover one… 

-If you don’t do discovery OUT OF THE TEXT, you are DOING IMPORTING INTO THE TEXT!  (No matter what helpful thing you think you are doing.)

-(The starting point never changes, “Is there a Word from God?”

-And discovery in a text takes time.

-The time needed is always a relentless pressure…Sundays seem to come 12xs a week! -(Story from the Billy Graham Retreat Center 😊 

-Don’t cut that time short.  You simply can’t.  There are moral failures that simply cannot happen, not for a man or woman of God.  

-Everybody’s situation will be different, there is no “outside measuring stick that can be used for you.  -In my case, with my story…. Most of my life a tenacious commitment to 15- 18 hours of a week were required “to fill my bucket”.  From that “bucket” came the prep work for the multiple speaking of a week.  

-I don’t know what your time will be, but a myriad of things (loud things, “important” things, “normal” things) will be like thousands of little mice that eat away your time and attention to this.

-If it does, you will end up preaching: -The Word you used to know, -The Word you were going to study, -The Word someone else studied…. -But you actually end up preaching no Word at all.  

3. That time of discovery always begins with your own personal worship!

-I promise you, with everything that is holy in me, you don’t start with the audience, you don’t start with the commentaries, you don’t start with the podcasts, you don’t start with the cool illustration, you don’t start with the sermon you heard one time!

There is a wicked arrogance to try to take other people - for their transformation and encouragement - a text that has not currently plowed your own soul! -One you have not yet laughed or cried in  -You end up like a postcard “tour guide” taking people to places you yourself have not been!

There are things you do not want to be good at.  For example, you don’t want to be good at ‘hotwiring a car’, copying someone else’s signature, or telling a lie with a straight face.  And you never want to be good at preaching from a text you have not deeply worshipped in!

I apologize for the self-insertion, and I am no poster child. But I want to open my own chest and explain my process.  (Perhaps see the values, you certainly don’t need to use the pattern!)

 My process for writing a sermon

1. I want to spend some time over a period of 2 or 3 days just worshipping in the text. (No audience, no searching for an outline, no commentaries, just a private time with the Lord in the text.  I am simply a disciple of His during this time, I am not a teacher).  That time is:          

a.  Very heavily prayer-based (“God, will you sit here with me and teach me this text.”)       

b.  Multiple readings through the whole, larger text, just noting in my journal: -“What is here?”  -“What is being said?” -And most importantly, “God, what are you revealing about yourself in this?”             

c.   Then later, a slow reread through the text, this time paragraph by paragraph, stopping at the end of each paragraph with a simple question, “Lord, why do you want me to know or hear this?” -And that discovery, I begin to meditate/“journal” in a pretty personal way. (Illustrate text of …for example Sermon on the Mt.) 

d.  Followed by a very intentional prayer time through the journaling of this day, and of the multiple days before.

2.  From those two or three days, I have hopefully gotten to the heart of the text, found many things for my life, and found a fire for a handful of things that might be helpful to any of God’s people.

3.  I write the names on the top of my notes of 5 random/diverse people who would be in the audience I will be speaking to. (Not to be targeted! But to crystallize the fact that I owe these people “a Word from God!”)

4.  Next, I go to the commentaries to clarify, to help teach me, etc.

5.  I now “dump my bucket” out and begin to arrange an outline from what I’ve discovered. (It is still very much a “penciled outline”)

6.  I read several sermons by other people who are teaching this text.

7.  I write my first draft of the sermon

8.  I want a “think tank” of wise people I can visit with about these Scriptures.  I often alter/edit parts of what I have written because the discussion is very helpful.     

9.  I have a sermon to preach

4.  Exegetical preaching is not so much a style of preaching as it is the unshakable commitment that the Word dictates the preaching.

Know what you are looking for in exegetical preaching

-Reading Scripture is not primarily about “me and God,” but about the larger story of God and me/us living in that larger picture.  When we submit our lives to what we read in scripture, we find that we are not so much being led to see God in our stories but our stories in God’s. God is the larger context and plot in which our stories find themselves.  (Eugene Peterson greatly emphasizes this!)

“Christians don’t simply learn, study, or use Scripture; we assimilate it, take it into our lives in such a way that it gets metabolized into acts of love, cups of cold water, missions into all the world, healing and evangelism and justice in Jesus’ name, hands raised in adoration of the Father, feet washed in company with the Son.”  (Peterson)

“Obedience is the thing, living in active response to the living God. The most important question we ask of this text is not, ‘What does this mean?’ but ‘What can I obey?’ A simple act of obedience will open up our lives to this text far more quickly than any number of Bible studies and dictionaries and concordances.” (Peterson)  John 8 makes this point clear.

Exegetical preaching is both academic and devotional.  It is a poor and false choice to choose only one. -Words wear out as they begin to accumulate too much baggage.  The words “devotional” and “academic” have become that; they both need a bath!

-The current devotional approach is far too shallow and “me-centered”. It approaches Scripture like children picking through candy, trying to find their favorite flavor.  “Just looking for something to inspire me today.”

-But a real devotional approach… the one with the Latin roots (dēvovere (from de- “down/away” + vōvere “to vow” or “to promise”) means “to dedicate and consecrate, to sacrifice oneself, to solemnly promise.  That devotional approach is required.  For in that “devotional approach” you are folding your life into God’s story.    (Scripture and theology are never meant to be a Christian “interest or hobby.”)

-And much of what is currently called an “academic approach”, is not.  Oh, it delights in classroom debates. Out of pride, it muddies the water of Scripture as it presents itself as a model of sophistication; when in fact, to use Paul’s words, it’s just “wrangling over words”.  The word needs rescued.

-But real “academic work” is essential.  If by academic, one means logic, and research, and a relentless pursuit of what the author was actually saying to his audience.  Scripture can never mean what it never meant.  And Scripture cannot be used for purposes it was never intended.

5.  Exegetical preaching is both vertical and horizontal.

-Vertical, in that it “works down a page” as it studies sentences and paragraphs.  It finds the ideas within their immediate context

-For example, I John 3:

-Who we are (3:1-2a) -Who we will be (3:2) -Who we must be (3:3-10)

-Horizontal, in that there is a larger, panoramic story, being played out across the whole book.   

-For example, in the 7 chapters of John’s letters -53 times he refers to love   (Which makes an incredible study) -But he also weaves the word “truth” over 30 times into that discussion on love. -Those 30 times will both tell you what he means by truth (Truth is at least 3 things: Eternal unchanging principles, collated in the person of Jesus, and not just something to be believed, but a path to walk.) And he makes us see that love cannot be separated from truth, or it is no longer loving.   

-Or consider I Peter and the 5 primary themes interwoven throughout the book.  (Each is repeatedly interwoven through the book like threads in a quilt) (1. The culture may have you at its margins, but you are God’s chosen people. 2. You must have a genuine faith.  3.  Do good, that will be sufficient.  4. Have a real fellowship.  5.  Suffer well (Suffering is not an inconvenience to the Christian life; it is integral to it.)

-Suggestion…meditate on books by using  “different color marking pens”, follow the threads as they work their way through the whole book.

Topical sermons certainly have a place.  But I would suggest that everywhere, a primary foundational text be the driver.   Use other texts, but most of the “big rocks” within the sermon need to be clearly evident from that primary text.  

  -This approach keeps us from doing “hunt-a-verse” sermon building. -This helps the congregation to clearly see its Biblical base. -And it forced us to focus on topics that are actually Scripturally driven.

Our primary preaching plan in my 33 years at College Heights:

1. Preach the books of the Bible.  Find your diversity by sometimes preaching “vertically”, other times “horizontally” through the book, (In which case you are parking on the themes found in the book.) -90% of our preaching was done by exegeting the chapters, or series exegeting the themes of a book

2. Notice what the Bible repeats often. The Bible does not have a “highlighter” so it uses repetition as its highlighter.  Emphasize what it repeats.

3.  We created two separate “4-year plans”.  Within each individual 4-year plan, we did not cover every book in the Bible, but we did create a balance of Gospels, Letters, O.T. History, Wisdom books, and Prophets.   Some books were taken and covered in large chunks, some taken more slowly.  We always keep the accent mark heaviest on the New Testament.

By having “Two corresponding 4-year plans,” every book of the Bible was covered over each 8-year period.

6.  Know the difference between a paper and oral communication

-Think of Jesus’s communication (linear truth interrupted by story.) In fact, almost all Scripture is written this way, for it was an oral society.  

Consider the differences between written papers and oral communication.  Here are four:

1. In written communication, the reader controls the pace. They can pause, reread, or skim, so writing can be dense, detailed, and layered. In Oral Communication, the listener can’t rewind (at least not in the moment), so speech must be clear, with “logical turn-signals” that can easily be followed.  (Think about following another car across town… early turn signals 😊

2.  Written communication can appropriately be “impersonal”.   Oral communication, with someone standing in front of you, looking at you, it cannot feel that way; there is a psychological barrier to that contradiction.

3. In written communication, a paper follows a formal logical structure — thesis, evidence, citations, transitions. It’s built for the eye and patterned portions of the brain. Oral Communication certainly must have high-quality content, but it must follow a psychological structure — attention, emotion, story, images, and call to action. It must also be built for the ear and heart.  

-Think about your grandfather telling a story at the Thanksgiving table

4.  A paper is one-directional. The writer never sees the reader’s face. A speech is interactive — shaped by the audience’s energy, expressions, and response in real time. So, a speaker adapts in a nuanced way in the moment; a writer edits beforehand.

That is one of the reasons I have 5 or 6 names written on the top of my sermon page.  I owe them not only “A Word from God”, but I also owe them my time and attention.  I am not presenting something “for” people.  I am presenting something “to” people.

Do not “write papers” and present them to people.  It is not kind, and it is not helpful enough.  Speak to people

7.  Great preaching always exegetes the audience

-You can never preach well to people you do not love

-You can never preach well to people you do not know.

-Good preachers cannot be shaped any other way except by surgery waiting rooms, weddings, funerals, coffee shops, prayer times together, ball games, and meals around a table.  

-With special attention to the demographics different than your own! 

-Steve and Rhonda Hayward… Papua illustration of living among the people
 

8.  Beware of false relevancy. Relevant preaching is relevant to God

-Liz Curtis Higgs' illustration of her first Sunday at Southeast… certainly not what we would think was relevant to her!  

-There is an arrogance in “over-managing” what you think people need. Let the Word speak for itself.

9.  “Cook” in front of your people.

-There are great chefs who prepare meals behind a door and bring them out to an adoring crowd.  And then there are chefs who prepare meals with the audience in mind, helping them to know they, too, can “cook” this same way.  One prefers the mystery, the other prefers the mentoring. 

-Your approach to sermon writing either helps believers to see how accessible and open the Word is – something they themselves can see and understand and practice in their own lives and families – or your sermons accent your skill as “a chef”!

-Ignoring this “law of unintended consequences” greatly hurts a church.

10.    Know the danger.  

-Misused power

-Diane Langberg is someone you ought to read.  (Redeeming Power.  Understanding authority and abuse in the church”, would be a start.)

She writes about the misuse of power in the church.   (There are many kinds of power: physical power, economic power, positional power, emotional power, spiritual power, etc.)  Preaching combines at least 3 of them!

-You will either be “King Saul,” where you crave it and misuse it, or you will be Jonathan, his son, who handled it wisely and godly.

-JR church illustration.  His brokenness as he discovered his misuse

-You can never fully make the temptation to go away.  In the same way that the fisherman will always have to respect and deal with the sea, the same way that a farmer will always have to “fight” the weather.  The one preaching will always have to be aware of the responsibility of the power that comes with it.

-You will either worship well enough to handle it faithfully, or you will  be devoured by it.   

-Beware of your strengths

-Yes, we all have weaknesses that can impact our preaching.  But ironically, it is often our strengths that do the greatest damage.

-Machiavelli, illustrations of the easiest way of destroying someone is by encouraging them in the overuse of their strength.

11.   Trust the Divine.  The Holy Spirit is a powerful change agent.

-We are always inadequate.  We just are.  If you think you are not enough…you are right!  Jars of clay at the best  (II Cor. 4)

-It is the Word of God that is living and active  (Heb. 4) -It is the Word of God that will not return void  (Isaiah 55) -It is the Spirit of God that convicts and washes and renews.  (Titus 3)

-Illustrations…

12.  But, we do have a role.

-I Cor. 4:1-2…   We are servants (“under-rowers”…image of oars from the bottom of a Roman galley ship)  who have been given a stewardship (a relational trust)

-Faithful to the stewardship

-The two great destroyers of all Kingdom leadership are arrogance and cowardliness

 -The two great antidotes are humility and courage.