How I preach….most of the time.

A woman came up to me last Saturday night after I’d spoken for 25 minutes at a leadership banquet.  “I love the way you speak out of the overflow.”

Any preacher would love hearing that.

What exactly does that mean, I wondered.

I’ll tell you what I hope it means.  When I preach, my subject is so important to me, I could have gone on another hour without repeating the material or boring the listeners.

I hope that’s true.

I think it is.

A few weeks earlier, Mike McGuffee, a leader with the California Baptist Convention, after hearing me address his pastors several times over three days, had said on the drive to the airport, “Let’s see if I’ve figured out your preaching technique.”

“You build your sermon on one main point.  You back it up by various scriptures, each one with a story to illustrate it.”

I was complimented. Until that moment, I guess I’d never thought of having an actual “technique” to my preaching.  Mostly, it feels like they are slap-dash, a little of this and a lot of that, a good story here and a scriptural illustration there, whatever is necessary to drive home the point the Lord has burdened me with.

The sermon I preached last Sunday morning was made up of 5 points, not one.

So, I’m not consistent. Or predictable.

Call me right-brained. Disorganized. Spontaneous.  Shoot from the hip. (Or “the lip”?)

One of my sermons is “4 things the risen Christ gave His disciples,” based on the opening verses of Acts 1.  He gave them instructions (or commands), proofs of HIs resurrections, insights about the Kingdom, and promises for the future.  Those gifts are not given to the outside, unbelieving world. Only to believers.

In a manner of speaking, we could say the sermon is “one big point”–that some gifts from the Lord are for believers only.

That “5 things” sermon I brought last Sunday may also have actually been “one big thing.”  From Jeremiah 29, I called it “5 things God wants you to know about the rest of your life.”  The five are:

–He has big plans for you.  Heavenly and earthly plans.

–He’s not going to tell you what they are.  The bad you could not handle; the good you would mess up; He wants you to walk by faith.

–He’s getting you ready for the future right now. Which explains the boot camp you may find yourself in.

–Your job is to be faithful today where He has placed you. To bloom where you are planted, instead of always wanting other circumstances. Philippians 4:11 pertains here.

–You must choose each day of your life. He is not going to force His blessings on you.  In Revelation 3:20 He brings Heaven’s blessings up to your doorstep and stops there, asking for permission to enter your life and bless. It’s an amazing insight to how He works.  (See Matthew 23:37 “you were not willing”)

What “one big idea” drives that 5-headed thing? In spite of the circumstances where God has placed you, He’s up to something grand in your life. Trust Him.

I think it was Professor Haddon Robinson who developed and made popular the concept of sermons as “one big thing.”  One main idea which is supported by points and scriptures and illustrations. It certainly is a most logical way of conveying the message of God to His people.

Seminary students all tell this story as though they were the first to hear it.  In a preaching class, a student asked the professor, “How many points should a sermon have?”  The answer came back, “At least one.”

Some of my “one point” or “one big idea” sermons may be stated as:

1) Jesus Christ is the owner and operator of the Church. Matthew 16:18.

2) Living by faith means going forward in spite of the negatives.  2 Corinthians 5:7.

3) We do not pray very well, but God wants us to pray anyway.  Romans 8:26.

4) Giving by faith means we will not know what God does with our offerings. Mark 12:41-44.

5) Those who work/teach/serve by faith may never know what God did with their efforts. Luke 18:8.

6) We think of faith as intangible, but God can see it when it’s present. Mark 2:5.

7) Anyone can rejoice when everything is going well, but to rejoice when life is unraveling means either we are either looney or we know Something.  Luke 10:20. Habakkuk 3:17-19.

8) Trouble and difficulties are not par for the course for believers; they are the course.  Acts 14:22.

9) To love the people who hate us and wish to hurt us is the purest form of Christ-honoring behavior available to us.  See Luke 23:34.

10) Matching someone with a spiritual gift with their place of service may be the most powerful act some of us could ever do. See Acts 11:25.

When my son Neil was around 9 years old, he would often come around on Saturday evenings and ask, “Dad, what are you preaching on tomorrow?”  I always welcomed the opportunity to see if I could explain the 30 minute sermon to a third-grader. If I grasped the sermon’s main idea sufficiently, I could do that. And if I struggled to get the point across, I headed back into the study.

Next Sunday, pastor, as you get ready to enter the worship center with the message from Heaven, ask yourself, “What’s the big idea?”

 

 

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