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I would never encourage anyone to preach a 40-point sermon! The thought of it makes me shudder. But Mark Driscoll did this last night when he preached 2 Timothy 2:14-26. It worked! It was “Vintage Driscoll” – complete with statements like, “In this text, Paul tells Timothy not to be an emotional counter-punching drama queen!” One of the 40 points related to Paul’s comment in 2 Timothy 2:16 – a command which the technology in our culture makes even more difficult to obey.

Preaching Today editor, Brian Larson, and I joined 3300 other participants yesterday at The Gospel Coalition (TGC) conference in Chicago. We had hoped to do some live blogging, but technological glitches prevented this. So we will reflect for the next few days on some of the issues raised in the TGC sessions, particularly those related to preaching and culture – the focus of this blog.

Recently, the editors at Preaching Today decided to tighten the focus of this blog to the intersection of the gospel and culture. In order to facilitate this new focus, Preaching Today is going to move my blog to a new venue.

Today, I would like to pay tribute to a man who embodied Paul’s command to “preach the Word . . . in season and out of season” (2 Timothy 4:2). His name is Joe Aldrich, and he entered the presence of the Lord yesterday.

I have been meditating recently on the mandate to “preach the Word” in 2 Timothy 4:2. Part of my pondering relates to the command “be prepared in season and out of season.” What does it mean to be ready to preach out of season? I have a few thoughts, and I’d like to hear yours, too.

The command “preach the Word” in 2 Timothy 4:2 speaks volumes about our identity as preachers! A recent essay by Duane Litfin discusses two types of communicators in the Greek-Roman world of the New Testament. One of these communicators is linked to the command “preach.”

Here is some food for thought as you prepare to preach this weekend. This quote comes from Ajith Fernando in his book, Jesus Driven Ministry (p. 23):

I’m back! Some other writing projects forced me out of my rhythm last fall, but the gentle prodding of a couple friends has prompted me to start posting again. Today, I want to comment on a “mandate for application” which I stumbled upon in my Bible reading last week. I have read this particular passage dozens of times, but I failed to see how it provides a rather emphatic mandate to apply the text.

In part two of a two-part PT Talk session, Brian Larson, chief editor of PreachingToday.com, chats with pastor and author Steve Mathewson about the challenge of preaching the gospel from the Old Testament. To listen to part one, click here.

In the latest episode of PT Talk, Brian Larson, chief editor of PreachingToday.com, chats with pastor and author Steve Mathewson about the challenge of preaching the gospel from the Old Testament.

Beginning this Sunday, I’m going to preach a three-week series on “Caring For God’s Green Earth.” Care for the environment has been a politicized issue, and it has often been framed in terms of worshipping the earth. So why preach on this topic?

I think Walter Hooper is right! He says that The Weight of Glory, an essay by C. S. Lewis, “is so magnificent that . . . I dare to consider it worthy of a place with some of the Church Fathers.” If you want to do something to boost your preaching, read this address today!

John Calvin dedicated himself to two goals which he found in the preaching of John Chrysostom, one of the greatest Christian preachers ever who lived from 350-407. These are still admirable goals after all these years – nearly 500 since Calvin and 1600 years since Chrysostom!

Preachers who wrestle with what it means to preach a Christ-centered sermon from the Old Testament might be surprised to learn that John Calvin did not see the need to make every Old Testament sermon explicitly Christ-centered!

This Sunday, I will finish a sermon series on the book of Judges. Preaching this series has prompted me to think a lot about preaching the gospel from this book. Perhaps that notion seems preposterous or at least presumptuous! Is it really possible to preach the gospel in Judges or, for that matter, in any Old Testament story? I’m working on an article related to this topic, but I’d like to share a couple paragraphs I wrote this morning. . .

It’s Friday, and I feel overwhelmed. But it’s not what you think! My sermon preparation for Sunday is complete. But I feel overwhelmed because there are a dozen books I need to read. Make that “dozens.” So many books, so little time! I did something this week, though, that I think will help.

In a recent lecture on preaching, David Jackman challenges preachers to “love the listeners!” He cites 1 Thessalonians 1:5 as a model for engaging and persuading listeners, especially those in the younger generations. I am trying to work out his insights in my own ministry context.

I’ve been working on a sermon series idea for the three-week window between the start of school and Labor Day. It’s a strategic time because everyone is back from summer vacation. Yet I don’t want to begin my fall sermon series until after Labor Day. Here is my plan . . .

If you’re still trying to find a sermon series for summer, here is an idea . . .

Hey, I’m back! After a month-long hiatus, I’m back in the blogosphere. Last week, my journey through the book of Judges brought me to an incredible story which addresses the issue of God’s response to violence and injustice. It was timely for our church because twenty-four students have been murdered so far this school year in the Chicago Public School system. Although we live in a relatively safe North Shore neighborhood, issues of violence and injustice are never far from peoples’ minds. If you plan to address this issue at some point (and you should!), you might preach this story.

It's been a couple weeks since I've posted blog entry, but that's because I'm in the middle of some vacation time. Even though I'm standing in Montana's Madison River with my fly rod in hand, I'm still thinking about preaching! I'll start posting again towards the end of April. But in the meantime, here are a few thoughts. . . .

I love it when God uses a sermon I’ve preached to challenge me as much as it challenges anyone else. That’s been the case with the sermon I preached a couple days ago on Easter Sunday. God keeps impressing one of the ideas from the sermon on my heart and mind.

This week, I’m reading through Matthew’s account of ‘holy week.’ I began on Palm Sunday with Matthew 21, and I’ll finish on Easter Sunday with Matthew 28. Today’s reading in Matthew 23 is a sobering challenge for all who will preach Scripture this weekend on Good Friday and on Resurrection Sunday.

Someone asked me recently if I tend to preach expositionally or if I tend to preach in a way that connects people to the vision of our church. My answer was: “Yes.”

I take preaching seriously. It’s weighty responsibility, and there’s much at stake when a preacher stands and declares “Thus says the Lord.” But sometimes, my words get tangled up, and I say something that evokes laughter rather than conviction.

Sermon block happens. It just does! I have days where I can’t make any headway. The text does not make sense. Or I can’t figure out how to structure the sermon. Or I’m not seeing how the text connects to the lives of my listeners. How does a preacher struggle through sermon block? Here are a few practices which help me.

Like most preachers, I have a somewhat predictable rhythm to my sermon preparation. I like to complete my exegetical work by mid-day on Tuesday, finish a sermon outline by Wednesday, create the introduction and conclusion by Thursday noon, and then write out a manuscript or detailed outline by Thursday. Ideally, I take Fridays off. Then I tweak and adjust and practice the sermon on Saturday. It’s a helpful rhythm. But the process rarely plays out the way I expect.

Last week, I discussed preaching a year-long series on the entire Bible. If you plan to preach through the Bible in a year, there are several resources which you might find helpful.

Thanks to everyone who joined the discussion on my previous post, “Preaching Through the Bible in a Year.” Some participants raised a concern about this approach being too general or superficial. I appreciate this concern, so let me address it today. I’ll save my list of resources for a future post. Let’s wrestle first with how to keep a year-long series on the entire Bible from being so general or superficial that it becomes ineffective.

Last week, Ben, a student in my preaching class at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, asked me how I would go about preaching through the Bible in a year. He envisions devoting every 5th year of his preaching ministry to taking people through the entire Bible. I have some ideas about this, because I’ve actually been considering such an approach.

Previously I’ve shared my conviction that preachers should preach as if their whole neighborhood is present (see July 31, 2007 post). I was delighted to hear Mark Driscoll affirm this conviction during a recent seminar on “Preaching the Mission.”

The end of the semester is still a few months away, but I’m already making plans for a “Back to School” series. I’ve never done anything like this before, but as I was firming up my preaching calendar for the rest of the year, it occurred to me that this approach might work.

We got dumped with a foot of snow in Chicagoland two days ago, so I’m happy to think about summer! But preaching, rather than weather, is what’s on my mind. What are preachers to do when their people are ‘in and out’ the whole summer? Is it possible to preach a sermon series even though half the congregation may have missed last week’s sermon and will probably miss next week’s sermon, too? Let me share how I approach this.

Two days ago I began a series on the book of Judges. Because Judges seems like such an odd choice for a sermon series, I did some things differently to create an interest factor.

Two major cultural events will take place in the next few days: the Super Bowl on Sunday and the presidential primary elections in twenty-two states on Tuesday. For many, Super Sunday and Super Tuesday will eclipse the worship of God. As preachers, our responsibility is to let the worship of God inform these events. Will your preaching this weekend address either one or both?

Lately, I’ve been paying more attention to setting up the reading of the Scripture I’m about to preach. In some traditions, preachers will read the entire sermon text before giving any kind of introduction or explanation. But I wonder if our listeners listen better when we have prepared them for the reading?

I’ve devoted the month of January to preaching four sermons on the letters to the seven churches in Revelation 2-3. Four . . . seven . . . how does the math work for this? I got this idea from Dr. Grant Osborne, a professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.

When you preach, is it better to preach with or without notes? Andy Stanley discusses this issue in chapter 14 of Communicating For A Change.

Andy Stanley encourages preachers to “slow down in the curves.” In terms of sermon structure, this is one of the most critical practices for keeping listeners engaged.

Have you ever had a great idea for a sermon, only to discover from further exegetical study that your sermon text actually undermines your idea? It happens! But this will not leave you stranded on the island of misfit sermons. According to Andy Stanley, this creates potential for your sermon to be even stronger than you initially thought it would be.

Andy Stanley refuses to stand up and preach until he knows the answer to two questions. He reveals these questions in his newest book, Communicating For a Change, which is co-authored with Lane Jones. The questions are (drum roll, please!) . . .

Ajith Fernando makes a probing comment about preaching in his recent book, Jesus-Driven Ministry. He begins by observing that the most common response he hears to sermons he preaches in the West is: “I enjoyed that sermon.” Then, he offers this assessment:

My son, Ben, and I are planning to spend the next couple months reading the book of Romans together. This morning’s reading in chapter 1 reminded me why I am eager to preach the Scriptures in 2008.

If you’re thinking about reading through the Bible in 2008, or if you’re going to encourage your congregation to do so, here is some information which you might find helpful. I ‘did the math’ several years ago, and I’ve used this data to create a variety of plans to read through the Bible in a year.

I offer this information in the spirit of James 1:22-25 which makes it clear that people who are blessed by God are those who listen to the Word (intake) and then do it (output).

My gift to you on this Christmas Day in 2007 consists of some thoughts which will nourish a preacher’s soul. For these thoughts to form in your mind, you’ll need to listen to a haunting Christmas song sung by Bing Crosby, reflect on an essay by C. S. Lewis, and focus on what one New Testament scholar describes as the moment to which the whole Bible points.

The news that singer-songwriter Dan Fogleberg died earlier this week stirred something inside of me. Part of it had to do with some limited contact I had with Dan’s father, the “leader of the band,” during my high school days. Part of it had to do with the cause of his death. The exact same illness which took Dan’s life took my father’s life five years ago. But an even bigger part of the soul-stirring had to do with the gospel of Jesus Christ that you and I have the privilege of proclaiming week after week.

“Where do you find time to read?” I frequently get asked that question by fellow preachers or preacher-in-training. Quite frankly, I never read as much as I’d like to read. A line from a Michael Card song – taken out of context, I’m sure! – is my mantra: “So many books, so little time.” Still, I have found at least a couple disciplines which work for me.

For the last month, I’ve been using a helpful new study tool during my sermon preparation. This resource took over ten years to complete, and it amounts to 1161 pages of text, not counting the indexes. Yet, I love it because it’s concise and user-friendly.

Transparency by the preacher makes a powerful impact on listeners. You know that, and I know that, too. Yet, I was still surprised last Sunday at the effect of sharing a brief internal struggle which played out in my mind a few days prior to my sermon.

A challenge I face in my Advent sermon series from the book of Revelation is helping listeners understand how apocalyptic literature works. The same challenge surfaces when preaching from Daniel or parts of Ezekiel. But I’ve discovered an analogy which really connects with people and promotes understanding!

In recent years, I’ve preached Advent sermons on the birth narratives (Matthew 1-2, Luke 1-2), on Old Testament prophecies of the Messiah (Isaiah 9, Micah 5, etc.), and on biblical themes from The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe in the Chronicles of Narnia. I needed to prepare something fresh this year, so I’m doing an Advent series from the book of Revelation.

Philip Pullman, author of The Golden Compass, made a curious statement a few days ago in a response to critics of his book and the soon-to-be-released film based on it. According to a BBC News story earlier this week, Pullman dismissed accusations that his film promotes atheism and denigrates Christianity by claiming: “I am a story teller. If wanted to send a message I would have written a sermon.” Are you kidding me? As a preacher who prepares a sermon every week, I am shocked by this statement!

The Golden Compass, a movie based on Phillip Pullman’s book by the same title, opens in theaters on December 7, 2007. It’s creating a stir because Pullman, claims Laura Miller in The New Yorker, “is one of Britain’s most outspoken atheists.” Two years ago, BBC News reported Pullman’s criticisms of The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe – the first movie in ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’ series by C. S. Lewis. According to BBC News, Pullman’s own trilogy, ‘His Dark Materials,’ “tells us of a battle against the church and a fight to overthrow God.” The Golden Compass is the first book – and now movie – in this trilogy.

Should pastors address this movie in their preaching? My answer is, “Yes, but.” Let me explain.

I recently ran across a helpful way of describing preaching. It’s in an essay by D. A. Carson in Preach the Word: Essays on Expository Preaching in Honor of R. Kent Hughes (Crossway, 2007). In his essay, “Challenges for the Twenty-first-century Pulpit,” Carson encourages preachers to think of preaching in terms of “re-revelation.”

Our church has a Thanksgiving Eve service, and I will deliver a brief meditation on the topic of “thanksgiving” (of course!). As I’ve been preparing, it occurs to me that American believers may confuse our culture’s way of expressing thanks with the biblical way of expressing thanks.

This Sunday I’ll preach the final sermon in an expository series on Ephesians. The text is Ephesians 6:10-24, the classic passage on spiritual warfare. Here are five suggestions for preaching on this text and other texts which develop the topic of spiritual warfare.

David Jackman, veteran preacher and President of The Proclamation Trust in London, England, made this statement last week in a preaching lecture in Chicago: “Life transformation takes time. So preach over the long haul. You are a long distance runner.”

How do you draw your sermon preparation to a close? My friend, David Hansen, prays a simple prayer over and over on each Friday before he preaches. His prayer may be simple, but it’s profound. This is what David prays . . .

My friend, David Hansen, has only one rule for sermon preparation on Tuesdays. This is the day he begins studying for Sunday’s sermon. David’s rule is “Do not rush.” David insists on “spending unhurried, inefficient time with the text.”

I’ve been thinking this morning about some of the books which have ministered the most to my soul over the years. Here is a partial list which I limited to ten. None of these books can take the place of Scripture. But each one of them, in its own way, has nurtured me and shaped me as a follower of Christ. By enriching my soul, these books have enriched my preaching.

Bryan Chapell’s chapter on “A Redemptive Approach to Preaching” is a must-read for preachers! You will find it as chapter 10 in his book, Christ-Centered Preaching (Baker, 2nd edition). Last week, I read it again (for the fourth time in the last decade), and it profoundly influenced the sermon I preached two days ago on Ephesians 5:3-14.

One of the ways that I’m trying to speak to the non-believers who attend our worship services is to take a couple minutes in each sermon to address an objection to Christianity. I got this idea from Tim Keller, pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in NYC. He points out that almost every text we preach speaks to one of the major objections to Christianity.

Sermons on the stewardship of God’s created world must provide some leads for application. Here is some advice for you as you help your listeners flesh out a theology of environmental stewardship.

As a follow-up to my last post on ‘green sermons,’ here is a brief list of biblical texts for use in preaching on stewardship of God’s environment.

Environmentalism is a hot topic these days. Al Gore’s recent Nobel Peace Prize for his documentary on global warming has heated up the pressure for people to “go green.” Alright, sorry about the puns! “Hot topic” was unintentional, but “heated up” was! Anyway, is it appropriate to preach on environmentalism? If so, what do preachers have to say?

I’m a firm believer in helping my listeners apply the Scriptures to their lives. By definition, application is part of biblical preaching. Both Haddon Robinson and Bryan Chappell, authors of the classic homiletics texts for our generation, include application in their definitions. But I find that incorporating application into my sermons on a week-to-week basis is a challenge.

If you preach an Old Testament story, be prepared to work with a much larger text than usual. The so-called “David and Goliath” story takes at least 58 verses to unfold. Preaching the full story of David’s sin with Bathsheba means preaching 2 Samuel 11 and 12 together. So how do you handle the reading of such long texts?

Sermons from Bible stories often look at a human character’s behavior and ask, “To be or not to be?’ But is that really the question? Will this approach – following or avoiding the example of a character – really help us discover the theological message which the story intends to communicate? Let me give you a definitive answer: Maybe!

I’m getting ready to deliver a lecture this Thursday at Heritage Seminary near Toronto on “Preaching Old Testament Stories to a Story-Driven Culture.” Old Testament narrative literature presents several challenges to preachers. I’d like to wrestle with a couple of them in my blog posts this week. The first is the challenge of preaching Christ.

Preaching about God’s wrath often makes people angry. They claim that they want nothing to do with “a God like that.” So how do you preach on this subject when it’s right in front of you in the text? I had this challenge last Sunday when I preached on Ephesians 2:1-10. Verse 3 describes sinners as “objects of wrath” (literally, “children of wrath.”).

Let me share a great exercise for preachers. I recently stumbled across it while preparing a five-year ministry plan for the church I serve.

I’m always on the lookout for a good story or image to use in my preaching. But once I find something in TIME, in The Chicago Tribune, in a great biography, or in my own experiences, the challenge is how to store it so that I can find it later. I finally discovered a simple method which really works!

How much life should you get out of a sermon? When is it appropriate to preach it again to the same congregation? How much change should you make when you preach it to another congregation? I’ve thought about these questions during my sermon preparation this week. I’m currently preaching through Ephesians, and I still have my notes and manuscripts from a series I did on this epistle eight years ago in another church. Let me share what I’ve learned about recycling sermons.

Karl Marx got it all wrong when he said, “Religion is the opium of the people.” The truth is, “Sports is the opium of the people.” Or, perhaps, the truth is, “Sports is the religion of the people.” Now I’m not going to knock sports. After all, I live, eat, and breathe baseball! My great-grandfather’s cousin was Christy Mathewson, the hall-of-fame pitcher for the New York Giants. But how do you preach to people who are more captivated by A-Rod and LeBron and Tiger than by God?

Last week, a friend commented: “Sometimes, preachers need to break away from their sermon series or from the Bible book through which they’re preaching and just share from their hearts.” Hmm. This sounds like good advice. But I’m convinced that it contains a fatal flaw.

Today I’d like to share some ‘food for thought.’ Perhaps it will provide fare for a future sermon. Most importantly, I hope it will provide fare for your own soul. Preachers dare not neglect their souls! My thoughts stem from my recent re-reading of “The Weight of Glory,” an essay by C. S. Lewis.

Sermons which convict, compel, inspire, and challenge God’s people find their center in God. To preach God-centered sermons, look first for the “vision of God.” I discussed this in my previous post. Once you identify the aspect of God’s character which serves as the focal point of the text, then observe the “depravity factor.” Haddon Robinson refers to this as the “human factor,” while Bryan Chapell calls it the “fallen-condition focus” (FCF). Robinson explains this concept in his second edition of Biblical Preaching:

Another discipline for taking your preaching to the next level is to keep the focus God-centered rather than human-centered. I know, it sounds like a ‘given.’ But the temptation is to dwell on the needs of people rather than to address those needs in the context of God’s majesty. I’ve faced this challenge recently while preaching through Proverbs. In two days, I’m preaching Proverbs 30:24-38. How will I preach God-centered sermon from this text which contain no direct reference to God? Likewise, if I’m in a N.T. epistle, I must wrestle with how to preach from the ‘imperative’ section of the book so that God’s supremacy and glory dominates the sermon.

In my last post, I advocated preparing sermons in community. One way to do this is to use study groups or focus groups composed of people in the congregation who do not serve on staff or a leadership board. Today, I’d like to share a story about how this approach made a huge difference in a sermon I preached.

Preaching appears to be an intensely individual activity. But another discipline for taking your preaching to the next level is to prepare your sermons in community. The obvious questions to ask are “Why?” and “How?”

Today, I’d like to share some thoughts about prayer and sermon preparation. One of the six disciplines I suggest for taking your preaching to the next level is to saturate your sermon preparation with prayer (see August 17, 2007 post). It’s through the discipline of prayer that I move from being a preacher who ‘has to say something on Sunday’ to being a preacher who ‘has something to say on Sunday.’

Three years ago, I delivered the preaching lectures at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. This opportunity forced me to wrestle with how preachers can take their preaching to the next level. By the ‘next level,’ I’m referring to greater effectiveness in helping listeners see the glory and majesty of God from the Scriptures so that they are inspired and challenged to live grace-based, mission-focused, Christ-exalting lives. I eventually settled on six disciplines which help us preach Scripture in a way that leads people to encounter and worship the true and living God. Here is my list of disciplines.

I'm re-reading Eugene Peterson's masterpiece, Eat This Book. I first read it in April 2006, and it challenged, encouraged, and stimulated me so much as a minister of the Word that I vowed I'd read it again! Today, I invite you to reflect on a bold claim that Peterson makes: "Exegesis is foundational to Christian spirituality" (p. 52).

If you believe there is value in studying the biblical texts you preach in their original languages, then how do you make this happen? How can you maintain, jump-start, re-learn, or revive your language skills? Furthermore, how can you maximize the time you spend in your Hebrew Bible and Greek New Testament? Here are some ideas.

This week I'd like to wrestle with the use of Hebrew and Greek in sermon preparation. For starters, is it reasonable or even desirable to expect pastors to study the biblical texts they preach in their original languages? Is this a wise investment or a poor investment of time?

When our church gathers for worship on the weekend, I am passionate about preaching the Word to help God's people become more like Christ and reflect God's design for the church. But I'm also concerned about helping nonbelievers understand the Word so that they can see Christ in all of his glory. Tim Keller, pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in NYC, challenges preachers with this observation: "If you speak and discourse as if your whole neighborhood is present eventually more and more of your neighborhood will find their way in or be invited." So what does this look like?

The other day, I received mixed signals on my preaching. First, a young couple told me that they were attracted to our church because of my preaching. An hour later, someone else made it a point to say, “I loved your Father’s Day sermon. It spoke to my heart.” Four hours later, I received an e-mail informing me that a couple was leaving our church. The straw that broke the camel’s back was that the husband thought the Father’s Day sermon was too negative!

How can male preachers connect with female listeners? This is an urgent issue for preachers who are committed to ministering God’s Word to their people. Preachers communicate truth through personality, but sometimes personality gets in the way – especially in the area of gender. I recently heard a woman say: “I can’t listen to that pastor because he comes across as arrogant.” Another complained: “If I have to listen to one more sports illustration, I’ll scream!” What’s a male preacher to do?

This Sunday I’ll begin exploring topics developed in Proverbs 10-31. My sermon is titled “Living Out God’s Wisdom in Your Words.” While Bruce Waltke argues that verbal and thematic threads (poetics) give preachers a reason to exposit sections like 10:1-16 or 26:1-12, I still concur with Tremper Longman who argues that the proverbs in chapters 10-31 are arranged in a more or less random fashion (with obvious exceptions like 31:1-9 or 31:10-31). But this approach of pulling together and then presenting the various proverbs on a given topic – words, relationships, wealth, etc. – raises a vital question. How do you make your sermons from Proverbs 10-31 do more than dispense good advice or offer help for self-improvement?

Last Sunday, I preached Proverbs 8. What a magnificent chapter! As I reflect on the sermon, I’m aware that it accomplished a double-duty. Its main duty, of course, was to expose the meaning of the text and apply this meaning so that hearers can participate effectively in Jesus’ mission to the glory of God. But my sermon did something else. It did what all sermons do – for better or for worse!

A few years ago, I overheard a pastor say, “I don’t spend a lot of time studying. That’s why I went to seminary.” Yet Paul offers this challenge in 1 Timothy 4:15-16a: “Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress. Watch your life and doctrine closely.” The term “progress” sets the expectation that pastors will keep advancing. The people they serve will see growth in their doctrine (literally, their teaching) and in the Christian life from which it flows. My question for today is, what can you do to make progress as a preacher/teacher of Scripture?

Paul’s counsel in 1 Timothy 4:16 is critical for preachers in the 21st century: Watch your life and doctrine closely. The people to whom you preach must see your progress in these areas (4:15b). Let’s focus on the first area today. The expression “your life” in 4:16 is literally “yourself.” This reflects Paul’s exhortation in 4:7 to train yourself for godliness. Preachers who pay attention to their lives will provide examples in the areas of speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity (4:12). So what can you do to watch over your life and make progress in it?

I’ve driven over 5100 miles during the last two weeks of family vacation. Miles pile up when you drive from the Chicago area to eastern Oregon via Montana and Idaho! I spent some of the miles reflecting on life and ministry. Part of this reflection took me back to a Scripture passage which captured my attention as a young preacher. I’m referring to 1 Timothy 4:11-16. It seems that God’s Spirit is prompting me to revisit it again. As a preacher in mid-life, I need it more than ever!

I’ve been in Idaho the last few days for a family reunion. On Sunday, July 1, I attended a worship service at a small church in northern Idaho. My father-in-law, James Perkins, was the guest preacher. At age 80, he still preaches two or three times a month. It was a privilege to learn from him. God’s Spirit used the sermon to encourage and challenge me. James’ sermon also reinforced a couple of convictions I hold as a preacher – convictions about what it takes to preach sermons which God’s Spirit uses to encourage and challenge listeners.

I took time earlier this week to go back and interact with the comments to all of the June 2007 blog posts. Thanks to all of you who take the time and effort to post comments. The discussion is helpful and stimulating. One recent comment referred to the “common mistake of spending too much time on commentaries.” I’m going to address that issue in this post. To be honest, I know few, if any, pastors who spend too much time in commentaries. But I see a lot of mistakes made in using commentaries. I must confess, too, that I’ve made all of them in the past. So, here are some common “commentary mistakes.”

Two days ago, I preached a sermon on Proverbs 5 as part of the series I’m doing this summer on the book of Proverbs. The topic of the chapter is sex – specifically, avoiding sexual immorality (represented by the adulteress) and enjoying this incredible gift in the context of marriage. All of this is to be done in the fear of God (see 5:21). There’s a lot I could suggest when preaching texts which focus on sex, but I have one concern which eclipses all others: Sermons on sex must not be sermons on sex. Let me explain!

Ernest Hemingway has something to teach preachers. For years, Hemingway has fascinated me at two levels. First, I am haunted by his quest for love and deep healing. As D. Bruce Lockerbie points out in his book, Dismissing God, Hemingway abandoned his Christian upbringing and turned to the worship of a rugged masculinity. Yet neither bull-fighting, big-game hunting, nor booze brought him the hope and healing for which he longed. Second, I am intrigued by the way Hemingway wrote his novels and short stories. The way he communicates in A Farewell to Arms (my favorite Hemingway novel) or Big Two-Hearted River (my favorite ‘Nick Adams’ short story) models something which I must master as a preacher of Scripture.

While preparing for my sermon last week, I had a day where I hit “sermon block.” The more I tried to think, the more frustrated I got. I had done my exegesis, and I read and re-read the best commentaries. Still I could not articulate in my mind the point that the writer was trying to make. I could not see where the argument was leading, let alone how I was going to communicate it. I muttered, “I couldn’t think my way out of a paper bag today if my life depended on it.” So I simply acted followed a piece of profound advice from Eugene Lowry’s book, The Sermon: Dancing the Edge of Mystery (Abingdon, 1997).

Preparing more than one sermon per week puts a strain on one’s ability to deliver Spirit-empowered, life-transforming, God-exalting sermons. When a ministry requires the preparation of more than one sermon a week, what is a preacher to do? I have five suggestions. I offered two in last Tuesday’s post: (1) prioritize and spend most of your time on the primary sermon; and (2) feel free to recycle a good sermon in the appropriate time and manner for use in the secondary setting. I’m using the expression ‘primary sermon’ to refer to the one you preach in your main worship service(s). The ‘secondary sermon’ is the additional sermon you must prepare for another setting such as a Sunday night or mid-week service. Now, here are my final three suggestions.

If your church or ministry setting requires you to prepare more than one sermon a week, how can you prepare an additional sermon after pouring everything into the first one? A reader recently raised this question. It’s the challenge you face if your church has a Sunday night or mid-week service in addition to your primary weekend worship service(s). Let me state the question from another angle: if it takes all your time and energy just to produce one quality sermon a week, how can you hope to prepare two sermons which rise above mediocrity?

How can preachers ‘stay put’ in the text they are preaching and yet make necessary, legitimate connections with other Bible passages? Let me use Proverbs 1:1-7 as an example. There are two extremes to avoid. One is turning to so many other Bible texts (the ‘cross-reference’ approach) that Proverbs 1:1-7 never gets developed. The other extreme is refusing to discuss other texts which illuminate the ideas communicated in Proverbs 1:1-7.

An old adage claims: “The best interpreter of Scripture is other Scripture.” True. But expositors must not abuse this insight when preaching a particular biblical passage. We must learn the discipline of staying put in the text we’re preaching. I face this challenge every weekend. I have to ask, “When is it appropriate to turn to another passage, and when is it better to stay put in the text I’m preaching?”

As I finished my sermon preparation this morning for Sunday’s sermon on Proverbs 1:1-7, I found myself working both sides of the equation. On the one side, I spent an hour poring over the infinitive constructs in verses 2-4 and 6 in my Hebrew Bible. Do they flow out of an elliptical verb in verse 1, or do they connect to the jussive form of “hear” in verse 5? One the other side, I did some research on illegal insider trading. Since my ministry context is ‘Corporate America,’ I’m going to use this information to illustrate the difference between immoral wisdom and the moral wisdom described in Proverbs 1:3. Effective expository preaching must work both sides of the equation. Let me explain what I mean.

What were the people in your church doing last Sunday while you were preaching? Listening, of course. At least you hope they were listening! Two days ago I sat with my family and listened as one of the other pastors on our church staff preached the sermon. Kent did a fine job handling the text, relating it to life, and exalting Christ. In addition to the work God’s Spirit did in my own heart through the sermon, I also made some mental observations about listening.