32 Keys To Preaching An Unforgettable Sermon

“I know what it’s like for you and your wife to be pregnant and lose that baby.  I know what that moment feels like.  I know what the moment feels like when you hold your 8-year-old son in your arms and he’s having a seizure and you don’t know what’s going on and you think he’s going to die in your arms and there is nothing you can do about it.  I know that moment.  I know that feeling.  I know the moment when the doctor looks at you and tells you and your wife your son, whose not even three, has cancer.  I know these moments and seasons of life like so many of you.”

These are the words of Nate Galloway, Piedmont Church’s Family Pastor who today delivered one of the finest sermons I have ever heard.  It was so impactful for those of us in attendance I wanted to make the content available to you.  See the video above.

Pastors do not give a talk.  Pastors deliver a message to the people from the God of the Ages addressing the issues of their lives.  This is what Nate did today.  Every preacher needs to hear this.  Every person who is facing disappointment, crisis, or tragedy should as well.

Nate’s message begins at the 28:37 mark.  The following are 32 Keys To Preaching An Unforgettable Sermon I gleaned from Nate’s message.  All quotes are from him.

1. A Great Sermon Connects With People Where They Are – “Everyone one of us is on our own personal journey of faith… We’re all figuring it out on the way.”
2. A Great Sermon Creates Tension – “No matter where you are on the journey of faith and worship and belief, at some point in life everything you believe, all your faith is going to be challenged.”
3. A Great Sermon Connects Us All To A Common Journey – “You’re going to come to a moment or season of life.. that you doubt everything you believe.  Everyone of us is going to be in seasons of life like that no matter who you are.  That’s just life.
4. A Great Sermon Points People To Jesus – “Jesus said, ‘When the troubles of life come’.  They will come eventually and they will come to all of us.”
5. A Great Sermon Causes People To Worship – “(During dark moments we will) choose whether we worship God or not and hold onto our worship.”
6. A Great Sermon Causes People To Hold Onto God – “(During dark moments we will) choose whether we hold onto God or push Him away.”
7. A Great Sermon Reveals Your Spiritual Maturity – “During dark moments we will choose whether we follow Jesus or stop… It’s easy to worship and believe in God when everything is going great… But when your world comes crashing down around you, that’s another story.”
8. A Great Sermon Is Birthed Out Of Pain – “I know what it’s like for you and your wife to be pregnant and lose that baby.  I know what that moment feels like.  I know what the moment feels like when you hold your 8-year-old son in your arms and he’s having a seizure and you don’t know what’s going on and you think he’s going to die in your arms and there is nothing you can do about it.  I know that moment.  I know that feeling.  I know the moment when the doctor looks at you and tells you and your wife your son, whose not even three, has cancer.  I know these moments and seasons of life like so many of you.”
9. A Great Sermon Engages Our Sight – We are visual creatures.  Nate used a 1990s boombox, pictures from his sister in the hospital, and three pairs of unforgettable glasses to illustrate deep truths in a way everyone could relate to.
10. A Great Sermon Connects The Past To The Present – “There was a song in my life at the time – Shout To The Lord.”
11. A Great Sermon Gives People Specific Information – “In 1998, (it was) the first time I was faced with a time in my life where my entire life was falling apart… But in November 1998 I got a phone call (his younger sister Rachel was involved in a near-death car accident).”
12. A Great Sermon Is Delivered By An Imperfect Preacher – “At that point, I didn’t push Play.  I pushed Pause and it was like everything in my life just stopped.”
13. A Great Sermon Connects With People’s Emotions – “It made me question everything… I remember being angry and mad.  I remember feeling guilty.  I remember fear and doubt.. even shame.”
14. A Great Sermon Makes People Desperate For God – “I found myself in the chapel at Kennestone Hospital…  I remember crying and feeling so desperate and crying out to God.”
15. A Great Sermon Is Proceeded By Christian Music, Not Secular Music – Secular music will not comfort you during life’s darkest days.  “A song began to play in my heart and mind… It was this song Shout To The Lord and the lyrics began to play in my mind – My Jesus, My Shepherd, My Comfort.  And this song began to rise out of me.”
16. A Great Sermon Makes People Choose To Follow Jesus Or Not – “I had a choice.  Was I going to worship and believe and trust in Him or not?.. At this season I made a choice to shout to the Lord…  And this is a choice everyone of us has to make when we face these seasons.  Will you press Play or will you press Pause.”
17. A Great Sermon Is Rooted In Scripture – It is not a TED Talk with a Bible verse added to it.  “When you open up the Scriptures and God’s Word, the Scriptures of history is filled with men and women who found themselves in the midnight dark moments of life and was faced with these choices and obstacles… It’s found in the Book of Acts 16.”
18. A Great Sermon Is Remembered During Lonely Times – “It’s a lonely feeling when you’re at the hospital at the midnight hour and everyone’s gone home and there’s no more visitors.”
19. A Great Sermon Gives People Comfort And Hope – “But Paul says (to his jailers), ‘Don’t kill yourself.  We’re all still here.”
20. A Great Sermon Tells People How They Can Be Saved – “What must I do to be saved?..  What do I have to do to know the God you know?..  Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved.
21. A Great Sermon Connects Us To The Presence Of God – “It (choosing to trust God during these moment in our lives) invites and connects us to the presence of God.”
22. A Great Sermon Exalts God And His Holiness – “Psalm 22:3 – God you are holy.”
23. A Great Sermon Changes Our Perspective – “I believe why so many of us struggle with this is because of how we are viewing life.  Our perspective is not as it should be.”
24. A Great Sermon Has Humor – Humor is your friend.  Nate used a set of ME glasses and rose-colored glasses in a way which left a lasting memory.
25. A Great Sermon Convicts People Of Their Sin – “The Me perspective is all about you.  It’s not about God.  It’s all about me and how I see things…  All you care about and all you can see is you…  It’s all about me.”
26. A Great Sermon Magnifies Jesus – “God you will be magnified bigger than this mountain or issue I am facing… Only people who see life through the lens of God can do this.”
27. A Great Sermon Is All About Jesus – “Is it all about the good and the bad?  Or is it about Him?”
28. A Great Sermon Is A Repeatable Sermon – Some refer to this catch-phrases or bottom-line quotes.  Nate kept referring to the term “Play or Pause” as a picture of following, trusting and believing Jesus or not.
29. A Great Sermon Does Not Have Time Constraints – I recently sat through 2 hours 30 minutes of Avengers: Infinity War and had no issues with the length.  I have also sat through 20-minute messages which were absolutely painful.  Time is completely relative based upon the quality of the content.  Nate’s message was 48 minutes which went by like 4.8 minutes.
30. A Great Sermon Changes The Lives Of Those Around Us – “When we go through difficult moments, the world slows down.  They lean and they watch ‘How are they going to respond?’.. The world is watching us… They say, ‘I don’t know a God like that who gives songs during the midnight hour.”
31. A Great Sermon Changes Our Life – “God gave me a song in that moment… Because that’s what God does.  He gives us songs during the most difficult, darkest moments of our lives.”
32. A Great Sermon Gives People A Chance To Respond – After Nate’s message the altar was filled with individuals and husbands with their wives crying out to God.

This message is just a masterpiece.  What is one thing you learned from Nate’s message which will you a better preacher?

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