Haddon Robinson, in his fantastic book, Biblical Preaching points out an unfortunate reality in the early portion of his book.
He points out what all of us have experienced: “Dull expository sermons usually lack effective applications.”
In other words, we preachers can preach some boring sermons and what often makes them boring and ineffective is how we go about application.
And when a congregant sits under boring preaching, they usually have, at least, two complaints, according to Robinson:
- “Listeners grumble, ‘It’s always the same old thing.’ The preacher gives all passages the same application, or worse, no application at all.”
I call this either lazy preaching or ignorant preaching. Lazy because there’s no effort to do the needed work to truly meditate on the text, reflect on God’s heart in the passage, and consider the connections to life today. Or ignorant because the preacher might know the Bible at a language level, they don’t know the Bible at a heart level.
- “A second negative reaction is that the sermon does not relate to the world directly enough to be of practical use: ‘It’s true enough, I guess, but so what? What difference does it make?’”
Friend, if the sermon doesn’t reach into people’s lives on an everyday level and speak to what is on regular people’s minds, we’re not pastoring them well. And make no mistake, preaching is a pastoral task.
Luckily, our preaching can improve and, instead of prompting complaints, we can prompt praise of our God through faithfully preaching transformational messages to our people.
So what should we do instead?
- Let the Lord transform you! No matter how large your pulpit might be, you can’t hide when you preach. You are going to be God’s mouthpiece, proclaiming His words and that process flows, not around you, but through you. So wrestle with the Lord as you wrestle with His word. Let Him confront you and follow Him as He changes you.
- Preach the word. But in a way that gets into the text as opposed to staying on the surface. Peel back the layers, dig deeper, and desperately pray that the Lord would reveal His heart to you.
- Preach to people. But not in a surface-level way. Talk about what this says to those moments of trial. Talk about what it means for those everyday things that are on people’s minds. And then go two layers deeper than that. Speak to the thing that’s always under the thing that is on people’s minds.
The Craft of Biblical Preaching Course
In my new course, The Craft of Biblical Preaching, I want to help you do #2 and #3 really, really well.
This is a preaching course more about developing your sermon content than it is about developing your sermon prep process.
If you’re familiar with the Sticky Sermon Structure that I teach, we’re going deep on the foundation of a great message: truth and application.
Let me help you preach more biblically rich, gospel-infused messages that cut to people’s hearts.
Let me help you go from good preaching to great preaching.
If you’re ready, click here to learn more and enroll.
Additional Bonuses
I added some additional bonuses for you if you jump in before the end of this week: (1) Rhythm or Blues Sermon Series Manuscripts (Spiritual Disciplines), (2) Easter Sermon: A Whirlwind of a Weekend Manuscript, and (3) James Sermon Series Manuscripts.
Why did I add these bonuses? So you can use them as more examples of how to apply what I teach you.
I’ll see you inside.
To preaching better,
Brandon Kelley
PreachandLead.com
Click HERE to purchase The Craft of Biblical Preaching