Preaching Lab (Session Four)

Finalization and Delivery

As we have seen there are many steps that take place before the man of God steps to the pulpit to preach. Prayer, preparation and time make up the majority of the actual sermon. We may only spend 30-60 minutes preaching but we have spent countless hours in preparation.

“After a pastor had finished preaching his Sunday sermon, a young man came up to him and asked him how long it took to prepare that particular sermon. The pastor replied, “A lifetime.”

The more you live, and the more you preach the better the preparation and better the sermon. That does not mean that you can quit the process, or that will not have to improve your process. The longer you are in ministry the more will have learned about God and people. You learn from your mistakes and failures. You never stop your pursuit of God and your pursuit of excellence.

Let’s look at finalizing our sermon.

Finalization

Finalization

You have prepared, you have studied, consulted with various commentaries and resources and have outlined your sermon.

Illustrations

Illustrations are a very peculiar part of the sermon creating process. They can add life and zest to your sermon. They could overshadow your exposition and sermon. Or they could hinder your sermon, or even take too much of the allotted time.

Here are a number of examples if what I consider illustrations:

Stories from history

Anecdotes

Humor

The use of props

You have to strike the perfect balance with illustrations. Do not rely on illustrations for preparing sermons. You should base your sermon on the Scripture not an illustration. However, something you read or experience can inspire a sermon. But do not rely on that. This should be the case less than 1% of the time. By doing so some will try to find the right Scripture to “fit” their illustration or story. Instead study the Scripture and find applicable illustrations. Stories and narratives from Scripture are the best illustrations you could use. Not everyone will be JH Osborne, but he is the master of using the illustration perfectly in sermons.

Trimming the Fat

Your outline make take different shapes and forms during the preparation process. But you shouldn’t attempt to preach everything that you studied and communicate everything you read from the commentaries. Instead you need to begin focusing on the time you have to preach, and the people you are to preach to. Again, this is where prayer becomes important. You need to pray for guidance in terms of what you are to say and don’t need to say.

Begin with your notes. What is really important and what is excess? Go back to the BIG POINT that you wrote down. Does everything help flow to that BIG POINT? Would anything seem confusing? Where can I simplify?

If you look at my notes from the time I save them to my iPad, and then look at them before I preach you will see a much different set of notes. I highlight, I mark out, I add little notes, I add arrows and boxes. These are all markers and signs to where I’m needing to go, and where I’m needing to stay away from.

Now, if you preach this message again somewhere else you may want to use the things that you trim, or take away something else. The important part is to save everything. You may not use it now, but it may be of great value some other time.

Application

Getting to the application of the sermon should tie in with your BIG POINT. Now, some would say your application should be at the conclusion of your sermon. And that is good advice. I tend to have application peppered throughout my sermon.

Going back to Jesus’ sermon to Nicodemus in , He told him, “You must be born again.” Then Jesus clarified what He just said, “You must be born again of the water and the Spirit.” The Sermon on the Mount in is three chapters of discourse and application. But when you get to Peter is preaching OT prophecy and pointing to Jesus as the fulfillment of those prophecies. However, he applies it to his listeners at the end of his short, but powerful sermon: “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, WHOM YE HAVE CRUCIFIED, both Lord and Christ” (). What was their response? “What shall we do?” Peter gave the application in .

Questions to Ask About Your Sermon

In one sentence, what is this sermon about?

This should be answered by your BIG POINT. If someone asks you about what you are preaching, or what you have preached, you should be able to answer them in one sentence. If not, then go back and attempt to get that answer and shorten it up.

What theological category would this fall under?

Am I being theologically and doctrinally faithful? Is this about repentance? Christian living? Jesus Christ and his person? Miracles?

What do I want my listeners to know?

What information does my audience need to know before they can apply your sermon to their lives?

What do I want them to do? What do I want them to become?

In several of my classes I had to write out sermons or lessons. At the end of the lesson I had to ask this tough questions. Inevitably it was always “Head, heart, and hands.” I want them to think differently. I want them to feel differently in their hearts and lives. And I wanted them to act differently. Head, heart and hands.

Do I believe this sermon will make a difference?

This should be unlike anything else that they’ve heard this week. Students have heard and read many lessons that week and completely forgot about them. So will your sermon just be another lesson that they will forget?

Does this sermon make a difference in my own life?

If this sermon has not had an impact on me then it will not have an impact on my audience.

During the preparation process

Will my listeners know that I love and care for them?

Preaching is not about being hateful and vengeful. We are to speak the truth in love (). You need to care for them and for their souls. It should draw them closer to Jesus and further from the world. They should draw closer to the body of Christ and no resent it.

Am I passionate about this subject?

You sermon should not be a dead and dry discourse. Bore people with Shakespeare, but do not bore them with the Bible. The Bible is the most exciting thing we can come into contact with. What you have been studying and praying about should excite you.

“What makes a good teacher is not a desire to teach, but a desire to learn.”

What makes a great preacher is not a desire to preach, but a desire to learn.

Saying something loudly does not make it passionate. Crying the entire time you preach does not make it passionate. Passion is felt whether you are screaming or not.