Preaching
Smell Like Sheep
A man once told me that I smelled like sheep. At first I really didn’t know what he meant; all that could come to my mind was visions of the many smelly shepherds that I saw in India out with their flocks on back country roads. I didn’t even have to get close to those wretched men to know they...
Process of Preparing a Sermon
1. God Lays a Message on the Heart of the Messenger Here you need to ask the Lord, through fervent prayer, “What is it that you want to communicate to your people, God?” Identify ways that God is communicating to you personally. What is it that He is stirring within your own heart? Also, identify the needs of those you...
Radical Faithfulness: A Message on Luke 19:11-27 and the Parable of the Ten Minas
This message is on the parable of the minas in Luke 19. Jesus tells this story to make at least two points. One has to do with the timing of His second coming being a long way off. The other has to do with how we are stewarding what we’ve been given in the meantime. The message is easy...
How To Prepare to Preach Expository Sermons for Maximum Impact
Preaching well is not something I simply strive to do, it is something I am called to do. When I sit to plan my preaching the weight of that calling can sometimes crush me underneath it. The effort of creating a sermon that allows the Holy Spirit to do great and unhindered work is a sweet but rigorous task. So...
Undone: God’s Redemption Plan for Reconciling People To Himself (Acts 10:23-48)
God has no partiality in who he saves and who he does not - so why do Christians so often act as if some people are not good enough for the Gospel? In this message, I unpack the way that God chose to save the Gentiles in the book of Acts. I believe passages address one of the most...
How I Format My Sermon Outline
For over a decade I have tried to find the best way to format my sermon notes. I've asked some of the greatest living known preachers how they do it and if I could see theirs. I research and read about others notes (of which Josh Harris has one of the best blogs on this topic). Although I have...
My First Step in Sermon Preparation
How you start sermon preparation is very important. I often relate sermon preparation to bearing a child. Though I am a man, and will never carry a child, I have watched my wife go through the process twice and this has made the analogy all the more vivid for me. (However, I don’t suggest that you tell your 8 month...
Loving Christ Over Ministry
“For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you but Christ and Him crucified.” 1 Corinthians 2:2 Filling His Need There is almost never a day that goes by where I am not reminded to keep “Christ and Him crucified” at the center of my life. A few winters ago on a cold snowy day in Chicago, I was unexpectedly...
Preaching Must Be Pleasant for the Hearers
Nearly every day, I read a page out of George Whitfield's journals. They make me feel like a lazy bum most of the time—he did so much, preaching more sermons than anyone in history, and did it all without electronic media or a car. He is amazing. He is also recorded as having amazing skill at keeping an audience's...
Eloquence in Preaching Doesn’t Matter if You’re Missing the Holy Spirit [preaching quote]
“The gospel is preached in the ears of all men; it only comes with power to some. The power that is in the gospel does not lie in the eloquence of the preacher otherwise men would be converters of souls. Nor does it lie in the preacher’s learning; otherwise it could consists of the wisdom of men. We might...
A Good Preacher is a Progressing Preacher
"Good preaching is more than the sum total of rigorous exegesis, orthodox theology, and engaging homiletics. Good preaching is not simply a skilled act that can be done by any man. No, God desires that preaching be a skilled act that is done by a certain kind of man. So what kind of man must the preacher be? God...
Great Opener for Sermon to Teens
A Friend of mine asked me if had any good "Openers" for a sermon he was going to give at the local Lutheran High School chapel. After giving a little thought, I told him that I had one I've used many times, and it pulls the teen right in-without fail. I told him that you could speak on just...