Sermons

Reminds me of a story:

The preacher stepped up to the pulpit and announced he was going to rely on the Lord to provide a message. He began to pray in earnest invoking all the power of Heaven to put words in his mouth to deliver to the congregation. Finishing with a booming Amen the preacher randomly flipped open the pages of his Bible.

Tension built as he stared at the page before him. Nothing. Folks started to squirm in their seats awaiting the words to start. Nothing. The preacher opened his mouth. Nothing.

Finally a booming voice was heard from above, "You should have prepared a sermon."

 

I can't imagine a pastor NOT preparing for a sermon. I'm pretty sure I'd find a new church the next week if the pastor "Let the Bible fall open, and that is where he preaches."

 

I have been asked to preach, in other venues, at the last minute when there was not time to prepare other than pray. I can do it but even then I am pulling from sermons and preparation I have made before.

However, from week to week sermon prep can take as long as 10 or more hours to as few as a couple. It various depending on how familiar I am with the topic.

 

I preach through an entire book. Occasionally, as circumstances dictate, I will preach on a specific topic, only to come back to the book I have been preaching from.

 

Series based with preparation is what I am used to. We are enjoying the "Heroes of the Old Testament" series right now.

 

Series can be misleading. I preach series that are sometimes expository in nature and other times topic by nature. Not mentioned was use of the lectionary. I use the lectionary at Advent and Easter in particular. Other times as well, ordinary time, usually in between series.

 

I once attended a church where the Pastor prepared his own sermons. They were awful, unbiblical and embarrassing. Then he found a prepared sermon source and started presenting these canned messages. Much better.

Then there was the Pastor who said Jesus did not really arise from the dead....

 

I was called into the ministry about 12 years ago. I've never been led to prepare or write out a sermon beyond just studying and meditating on the Scripture and praying for the Holy Ghost to guide my thoughts and my heart.

Usually, from my experience, the Lord will lay some Scripture on my heart, either through study or through divine revelation (for lack of a better term, I suppose). From there, I try my best to let the Lord lead me to where He would have the message go. And believe me, I've tried to get ahead of God and it always makes a huge mess of things.

I've been on the bench before and have my pastor say, as the choir was singing their last song, that he was turning the service over to me. It sure made it easier to lean upon the Lord. I'm definitely a believer in being "instant in season and out of season."