All #ourCOG News 5.0
“One act of obedience is better than one hundred sermons.”
__Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Thesis: Whatever the sermon, you are the message. (Philippians 4:9, 3:17; 2 Thessalonians 3:7-9; 1 Timothy 4:12)
“I have dwelt long upon the preacher and his character because he is essential to the sermon. He cannot throw a sermon forth into the world as an author can his book, as an artist can his statue, and let it live thenceforth a life wholly independent of himself.”
Phillips Brooks
Application: Preach from the overflow of your own life. Take your people on the journey God is taking you.
Sheep will follow the shepherd, but they resist being driven by the shepherd.
What to do:
FIRST: Study the Bible for you. When you become better, your sermons will become better, and your people will become better – because of the words they hear and see you doing.
SECOND: Study life for you (Natural Theology). Live life fully; broaden your experiences, and let it shine through your sermon.
- “Travel is the antidote for prejudice.”
- Experiencing life broadly is an antidote for boring sermons.
THIRD: Don’t preach your sermon until it has moved you. (The Battle of the Heart)
- You don’t want a skinny chef when paying big bucks for a meal. In the same way, your people need to see that you are “eating your own cooking” when you preach.
- Your personal passion will save you from preaching dead, dry orthodox sermons with no real connection with life.
FOURTH: Don’t preach your sermon until you know why it has moved you. (The Battle of the Mind)
- Do your homework. Be able to give a reason for the faith you have (1 Peter 3:15).
- Waiting until it moves you protects you from dead dry orthodoxy. Waiting until you know why it moves you protects you from heresy and powerless emotionalism.
The ONE THING for today: Truth that is not model or illustrated is mostly truth not observed/practiced.
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