How many points should a sermon have? At least one.
“That place would sleep two hundred every Sunday morning.” Mark Twain reminiscing about his hometown church.
“Is that story true or is daddy just preaching?” The pastor’s son asks his mother.
“Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord God, “when I will send a famine on the land— not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord.” (Amos 8:11, ESV)
I started preaching when I was sixteen years old. More than 30 have passed since then. During this time I have preached enough bad sermons and long sermons and pointless sermons and boring sermons to cause everyone to doubt my calling to preach.
And I have preached enough powerful sermons to see people’s lives transformed, minds renewed, bodies healed, and captives set free by the power of the preached Word.
Preaching is hard work. Preaching is dangerous work. Preaching is glorious work.
It has been my privilege not only to preach the Word of God but also to train others to preach the Word. There is one book I recommend to anyone who wants to improve their preaching and teaching. It is the one book above all others that changed how I preach. The book is called, “The Seven Laws of the Learner: How To Teach Almost Anything To Practically Anyone!” by Bruce Wilkinson.
Wilkinson uses the word L.E.A.R.N.E.R. as an acronym for the laws of teaching:
Learner: To teach is to cause others to learn. You teach people, not material.
Expectation: People will ascend or descend to your level of expectation.
Application: Aim for practical, life-changing application of the Word of God.
Retention: Help people master the irreducible minimum.
Need: Build the need before you teach the content.
Equipping: Equip your hearers for service and growth.
Revival: Revive the heart.
Motivational speakers are wonderful. Devotional talks are touching. But nothing is as transformative as the anointed preaching of the Word of God.
Let me offer some suggestions that may help you preach the Word:
- Study yourself to death, pray yourself to life. To preach well you must study well. You must dig in, word after word, hour after hour. You handle the Word of God. It is a dangerous thing you hold in your hands; handle it with care. However, in all your studies, do not become just academic. You are not giving a book report; your first task is to encounter God in the Scriptures for yourself. You wrestle with the text with your mind and with your heart. Sermon preparation is a mutual plowing: You plow through the Word and the Word plows through you.
- All sermons should answer three fundamental questions: What do I want to talk about? Why does it matter? How do we apply this to our life? When I was a pastor I had a small sign taped to my pulpit. I would see every time I got up to preach. Every word, every point, every verse was questioned by a single phrase, “What are you trying to do to these people anyway?”
- The Word of God is the Power of God. Preach the Word. Be ready in season and out of season. I am not smart enough, wise enough, or powerful enough to change a single human heart, but the Word of God is. The Word of God is the Power of God. Preach the Word.
I am so thankful that early in my pastoral ministry I read “The Seven Laws of the Learner.” My congregation was thankful that I read it. The people I have preached to around the world are glad I read it. The book changed how I preach. It made me a better preacher. Thanks Bruce for taking the time to write it.
What books have changed how you serve others? I would love to hear from you.
Debbie and I serve as the FMI Global Associate Director for MENACA and Europe. We focus on cultivating disciples, leaders, and church planting movements.
