This post is adapted from an “Episode of Mondays with Mark” on Facebook Live. Watch the full Jan. 31 video here.
I’ve been preaching for nearly 50 years. And I’ve been preaching almost every week for well over 45 years. And, frankly, I’m not all that good at it.
I struggle with peaching. It doesn’t come naturally to me. I’m grateful the Lord called me to preach, but no one would ever ask me to teach a seminary course on preaching or a college course – or a middle school course. You know, I’m just not that kind of scholarly preacher.
Someone has said, “Clifton preaches some of the best worst sermons we’ve ever heard.” I’m not sure what that means, but maybe I can help guys like me. And let’s be honest: Most of us are guys like me.
God has anointed a few of men in such a way that they are just unbelievable preachers. But most of us are just yeoman. We have to go in every week, every Sunday morning, another sermon every Sunday night, some of us every Wednesday night another Bible study. It’s on and on, week after week.
We’re working so hard at getting better every week that we never relax. We just always want to improve our preaching because there’s just nothing more important than that preaching moment on Sunday morning. Whether it’s five or 50 people or 500 people, but the gathered church is there to hear the word of God and man. It’s so to communicate it clearly and succinctly.
So all of us need help and improvement in preaching.
The first thing I want to suggest is to think about your introduction. I listen to a lot of you, believe it or not, and one of the things I’m always keyed into is how you are starting your sermons. What is your introduction like? I’m passionate about really putting some prayer and thought into your introduction. It is so important to grip people’s hearts, to capture their attention ,to draw them in. What are you going to say in those first few moments that draws their attention right away?
Now obviously one of the things you can do is say, “Turn with me to God’s word and let’s read this passage.” Certainly there’s nothing wrong with that. But sometimes you might want to paint a picture. As much as you can, draw people in with a story initially. Sometimes we don’t understand the importance of those first three to five minutes of a sermon. Jesus always had those illustrations where you could picture what was going on. I think that’s incredibly important for us to do as well.
Second, realize that less is more in your sermons. Especially if you’re going to preach through a book of the Bible, there is so much information out there. There’s so much you could say about every verse. And one of the hardest things in preaching is what to leave out. You really have to pray about that because you can’t bring everything that text says in 20 or 30 minutes on Sunday morning. You’ve got to determine what it is that matters this Sunday morning, to this congregation, and to the purpose of this sermon.
I realize you have been working for hours on preparation. And you’ve got 30 minutes for people who may not even know the Old Testament from the New Testament. Some maybe haven’t opened their Bible all week. You can’t bring in all that context. You have to know what to leave out. What is it you want them to leave knowing? What is the main purpose of that sermon?
Third, don’t spend a lot of time moving people to other Bible texts. If you are saying, “Let’s go look over here in Chronicles, and let’s go over here to Revelation, and now go with me back here to Job,” you’re moving from one story to another, and that means you have to describe what that story means and who these people are.
I would suggest you could say, “In the book of Chronicles, this is made even clearer.” And then “John, the writer of Revelation, re-emphasizes this.” And then in your bulletin, you can list those backup texts and say, “If you’d like to know more about these texts, I’ve listed them there in the bulletin.” That way, you’re able to use the heart of those backup texts without trying to move them to that text. You can encourage your people to learn on their own.
What you would like them to do is to get so interested in what you’re talking about and have a hunger to know more that they will go home and read those texts for themselves.
Fourth, Martin Lloyd Jones described preaching as “logic on fire.” Preaching is logic. That’s why you do the background study. That’s why it is clear and concise. But it’s also got to be on fire. There has to be an anointing of the Holy Spirit. I’ve been in many sermons where I feel like I’ve been sitting in a seminary course or a Bible study course. But where was the fire? Where was the passion? I’ve also been with some guys for whom it’s all passion. There’s no logic there at all.
You’ve got to have the logic – the purpose and structure of the sermon, the understanding of the text, what the story means. But brothers, you’ve also got to get to the fire. There’s got to be a place where the anointing of the Lord comes down, where you realize this is not just a lesson. This is life-changing. This is eternal. This moment matters. Let that fire of the gospel come through you.
One last thought: I don’t find PowerPoint particularly helpful to me, but what might be helpful is to use different kinds of pictorial illustrations. For example, if you’re talking about an aqueduct, show a picture of a Roman aqueduct. Maps are important, if you’re talking about how Paul went from here to there.
We’re very visually learning people. More than just having your sermon points up there, having some pictures that illustrate what you’re talking about can be incredibly helpful.
I think it was Alistair Begg who said, “Be yourself, but don’t preach yourself.” Jesus is the hero of this message. As many people have said, “You don’t want them leaving saying, ‘Man, what a great preacher.’ You want them leaving saying, ‘Wow, what a great Savior!’
Preaching is hard work, but it is the most wonderful opportunity. We get to share the Good News every time we preach. It’s a privilege to stand before people and proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ.
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Published January 20, 2025
