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5 Ways to BOMB Your Next Sermon

Fail #4: Prepare the message, but not the messenger.

The more I preach, the more I am aware of how powerless I am to produce anything of eternal significance apart from the power of the Holy Spirit. For me, the temptation is often to walk into the pulpit with a well-prepared message delivered through an ill-prepared messenger. I am of little use in the pulpit if I am proclaiming the gospel without relying on it, or preaching repentance without walking in it.

On top of this, busyness, problems, meetings, conflict, emails and social media all line up to compete for my attention before I stand up to speak on behalf of God. A well-prepared message is important, but a well-prepared messenger is essential.

In the words of the Scottish preacher Robert Murray McCheyne, “A holy minister is an awful weapon in the hand of God. A word spoken by you when your conscience is clear, and your heart full of God’s Spirit, is worth ten thousand words spoken in unbelief and sin.”

Every preacher will prepare differently, but there are some practices that are indispensable. The following phases of preaching preparation can be traced back to a pastor named Leith Samuel and have been a particularly helpful tool for me:

  • Think yourself empty
  • Study yourself full
  • Write yourself clear
  • Pray yourself hot
  • Let yourself go

Fail #5: Attach God’s love to your eloquence for him.

I have written on this previously, but it’s worth mentioning again. One of the most deadly errors you can make is attaching your giftedness as a speaker to your acceptance from the Father. But you need to know that your good sermons don’t impress him more, and your bad sermons don’t cause him to love you less. A heart that is rising or falling with your level of eloquence reveals a misplaced identity in your imperfect work for Jesus, instead of his perfect work for you.

The more I preach, the more I am aware of how powerless I am to produce anything of eternal significance apart from the power of the Holy Spirit.

When we allow the gospel to shape not only our preaching but also our own hearts as preachers, we begin to experience a far greater measure of freedom and boldness when we stand before our young people. The immaturity of wanting to be the greatest preacher is replaced with the joy of pointing again and again to the greatness of God.

I’ll leave you with Paul’s words to his young protégé Timothy, which ought to echo in the ears of every preacher of God’s Word:

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. (2 Tim. 4:1–5)  

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adamramsey@churchleaders.com'
Adam Ramsey really loves Jesus. He also enjoys being married to Kristina, going on Daddy Dates with his little girl, Alaiya, and wrestling with his boys, Benaiah and Ezra. Originally from Australia where he pioneered a youth movement and led a location at a multisite church, Adam currently serves as the director of Student Ministries at Mars Hill Church in Seattle, where he is equipping a generation to spread Jesus' fame. Fiery and insightful, Adam is well known for his humorous, hard-hitting style that ignites people’s affections for Jesus.