“Lists Of Tens” (Part Two)

This is a list week – Monday about a leader’s to-do list.  Today, about sermons! This is a list of what could be considered the ten main mistakes we make when preaching sermons.  See if you agree with any of them!

I have personally made all of these mistakes, and I would imagine that all of us who speak or teach or preach have at least come close sometimes.

10.  Weak segues, by just going on to the next point!

All of a sermon should be related under a one main theme at least, possibly summarized in one sentence or one big idea, but it still is going to have some continuing or specific points. Sometimes a sermon even has a list of several things that seem important to the speaker.

But it seems a little lame to just say, “Now, my third point” or, “My next argument.”

A segue is an art form.  On a normal basis it means you have thought an area through or have written out how you will move on to the next issue.

A good segue summarizes in a careful and not just redundant way, what has just been said, but also shows how it ties to the next thoughts.

For instance, in a simple example, the first point about a sermon on John 3:16 might be, “God loves this world so much….”  If the second point is “…that He gave His Son” the segue might be something as simple and obvious as one of these:

• “This love is so strong, but how is it demonstrated here?  How do we know it is so strong other than from the words of John that are written here?”
• “The verse clearly demonstrates that love, and it is a person!”
• “So the next part of the verse is so splendid and so specific: ‘God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.’”

Those are segues that summarize and lead into and stay with the main theme.

9.  Preaching too long.

Now here we may wonder who knows when a sermon is too long?

The listeners for one.  And this may depend upon the culture or the habit of the church, and people may just joke about it (“Our pastor doesn’t like us to look at the clock because he doesn’t”).  But sometimes it is a true hindrance to the reception or maybe a return for another sermon.

There are so many different opinions on this – you decide for yourself.  I know of some who feel that if the sermon is not 45 minutes, it is not even a sermon.  And then I have had nice arguments with people who say that 17 minutes is all that a person can listen to and take in!

There is no right answer.  But we should get done before our listeners do.

8.  We point out the obvious.

We all know the feeling.  The speaker is going on and on about something we already understand.  It’s not that he’s using emotion or illustration or other Biblical references to get us to buy into it.  He’s just explaining the obvious.

Everybody knows – forgive this! – how boring it can be when someone does this in a one-on-one conversation.  When people quote us for such prolonged minutia or stating of the obvious, they behind our backs probably are using the terms, “blah, blah, blah.”  Or, “yadda, yadda, yadda.”

Not good.

Say it and then get on with it.  Don’t keep repeating the obvious.  Define it in a better way or declare it with a challenge to accept this or believe it or live like it’s true.  But just to state what everybody knows makes the audience “leave the room early.”

7.  Religious talk rather than normal language.

I had a friend named John who had been in the Navy for years and he was the best in the world at doing this right.  He would be explaining something of deep theology, but he’d be saying it in words that were common to everyone in the audience.  And we understood better.  We didn’t shift into another gear or land on another planet or go to another world.

There are indeed great theological terms, and nothing here is about doing away with words like “atonement” or “redemption,” or any other important teachings that come out of the Bible and theology.  But the pastor-preacher is not there to read from a theology book, but to help us understand.  Actually we cannot make people do anything, but we can do our best to help them see it and want it.

6.  Too much content; too wide.

Here listeners walk out filled – to the brim more than to the brain.  It’s like they hear so much that they don’t know what to do with it.

I so clearly have done this a number of times, but the most memorable for me was when I covered all Ten Commandments in one 35-minute sermon.  That’s right, all ten.  And I am quite sure no one walked out thinking, “That’s right, I’m going to have no other gods, and I promise not to make images of Him, and when I say His name… and, finally, I will certainly not wish I had my neighbor’s car.”

On the contrary, they walked out stuffed, probably overwhelmed and under-motivated.  That is just too much all at once.

A main purpose of the sermon is to motivate people to want to do what it is that the scriptures say we should do.   That takes more than just going through the content.  If that were the point, we might just read verses to them out loud instead of explaining them and seeking to apply the truths to the daily lives of the listeners.

This need argues for the sermon-giver to be able to say his big idea in one sentence (which is why I still like to make my outline for the sermon text be that actual sentence, in two or three parts which form the outline and get us to the central issue).

None of us is the expert listener scientist who can declare exactly how broad the sermon can be and still remain effective, but surely we know when we have heard so much we don’t know what to do with it!  Our brains swim, and our heart sleeps.  It is just so much verbiage.

And so little inner motivation.

Let’s go on to the fifth mistake, even though ten points would clearly be too much content for a sermon!

5.  Redundant themes – not balanced.

We all have our hobby horses.  Let’s admit it.  I personally don’t like to be told that so I apologize for saying it to you.  But if you heard my sermons over a year or two, you would pick up on two or three or four main themes.

Okay, but the point here is to be careful and not always be saying the same thing.  As in the time of my personal life as a child when almost every sermon was a call to salvation.  Indeed our Lord wants that call to be given, but indeed if you say yes to that every time you may not catch any other point to the sermon or be changed in other areas.

And the same can be true about a constant theme about eschatology or love or grace or even personal obedience as a discipline.  There is no question that in the mix of the Bible there is a great variety of themes and emphasis.

I was a “Watchman Nee freak” for a time in my life, and the theme of every talk I gave during those college days was the crucified life, the subject of his books.  In fact, if the speaker I was listening to didn’t tell us something like, “You can’t do this yourself but it must be Christ in you,” then I was critical and feeling like he missed the main point.

Now I see that as a measure of pride and way too light.

There are many ways to say it in the Bible, and many themes – all focusing on the many facets of the gospel of course.

4.  Not enough illustrations or “windows.”

People can only take so much.  That’s not a complement, but that is reality.  They need to relax.  One of the ways you can tell they are not listening anymore is that they are not listening anymore!  They are looking other directions, checking the bulletin, or just wincing as it seems you are taking a long time.

They need a window.  A break.  A lighter moment perhaps, or at least a story.

And that’s where we bend to the consumer, as someone put it.  Indeed.  In the same way that we wouldn’t go to a foreign country and not try to communicate according to their habits, we cannot do that here in a world of television and media and action.

It’s rather amazing that people sit for a half hour or 45 minutes or whatever to listen to someone tell them how to live!  That’s one of the beauties of God’s Word and His Spirit.  But they need to be drawn back with a story or an illustration.

I joke (but half mean it) when I say that sometimes if we just say, “The other day…” we will see many eyes look up and come back to us from wandering.

I’m not talking about long, boring illustrations of course.  Or stories that always have magical endings.  But even a quick window or an illustration from another part of the Bible or from normal daily life – even those can be a good catch of the listener.

3.  Too little passion or emotion.

Okay, we are all different.  Some people show dramatic emotion when they see a sunset or enjoy a rich dessert.  Others just stare.  But that is no excuse for a bland sermon after which people might just say, “Okay.”

Instead our presentation of the truth of our eternal and loving Creator should raise the roof on our desire to communicate what God is saying in the text.  It is eternally important and life-changing.

Our love for this and commitment to it will show.  While our personalities differ, our strong convictions will come through.

If a sermon is just a matter-of-fact lecture, on par with a math lesson, that is a mistake.

Peter, a man of passion indeed, wrote to us by inspiration of God the Spirit: “If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God” (I Peter 4:11).

That is what the scriptures are, and it will show when we speak it.

It is a costly mistake if not.

2. Not enough application to real life.

Sometimes our words in a sermon are heard like I would hear someone talking in computer language or about life on another planet.  It can be big theological terms that some do not understand.  It is important to believe in substitutionary atonement, but we do not have to say it that way.  It seems essential to warn our people that the return of our Lord is imminent, but that word might just bounce off of them and do no good.

The other way the pulpit can distance itself from the pew is to use glittering generalities and rosy promises of God’s blessing and peace.  And the listeners are thinking that it does not work that wonderfully for them, or asking, in their heads, where this speaker has been.

Related to that, I can never figure out how listeners swallow the health-and-wealth promises of some unless they are just hoping for themselves and are out of touch with the bad news of many countries and sections of their own cities.  And the two in the next pew who just finished another treatment of chemo to try to combat cancer.

The faithful in the Bible and in life today often suffer.  Paul the apostle did.  Jesus did.  Life is hard.

I was taught by some when I was young that unbelievers were lonely and unhappy, and then I ran around with some of them in high school, and they were having a good time.   A few told me that if I trusted God and did what was right, He would give me true joy and show His strong arm to me.  And then my teenaged sister died in a tragedy and my mother fell to cancer.

Real-life promises are throughout the Bible, but they are more about God’s strength in trouble, and His sovereignty in all events, and His ultimate triumph.

Let’s keep it real.

And finally, and most serious in this pastor’s mind:

1. Supposition rather than exposition.

“Preach the Word,” is a clear command for all of us.  “The Word” as opposed to what some new books on preaching may advise.

Our ideas or creative suggestions are just that, and should be welcomed by our listeners.  But the primary focus is to be God’s gracious and true Word for our lives.

God’s Word is the Bible.  We are staying with that central doctrine.  It is sure.  Jesus believed every jot and tittle, or every single word of the Word.

When we leave that, it is every man for himself, and that’s the way our theology looks at times!  Instead it should be every one of us for the Scriptures.

In addition to the reminder about honest and industrious digging into the text, with a careful hermeneutic honoring the setting it is in, here are some lighter but important (in my opinion) suggestions to help emphasize the Scriptures:

• Hold it up.  Not all the time, but sometimes so listeners see where you are getting this.  Some may not know the verse you just quoted is in the Bible.
• Point to it.  This simply calls attention to it.
• Instead of reading four or more verses in a row, look up after two or three and call attention to the next verse: “Now, what the apostle says next…”

Attention span is so weak.  Some people literally never read that much in sequence.