Having now preached two sermons, I'm thinking it all over.
That's the thing though isn't it? You always learn from your mistakes after you make them, not before.
- Be yourself. I listened to a bunch of C.J. Mahaney sermons the prior days before I preached. When I practiced my sermon I occasionally sounded like him. The influence of others can supersede who Christ has made you to be. Do not let that happen. Moses was not Aaron and Aaron was not Moses.
- The introduction. It's so much easier to preach open-air than in a pulpit. From my experience, the introduction is without a doubt the hardest for me to do. All simply because I do not have someone I'm dialoguing with. This is what I need to work on.
- Christ is THE point of every text. My first sermon felt to me as if it was more of a moralistic exhortation whereas this felt like I was leading people to worship Christ with me. I will not stand up and teach, but I will stand up there and glorify Jesus Christ because that is why we gather.
- Ethos is more important than Logos and Pathos. I'm not a natural at preaching. I'm not a Spurgeon, Whitefield, Calvin, or Edwards. But, people know me. They know my struggles, they know who I am, and they look at my life when they hear me speak. See, you can have all the logical arguments logos and all the emotional pleas pathos but if you don't have their respect because of how you live Ethos. If you don't live "above reproach" then it doesn't really matter. As preachers we must walk the talk or we walk the plank.
- Passion. We are not in a mortuary or a prison. We are gathered together so that we can lift our worship up to him through our gifts. We all have different gifts, we are all different parts of the body. It's amazing to see a well-trained, on a mission athlete speeding down a course. The most memorable part of the last summer Olympics was a man nicknamed "bolt" who broke records. Let's run this race, not look back, not give up, and may the world wonder.
- 3 application in the conclusion. I did not think through the conclusion much, another thing I wish I had done better. Pulled this from the lecture series I'll mention later. "The three people you're applying the text to are A.) Non-Christians B.) Young Christians C.) Mature Christians" Very true. I need to put this into action next time.
- Preach as though there are non-Christians in the front row. This is something I wished I had thought through before preaching this sermon. The average non-Christian does not automatically assume that God is angry at their sin. The average non-Christian believes that "A loving God would not send people to Hell." The good news is for sinners so they may become Christians and for Christians so they may live out the implications of the good news. What Tim Keller and Edmund Clowney said in their excellent lecture series: "Preaching Christ in a postmodern world" is that we must
- A.) Affirm the good things in a non-Christian's objection like love, justice, and honesty
- B.) Show how only the gospel can truly allow those things to happen and their worldview actually prevents a realization of those things
- C.) Proclaim the good news to them so they may have life abundantly.
Just a few thoughts and reflections.
all for now,
Logan