My pastor rebuked me yesterday.

We spent most of the phone conversation catching up. And we exchanged prayer requests for upcoming speaking engagements. Then Pas brought up an event I preached not too long ago. He told me he was proud of me. He also asked me about my observations of the event. I answered the same way I answer anyone who asks me about it.

“That’s not my crowd,” I said.

Pas interrupted me. He firmly told me that he did not ever want to hear me say that again. He knew what I meant by the statement. And he understood. The crowd to which I preached did not share my more conservative theological convictions. And there were things that happened in the service that I did not agree with.

He wasn’t finished.

I was not invited to prepare the order of service, he asserted. They invited me to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. If they had asked me not to preach Jesus, I would be obligated to decline the invitation. But if they actually invited me to talk about the cross of Jesus Christ, my singular focus should be on carrying out my assignment faithfully.

There was more.

Dad then reminded me that any group that needs to hear that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who came in the flesh, who lived a perfect life, died on the cross for our sins, and rose from the day with all authority is my crowd. If I am a herald of the gospel, any group that needs to hear the gospel is my crowd.

I stand corrected.

I claimed those who I preached to that night was not my crowd, because I think they were not used to my attempt to preach the scriptures in an expositional manner and did not receive me well. But that is not my business. It is not about how they received me. It is about whether I faithfully preached the blood and righteousness of Christ that the hearers might have an opportunity to receive him by faith.

May the Lord help me to stop focusing on how a congregation receives me and start focusing more on doing what I have been called to do.

Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching. – 2 Timothy 4:2 (ESV)

I stood, called my text, and began to preach. There was a weird response by the congregation. Something strange was happening, but I didn’t know what. I couldn’t catch the vibe. The congregation, to whom I had preached several times before, was tentative throughout the entire message. But I couldn’t figure out why.

After I sat down, it all became clear. Someone leaned over to me and told me the speaker who had opened the meeting several nights before preached the same text and/or message.

For some reason, this news made me nervous. At the same time, I was at peace. I had preached what I believed the Lord wanted me to say. And my message was the product of my Bible study and sermon preparation.

They gave me a copy of the other pastor’s message. When I got to my room, I crawled into bed with my computer and watched the message.

Indeed, it was the same text. And it was essentially the same message. We both preached the same doctrinal theme from the text. We organized the messages differently. We labeled the messages differently. I worked through the message with three main points in my outline. He had four. The homiletical approach was different. And the way we argued the message was different. It really was the same message preached from two different perspectives.

This got me to thinking about the ethical matter of pulpit plagiarism.

The late evangelist, Vance Havner, said when he began preaching he was determined to be original or nothing. He ended up being both, Havner said.

This is true of every preacher. All faithful preachers deliver an unoriginal, “stolen” message – the word of God. Biblical preaching simply explains what the word of God means by what it says. And if we read the text right, what we see will be pretty close to the conclusions drawn by other faithful Bible expositors.

In fact, if you come up with a reading of the text that no one else has ever seen, you’re wrong! Likewise, most Bible expositors use many of the same exegetical resources. So it should be no surprise for you to hear two messages that “overlap,” for lack of a better term.

But let’s be clear. Stealing other people’s material and preaching it as if it is your own work is wrong.

After the tragic shootings at Virginia Tech in 2007, a certain pastor preached a message he claimed the Lord had given him. Later that week, his local newspaper outed him, revealing the message was actually from a website that sells sermons. This “inspired” message had, in fact, been preached and posted by several other pastors across the country that same day!

I repeat. This is wrong. The eighth commandment should apply to our pulpit work: “You shall not steal” (Exodus 20:15).

This is not to say that we shouldn’t use sources. To the contrary, it is arrogant for you to study a text and preach a sermon on it without consulting the wisdom of those who have, in some instances, spent a lifetime studying those passages, books, or themes.

Milk a lot of cows. But churn your own butter.

When you do the hard work of personal study and sermon preparation, something wonderful can happen. For instance, you can stand and preach a text that was just preached in that same pulpit three days earlier. And you can make the point the previous sermon made. Yet, God can use your preaching – YOUR PREACHING – to declare the unchanging truth of God’s word in a fresh, new, and life-changing way.

Just my two cents. What do you think about pulpit plagiarism? Join the conversation in the comments section. 

One of my former professors preached for me one Sunday morning. As we chatted between services, he asked me about an upcoming speaking event announced in our newsletter. I was scheduled to speak the next five nights at a state convention meeting. It was a rare opportunity.

My professor and I joked about the challenges of preaching to preachers. Then the conversation turned. I admitted that, although I was grateful, honored, and excited about spending a week ministering to pastors and church leaders, I was very nervous.

Prof assured me that all would go well.

I agreed, because I had a strategy for overcoming my fears about the preaching setting. Or so I thought. (Warning: It is not wise to try to impress a former professor.)

I explained by telling him of the first time I preached before many preachers. I was just a boy preacher. But the experience was still vivid in my mind. It still is.

I was invited to preach the closing night of a citywide revival meeting. It was youth night. But I still had no business being the main speaker. Most of the other scheduled speakers had been preaching longer than I had been alive.

Before we drove to the event, my host gave me a piece of advice. “Don’t worry about the preachers in the room,” he counseled. “Just focus on the people in the pew as you preach.”

This advice would prove beneficial. When we arrived for the service, the first room we entered was filled with preachers. I dutifully went around the room shaking hands. Several pastors I greatly admired were present. As I greeted one and thank him for coming, he casually responded, “We came to see you die tonight.”

I was stunned.

When I entered the service, there he was, seated on the platform near my seat. I guess he was going to have the best seat in the house to witness this epic preaching disaster.

Fortunately, I didn’t “die.” I followed my host’s advice. I preached to the congregation, rather than trying to impress the preachers. And the Lord was gracious to help me.

This would be the approach I took at the upcoming convention meeting, I told prof.

“That’s a good thought,” he replied. “But I think about these kinds of events somewhat differently. When I stand to preach, I don’t focus on the preachers or the congregation. I just preach to an audience of one.”

This gracious rebuke tasted like bitter medicine. But it had a healing effect. And it is medicine I keep in my cabinet, as I am constantly in need of another dose.

Who is your target-audience when you stand to minister?

Of course, we inevitably minister to people when we preach and teach. But we must not do it for people. We are to live and serve for the glory of God, not to win the approval of man.

We should be like the young pianist who had his first recital. He played a song. The audience clapped enthusiastically. He played another song. They applauded again. But he kept playing. Another song. Then another. You see, he was not playing to win the applause of the crowd. He knew his teacher was sitting alone in the balcony. So he continued to play until his master applauded. His teacher’s approval was all that mattered.

Which audience are you playing for?

Dr. James Borror formally introduced me to homiletics at an upstart Bible college I attended in Anaheim. Professor Borror’s classes had an immediate and long-term influence on my life and ministry. In the succeeding years, he continued to mentor me by his godly example, wise advice, and faithful preaching.

I still have the handwritten notes I took in Dr. Borror’s classes more twenty years ago. But I don’t really need them. I remember so much of what he taught me, as though it was just yesterday.

But there is one word of counsel Dr. Borrow gave that has stuck with me most especially over the years. It was not about preaching, per se, as much as it was about the kind of men we should be as preachers. He challenged us to carry out our ministries as roots and not pipes.

Do you know the difference between a root and a pipe?

Water passes through a pipe without having any positive effect on the pipe. In fact, the water will begin to corrode the pipe over time. But as water passes through the roots of a plant or tree, the stronger the roots becomes.

So it is with those who proclaim the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ.

The first time an older preacher called me “a preaching machine,” I took it as a great compliment. I took him to mean that I was always ready to preach. In light of our charge to be ready in season and out of season (2 Tim. 4:2), I thought it was a cool thing to have said about your preaching.

But then I began to think about it another way. Machines carry out their work without any internal connection to what they do. They just do what they are programmed to do.

In that sense, the last thing a pastor should what to be is a preaching machine. The life of the preacher must not be disconnected from the message he preachers.

A key part of sermon preparation is the preparation of one’s own heart, not just the preparation of the sermon.

Our roots should go deep in communion with God as we minister to others. God forbid that we preach to others without allowing the word to rebuke, reprove, and exhort our own hearts.

So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.  – 1 Corinthians 9:26-27 (ESV)

What do you do to keep your roots strong? What do you do to resist becoming a lifeless pipe? Join the conversation in the comments section. 

The takeoff is arguably the most important part of the flight. Sprinters work to get a strong jump from the blocks to win the race. And the introduction is key to preaching a strong message.

I typically introduce my sermons in a traditional manner. I read the text first. I give the title of the sermon. Then I formally introduce the message. Others give the introduction before they read the text and state their title. Whichever way you begin your message, a strong introduction is essential, necessary, and beneficial.

Here are nine ways to get your sermon off to a good start.

Introduce something. Many homileticians encourage preachers to write the introduction last. I am not legalistic about things like this. I think you should write as it comes to you. Yet there is wisdom in not beginning with your introduction. Write out a complete sermon skeleton first. Establish the point, structure, and objectives of the message. Know what you are introducing before you write your introduction. Then make sure your introduction to the message actually introduces the message.

Place the text in its context. A text without a context is a pretext. So make sure to help listeners understand how your text fits into the progression of thought. Don’t drag them through a survey of the entire book. But help them to see how the text fits into the theme of the section. Explain the historical background and literary context. Avoid the temptation to blitz the congregation with exegetical data. But use the introduction to show how your text correlates with the larger theme of the related scriptures.

State the point of the message. There is an increasing popular style of preaching that holds the point of the message until the conclusion. But preachers should view this is a novelty that should not be regularly employed. If you are striving for faithful exposition, find the point of the text. Craft that point into a clear, direct, present tense statement. And state it in the introduction. Let the congregation know where you are going up front, even if you don’t tell them how you are going to get there.

Give an accurate forecast. Some preachers transition from the introduction by summarizing the body of the message. This is a good practice, even thought it can also be good to build suspense by revealing ideas as you go. Either way, the introduction should be an accurate forecast of where the sermon is headed. Don’t misrepresent the message. Don’t contradict yourself. And don’t oversell what you will deliver. It if is not on the shelves do not put it on the showcase.

Write it out. It is best to write out a complete sermon manuscript, whether you use it in the pulpit or not. But if you do not write out anything else, write your introduction. Word-for-word. Untangle your thoughts by writing them out. Strive for clarity. Know where you are going. Find the clearest way to the point and body of the message. Map out your way through the opening moments of the sermon. Establish the sermon is moving toward a purposeful destination with a clear and compelling introduction.

No dumping allowed. If you take your study seriously, you will inevitably have more material than you can preach in one sermon. What should you do with that additional material? Save it for another message. Do not stick it in the introduction. The introduction is not the place to dump information you cannot find a place for anywhere else. You want you’re introduction to be clean and tight and strong. Don’t undermine it by stuffing it with too much material. The body of the message should be filled with good meat. The introduction should be fat-free. So make sure everything in the introduction has a real purpose. Know why every sentence is there. Ruthlessly edit out whatever does not fit.

Know your audience. Effective preaching requires that you exegete your audience, as well as your text. Identify whom you will be preaching to. Then craft your introduction for your listeners. This is easier if you preach to the same congregation each week. If you are consistent, your congregation will give you the benefit of the doubt. But don’t take them for granted. Keep them on their toes by engaging them in the introduction. If you are preaching in an unfamiliar setting, it is all the most important to make a connection. Appeal to commonalities. And avoid unnecessary offense. Let the text offend, not your introduction.

Practice variety. Don’t start every sermon the same way. Be creative. Use different doors to get into the house. Tell a story. Raise a question. State a problem. Use a strong quote. Describe the background of the text. Do an object lesson. Try multimedia. Mix it up. Practice diversity. Change the way you come at them, especially if you preach to the same congregation each week. Practicing variety in the introduction is a simple but effective way to stay fresh in the pulpit

Keep it brief. This is key advice for preachers who strive to do exposition. You want to spend the bulk of your time explaining and applying the text. So get to the point quickly. Don’t ramble. Don’t waste words. Don’t loiter on the front porch. You can give a wrong signal by taking your time to tell a story, build suspense, or make an application, leaving limited time to deal with the text. Don’t cruise through the introduction and then rush through the body of the message. We are prone to say, “I wish I had more time to deal with this.” Give yourself more time by keeping your introduction brief.

What advice would you give on sermon introductions? Join the conversation in the comments section. 

Related Posts:

On Sermon Preparation 

On Writing Sermon Manuscripts

On Choosing Sermon Titles 

On Preaching Without Notes