Next level preachers let the lion loose.
Next level preachers let the lion loose.
Note: For the next several weeks I am going to talk about a specific kind of communication called preaching. I’m well aware there are many of you who subscribe to this email who are not preachers, and may not even be followers of Jesus. While you’ll still be able to glean some communication principles, these lessons should also help you know what to expect from a church.
Legendary football coach, Vince Lombardi (whom the Superbowl trophy is named after), would always begin each season the same way. He would gather his team, take a football and while showing it to his team would say, “Gentlemen, this is a football.” He would go on to say no matter how great their schemes may be, or how dominant their players, or how brilliant the coaching staff, none of that meant anything if they did not take care of the football. The best players, coaches and plans come to nothing if they do not take care of the football.
The same is true for preachers and our bibles. Just like a running back or wide receiver must secure the football by holding it tightly, the first, second and last job of proclaimers of God’s Word is to grip the scriptures, because that’s where the power lies. It’s the bible, not our outline, stories or insights, that is, “living and active” (Hebrews 4:12). It’s the bible, and not books about the bible, that is God breathed (2 Timothy 3:16). Charles Spurgeon was an English pastor in the nineteenth century, who said, “The Word of God is like a lion. You don’t have to defend a lion. All you have to do is let the lion loose, and the lion will defend itself.”
I’m seeing a disturbing trend among so many preachers today- they have wandered away from centering God’s Word. A disproportionate amount of the “sermon,” is spent on application, which centers people, or on illustrations. To be frank, it feels as if preachers are following the winds of culture where many use the half hour or so sounding more like therapists, than preachers. The felt needs of people have replaced the real need of the gospel. Everyone is broken, and what is needed is not a pep talk, or a therapy session, but to be shown how the living, active, God-breathed scriptures speak to my brokenness and point me to the only one who can fix it, which is Jesus. When the preacher centers the audience or themselves, thus replacing God, they may grow in popularity, and even in numbers, but will lose power. The question every preacher must answer, every day, is do we want to be famous or faithful?
So how do we let the lion of the scriptures loose? That’s an easy answer- through the exposition of the text. All this means is we explain what the passage means. Bryan Chapell defines expository sermons as those where the meaning of the passage becomes the message of the sermon (See Nehemiah 8:5-8; Luke 24:27, 32). Expository preaching is:
NOT an information dump. Sadly, this has been the knock on this kind of preaching, where many preachers want to display their degrees, and not God’s glory. A part of what it means to explain the meaning of the text, is we do it in a way where the audience can grab a hold of it and apply it to their lives. Remember, Paul tells Timothy, “All Scripture is…profitable.” if your congregation doesn’t know what to do with what you just said, then you didn’t exposit the text.
NOT boring. A boring preacher should have their ordination revoked. Okay, I’ve overstated a touch. Was Jesus boring? Not at all. He used analogies and illustrations and stories to explain deep truths of the kingdom in ways which made sense to his audience. A text may appear lifeless, but it’s not. Remember, “All Scripture is God-breathed,” which means there’s life in it, and our job is to display the life of a text.
NOT easy. Preaching which centers the audience or the preacher is lazy preaching. I don’t need to take a deep dive into the text, and sweat in my study to pull this kind of “preaching” off. All I need to do is scroll through Instagram, or watch a few television shows, and I’ve got it. But here’s what we know- life’s most worthwhile things are never easy.
Why don’t we end by grabbing our bibles, like Coach Lombardi grabbed the football, and renew your promise as a preacher to hold the text tightly, and let the lion loose.
