Lots of pastors preach through books of the Bible verse by verse, thus alleviating the “What shall I preach about this week?” conundrum. That’s how I was taught to do it in seminary. That’s not how I do it. At least, not right now.
I do take the task of excavating the message that God wants to bring to Elevation Church every Sunday very seriously. I have a general preaching schedule that projects the content of my messages for the next 9 months. (God often interrupts this schedule. More often than I’d prefer.)
There’s nothing haphazard about my preparation process. By the time I preach a message, I’ve studied on it and worked on it and prayed about it for weeks, at least. Sometimes, for months.
Yet I find myself on many Saturdays still searching for the elusive it. I can’t substantiate this with chapter and verse, and I’m not saying it’s like this for everyone.
But I believe there’s a specific and urgent thing-I’m calling this the it-that God intends for me to say to the people every Sunday. I can’t just pick a text and roll with it. Yes, all Scripture is God breathed, and yes, God will always bless His Word. Nevertheless, there’s an it factor to the selection of a message that is hard to explain.
And some weeks I have to dig harder than others to discern what it is. Every once in a while it feels like I’m digging clear to China to get to the heart of the message and lift it out for everyone to see.
When you find it, and you know you’ve got a Word from the Word, you can hardly sleep Saturday night. It quite literally consumes you.
When you’re preaching it, and you know you’re all over it, there’s nothing like it.
Searching for it is the most frustrating part of every week for me.
Discovering and delivering it is the most satisfying sensation I’ve ever experienced.
Before you can preach it, you’ve got to find it.
And when you find it, watch out.
It’s more powerful than you could ever imagine.