Filling the Sermon with Interest
Stuart Briscoe
There's no problem with the Scriptures. They're relevant. But I have to do my part to make the sermon as relevant as the Scriptures, because I want people to leave saying, "I see!" and not "So what?"
— Stuart Briscoe
Gerald Griffith, a pastor and Bible teacher in Toronto and my good friend, one day said to me, "Every week God gives me bread for his people."
I looked him straight in the eye and replied, "That's true, but you spend a lot of time in the kitchen!"
He had to agree. Those hours "in the kitchen" are among the most important of my week. Why? Because in the kitchen I prepare what God gives me to feed his people. And they can be picky eaters.
People are distracted by all kinds of things—legitimate things, for the most part, but sometimes not.
Pain fills a lot of hearts. People are unhappy at work. Or their homes are less than ideal. Or they feel great economic stress. Or they strain under the demands of a job. When troubled people come to church, their thoughts suppress the appetite for God's menu. My job as a preacher is to overwhelm the careworn with the aroma of the gospel.
So when I preach, I'm continually thinking. How am I going to hold and use the attention so tenuously lent me? I don't have it long. When I listen in on conversations in the church foyer any Sunday, I'm amazed at how quickly thoughts skirt from divine worship to talk about the Bucks and the Brewers, or making a buck and what's brewing in politics. So one of my major responsibilities of the week is to grab their attention with the sermon.
Consequently, I pass my sermon material through what I call the "So what?" test for relevance. There's no problem with the Scriptures. They're relevant. But I have to do my part to make the sermon as relevant as the ...
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