Expository Preaching Blog #46 – “It’s What You Don’t Know!”

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How does a preacher/pastor choose what he is going to preach on, on any given Sunday? How does a preacher/teacher decide what he is going to preach or teach in any given service? I believe that the preacher tries to figure out what the needs are of his congregation. He tries to know what would be the most beneficial for his hears. He might try to determine what is most needed in society at that time. I would think that way when I was pastoring. I was never very successful at it.

Frankly 99% of the time I never knew what my congregation really needed. I certainly did not know what individuals needed. Yes I knew the members of my church and they knew me. But I did not have a look into their day to day lives minute by minute. I would often learn later of things going on in their lives that I did not have a clue about. I know that now especially as one sitting in the pew. The preacher has no idea what is going on in my life day by day. It is impossible for him to know. It was impossible for me to know as a pastor. That is why I am such a supporter of expository preaching. I don’t know what my people need. But God does!

When you are an expository preacher you also have to be a strong believer in the Holy Spirit. You have to preach the Bible verse by verse and thought by thought and then you have to trust God to do the rest through the Holy Spirit. I once had a lady say to me going out the door of the church, “That was just what I needed today!” She told me briefly the struggle she was wrestling with. Frankly that is not what my sermon that day was about at all. But God through the scriptures and the Holy Spirit met a need in her individual life. I saw people get saved when that wasn’t my main focus that day. Although I always give the gospel and a gospel invitation.

I have sat in many services that were topical messages from the creativity of the preacher and taken from his words not God’s Word. Oh yes he used Bible verses but they were only to prove his point, not to explain God’s point. I have hear sermons on expectations, peace, how to be a good Christian, etc. They were man’s devises not God’s. They were so foreign to my life at the time that I felt that an hour of my life was wasted and I would never get it back. Sometimes it was beating the same old dead horse. Do this and do that. Things that I had known for over 50 years and were elemental understanding at best. I heard a guest preacher lately say that he spent 15 minutes at the beginning of the sermon talking about a certain subject just to fill the time. What a waste of a great opportunity to preach God’s Word.

I don’t know what is going on in people’s lives. I don’t know what God is doing in my community or in the world at large. I do know the Bible. I do know how to preach it. That is all that I really know how to do. I do know that Holy Spirit and I have seen Him do miraculous things in people’s lives over and over. That is why I do what I do. Why would I do anything else?

 

Rev. David Johnson

Former Pastor

First Baptist Church of Austin, MN

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