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“Hey Doc, I got a sermon, can you help me find a text so that I can preach it?” A young preacher asked me through email.
He was so excited. He immediately began to talk about his points. He had three of them. They built on each other. And then he had his celebrative sermonic close.
3 Complete and total points.
And a shouting celebration…
However, he was missing a key ingredient.
An ingredient that you must have if you are going to preach a sermon…
He was missing a text…
And so he asked me to help him find one…
But you know what…
If you ain’t got a text…
You ain’t got a sermon…
Let me say that again louder…
IF YOU AIN’T GOT A TEXT
YOU AIN’T GOT A SERMON
What is a sermon?
A sermon is the product of
struggle with…
interpretation of…
interaction with
a text of scripture.
But if you don’t have a text…
You couldn’t have done all of those things.
In fact you couldn’t have done any of these things.
I treaded lightly with my brother preacher, but I told him,
“You don’t get a text after you have a sermon,
You simply must get a text, and interact with that text,
The product of that interaction is your sermon.
He was a little sorrowful about how he wouldn’t be able to use the “Sermon” he had, but he thanked me for my time.
My sisters and brothers, when you preach and teach the scripture, always,
always,
Always,
lay out your interaction with that text.
Without a text, you might have a nice speech. It might be a powerful lecture on a subject. But if it ain’t got a text, it ain’t a sermon.
Let’s resolve to preach sermons.
To ensure that you have a deep interaction with the text, I created the Four Waves of Biblical Exegesis White-paper. Check it out and let me know what you think: https://gumroad.com/products/okfy
God Bless and Keep on Preaching,
Brother Sherman
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