For some reason I have ended up in conversations with people about what makes a sermon great and what makes them sink like a brick. Giving a sermon is very much like giving birth. It takes months of planning, building, creating, because deep inside of you is this thing that is alive and growing and if you don’t get it out soon you feel like you will explode (and it makes you crave weird foods).  And then on Sunday mornings we get the chance to stand up and deliver this thing that has been eating at us for so long.  All that preparation and praying and dreaming about what will happen finally comes out and here is this thing that is cute, adorable, and poops a lot.

But sometimes sermons aren’t amazing, coherent, complete, organized, and just sink.  And after all these recent conversations and my observing sermons from other pastors and my own sermons I think I know why.

Urgency. 

If our message that we have and that we have crafted is truly a gift from God then delivering it should be the single most important thing we give to our congregation.  Delivering it should make us feel alive, animated, and exhilarated because we are bringing life into this dark world.  It should be impossible to stand still because at that moment that sermon is the most important thing that this congregation needs to hear.

When a pastor does not believe their words carry urgency we hear things like “that was boring,” “it seemed flat.” We will also see things like the pastor stopping to arrange papers, yawning, etc…

If your sermon is boring to you everyone else finds it boring.

Urgency can’t be faked.  You just sounded like you have had too much coffee.

Urgency can’t be practiced.  You just sound like you are reading your sermon.

Urgency can only be embraced. Do you believe that by simply preaching about Jesus that the world can be changed? It can! Does the world need Jesus? Can you give it to them?  Embrace the fact that these words that God has given to you can change the world.   When you realize that, your sermons become transformed because they have a new and profound sense of urgency to this world.

It doesn’t matter what you are preaching on, if it isn’t the most important thing for you to say and others to hear then it will fall apart.

Think of the best sermons you have ever heard. They were good because the preacher believe what they were saying mattered for the world.

So then, go preach like it matters. It does!

Filed under:
Church Thoughts, Pastoral Life, Sermon by RevBT