A Word Never Forgotten

When I first started preaching as a greenhorm seminary graduate, I would get in the pulpit on Sunday morning and preach forever.  However, when I finished and looked at my watch, only ten minutes had passed.  Of course, none of my folks complained, but it seemed to the preacher that something was surely missing.  By the time I ended up at my last pastorate some forty years later I must have had it figured out as sermons were more in the thirty minute range and folks were leaving around 12:15.  There were, of course, some folks who complained, but I aways told them all preaching after noon was free.     

In the beginning I was preaching traditional three point sermons and by the end I had decided to choose one point and hammer it home.  In the beginning I preached as if each sermon was my last one and I had to say it all or it would not be said, but by the end I had learned that I would never say it all and saying one thing well might be good enough on most Sundays.  I suppose it is true of most preachers that their preaching changes over the years of their preaching, or at least such was my experience.   

But, one of the things which did not change was the desire to preach the text.  My preaching professor at seminary hammered this theme home to all of us would be preachers.  It is the text which is important in the sermon.  It is the text which speaks.  If it is not allowed to speak, the preacher can preach ten minutes or thirty and still end up sounding like a lot of hot air.  As the prof used to say, "People don't come to church to hear what you think, they come to hear the Word of God.  Be sure you preach it!"