About Preaching God's Word

Sons,

Here is something about preaching I learned, and I think you should know.

A Theme
Every sermon should have a clear message, a theme. What we want to say.
A sermon is not worth preaching if the preacher is uncertain what he wants to say to audience, in one sentence.

A Goal
Related but not identical with what I mean by a theme, a goal or purpose is why you want to say what you are saying. Or put it in another way, what you wish the Holy Spirit to accomplish through your preaching. A same theme will have two different way of delivery if the purpose of delivering it is different.

The Source of the Message
Needless to say, but easily be tempted to ignore, the message must be Biblical.
It is sad that these days in your dad's generation, many sermons I heard are based on stories and theories from various sources, including secular, myth, atheist, psycologist, religions, and philosophers. Your dad called it 'Chicken Soup preaching'. We as preachers should hold on to this two convictions: The sufficiency of the Scripture, and the power of the Scripture. Holy Spirit does not bring true conviction with stories but by His own Word.

Expository Preaching
In order to avoid the temptation of Chicken Soup preaching and based our sermon in something else, your dad advocate expository preaching. Put it simply, it is expounding the Scripture, let the listeners understand what God says in Scripture, and help them apply it in their lives through illustration, exhortation, challenge, comfort and rebuke (with love and sorrows).

Remember sons, people need God's Word (although they may not realize). It is God's Word that changes lives. Let us humbly hide ourselves behind His Words so that people can see the Lord of the Scripture, not the preacher who put himself upfront and obscure what the Bible has to say.