Heard a good Sermon lately?

What do you think about our church Sunday Sermons? So so lah !

Can you remember last Sunday sermon? Probably can.

Like what? About growing up and babies thingy.

For many of our church-goers, Sunday sermons would probably be the only intake of the Word of God. So preaching the Word of God is extremely important and a high calling. Preachers must remember that people have a very low retention of the message. So, it is the onus of the preacher to make his message clear, simple and relevance to the hearers. Just what make a message click with the congregation?

(1) The title
This is the first thing the congregation will see in the bulletin before the preacher starts his sermon. The title must prepare the hearers and trigger them to want to know what the sermon is about. Title likes “Growing Up” is a good title, it reminds me that I need to grow up (spiritually) even before I hear his message. It is short (2 words) and easy to remember (not hard difficult pronunciation words with unknown meaning). Title like “Donkey work & Excess Baggage” only reminds me of a rubbish collector at the airport check-in counter! I don’t know about you, but that was what I imagined when I read the title of the sermon. Clearly, such title has no bearing to his message at all, after hearing the sermon. Perhaps a better title would be "How God chooses leaders". Try re-writing a title if the title doesn't sound suitable.

What about sermon without a title?

It just shows that the preacher is not prepared at all!! He doesn’t know what to let the congregation focus his message on. If you encounter sermons without a title (which happens once in a while), challenge yourself to give a title after you had heard the sermon. Titles must be short and easy to remember. Title should tell you what the message is all about and also trigger you to act on the message. Sometime a question can be a good title, which I use quite often.

(2) Sermon Outline
All good preachers have a sermon outline. Excellent preacher prints it out for the hearers. This is the skeleton of the sermon, without which the sermon cannot stand. It just collapse and the congregation will find it difficult to follow. I always give my sermon outline to the congregation, but sometime it does not appear in the bulletin (to my dismay). Sermon outline must be easy to remember. If there is no sermon outline, try to write it out yourself as you hear the sermon. Good sermon hearers write good sermon notes. During my student days, one of the hallmark of a first class honour engineering student is good note-taking. Train yourself to do this and you will one day progress to be an excellent Bible student, teacher and preacher.

(3) Illustrations
Illustrations are windows to the sermons. They give light and illuminate the message so that hearers can understand what is preached. Most often, it is the illustrations that linger with the hearer long after the sermon is forgotten.

(4) Applications
All preachers must tell the hearers what to do after hearing his sermon. They must build a bridge (from the text) to make the sermon relevance to hearers (in their 21st century circumstances). Do make an application after each sermon. For me after hearing “Growing Up”, my application is to continue writing on this blog to help those interested how to grow up. I actually wanted to give up on this blog already!

Remember to reflect on the sermon throughout the week!

Can you remember the previous Sunday sermon? Wow! Difficult lah.

Can you remember the 4 points of hearing a sermon? Title; Sermon Outline; Illustrations; Applications.

Great!!

Jas 1:22 (NSRV) " But be doers of the Word, not merely hearer who deceives themselves"

Mark Lim