Ineffective preaching (Part I)

Most preaching is ineffective.

Most preaching does little to bring people closer to God; which should be the aim of every sermon. Every sermon should draw people closer to the love of God and impute greater faith into the listeners.

Are you preaching something that will affect a permanent change in the behaviors of your listeners? Are you moving their hearts?

All communication, and especially preaching is not a head-to-head information transfer, but a heart-to-heart impartation in the spirit.

The sermons about ..” We should love God more.” ” We should be better Christians!” ” We should praise people more.”

Do you think that actually makes a real difference in people\’s lives? Of course we want to love God more! Of course we want to be great Christians! Of course we want to praise people whenever we feel!

Why do you think after 100 sermons, that nothing of that sort seems to be taking fruit in our lives?

You see, we’re missing something when we preach sermons like that. We miss the mark. We miss hitting the heart of people who are listening. You would think by this time, 100 sermons later, that we’ve already been perfected, but don’t we wonder why things aren’t they’re supposed to be?

I just want to introduce 2 things that will change the way you preach forever.

1. Our preaching should come from the heart
2. All our preaching should achieve only one thing: Bring people want to draw closer to God.

1. Preaching should come from the heart.

I’ve seen people who preach from other people\’s notes. To preach a sermon, they basically cut and paste what another preacher says into their own sermon and read off the points

They don’t own it.

And it’s very obvious.

I had a friend who was preaching about evangelism; mind you, he was trying to preach a strong message across, but I was unashamedly trying to stifle my laughter in my corner. Ha..

The thing is, he isn’t the serious type. He’s the type of guy that makes you laugh usually. That’s why when he preached the message of fire and brimstone, I couldn’t help laughing quietly ( though alot of people saw me).

When he asked me later on about how he preached (not because he was hurt by my laughter, he just simply wanted some feedback); I told him this simply: The message isn’t yours.

“You didn’t preach from your heart. I could tell. There was no power in your preaching to draw conviction. You need to preach something that’s truly in your heart, my brother.”

He concurred. He knew it himself too.

When your preaching is taken from some online sermon or from another preacher or something and you fully believe in the message, it shows.

It’s obvious because like I said, all communication, especially preaching is a heart-to-heart impartation.

I’ve seen someone preach about encouragement before, but that person, off the air, doesn’t encourage people. I basically shut my heart throughout the whole sermon. There was simply no power in what she was saying; she was just reading off the notes.

How can preaching like that change hearts? Never.

Worse still: This goes under the category of hypocrisy. To NOT practice what you preach. It’s horrible, especially in the eyes of Jesus. Look how he treated the hypocritical Pharisees.

I strongly believe that any preacher should prepare his/her own sermons and get the revelation directly from God.

That’s when it will burn strongly in your heart, and translate to powerful preaching!

People will catch the same fire that’s burning. And that’s how preaching truly be effective.