“When you are sick of saying it, they are just now getting it.”
I’ve heard that maxim a few times and I’ve got to say I feel at a slight advantage in seeing it executed. Here is what I mean. I tend to preach through books of the Bible. I’ve been the pastor here at FBC Marionville since June. On day one I started a series in Mark. I’m in chapter 10 now. We’ve covered a variety of topics. Some themes repeat but I still don’t think I’ve had the opportunity to say something so many times that I’m getting sick of saying it.
Contrast this to the times whenever I’ve “preached what was on my heart”. That is code for, “I didn’t really get to prepare much and so I’m just going to preach what I’ve got”. I know what happens in these times—I preach on the topics I’m comfortable with and passionate about. These topics are my default mode. I’ll say them over and over and over again.
I’ve known preachers who give their congregation a steady diet of this type of preaching. If you sit under their preaching you are likely to hear about 5-10 things over and over and over again. But according to the above maxim the people will really get these 5-10 things. It will inevitably shape the culture.
But here I am slogging away preaching through books of the Bible trying to teach the whole counsel of God. I think it’ll take much longer to impact the culture. I could pick 5-10 things and say them over and over again and our people would get it much faster.
Yet, I remain confident that the best way to feed the sheep is to go about it book by book. I’m willing to do this because I believe there are some themes that will be shared over and over and over again as we go through the Scriptures. And I’m convinced that doing it this way will cause them to go deep. Ten years down the road I’m less concerned with people being able to name the 5-10 things I am really passionate about. I’d much rather ten years down the road our people be able to tell us what God is really passionate about. I want the stuff we say over and over again to be the stuff that God says over and over again.
I have to confess, though. I’m not sure I’ll get sick of the gospel or sharing the wonder and beauty of Jesus. I’m convinced, though, that if I go through each book of the Bible I’ll be speaking a whole lot of Gospel and whole lot of Jesus. God seems to be quite passionate about this message. And my aim is to know nothing but Christ and Him crucified. Hopefully I don’t ever get sick of saying that…
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