Walk into each sermon with the assumption that God has already written the sermon for you, and you merely need to follow the text. A text-driven sermon will eventually take both the preacher and the congregation to the foot of the cross, or else it is merely empty speech.

No preacher should expect to hit a walk-off home run every Sunday. It is realistic, however, for us to avoid fouling out any Sunday.

As I was reading through the sermon notes of a sermon I preached several years ago, I realized that sermon stunk so bad it was unpreachable. I even considered sending an apology and refund to that church! It took a while, but I completely overhauled that sermon before I got up to preach it again.

To help you avoid preparing and preaching stinky sermons, I have provided a short list of common marks of a stinky sermon.

Our Sermons Stink When We Try to Impress with Our Wit

I have preached about 4500 times, and frankly, some of those sermons stunk. I’m not talking just about the quality of delivery, but the content of the sermon itself.

Sermons get their fire from the Spirit and Word of God, not a fired-up preacher. I love to make people laugh, but will sometimes distract people in doing so.

My speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of wisdom but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not be based on human wisdom but on God’s power.
1 Corinthians 2:3-5

Our Sermons Stink When We Don’t Make Jesus the Hero

Sometimes my sermons stunk because I did not carefully or correctly handle the Word of God. There are times when I have cared more about my delivery than my deliverer.

Be diligent to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who doesn’t need to be ashamed, correctly teaching the word of truth.
2 Timothy 2:15

Walk into each sermon with the assumption that God has already written the sermon for you, and you merely need to follow the text. A text-driven sermon will eventually take both the preacher and the congregation to the foot of the cross, or else it is merely empty speech.

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