I believe it is absolutely vital that the Spirit of God direct the church. I want the Lord to set the agenda and not myself or anyone else. I believe going through books at a time will do this. No matter how much I think I know a text and what I’ll be preaching on for the next few months, I’m always surprised. Furthermore, I am not omniscient. I don’t know what particular issues our church will be facing in the next 3-6 months. But God does. 

“I don’t want to preach that, Lord”.

I’ve found myself saying those words a handful of times as I’ve looked at the text to preach for that particular week.

I’m not speaking of that wrestling match that preachers talk about when they are trying to say that this “word they got from the Lord” isn’t their opinion but it came straight from the mouth of God. That’s a handy way to manipulate, remove yourself from any critique, and get what you want whilst blaming Jesus. I’m not talking about that type of “I don’t want to preach this”.

The type of wrestling to which I’m referring happens when you are dedicated to expository verse by verse preaching and the text for that week is one you’d rather not preach. This has happened to me a few times when the text hit a little too close to home, or I knew it would be potentially controversial. I’d rather preach something different. But I don’t.

Why do I do this?

I believe it is absolutely vital that the Spirit of God direct the church. I want the Lord to set the agenda and not myself or anyone else. I believe going through books at a time will do this. No matter how much I think I know a text and what I’ll be preaching on for the next few months, I’m always surprised. Furthermore, I am not omniscient. I don’t know what particular issues our church will be facing in the next 3-6 months. But God does. And when we pick a book of Scripture we’re ensuring that God’s Word is setting the agenda and not our calendars, our concerns, and our pet projects.

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