The pastor needs to once again humble himself before the cross, see where Christ is proclaimed within the passages, and rejoice in the Word of God. The pastor needs to truly feel the passion of the truth he is about to speak. It needs to be internalized, drive him forward, and spill out over the congregation.

Here I am. I’m staring at my manuscript for the sermon I am supposed to preach tomorrow and I am just not feeling it. It happens every so often, especially when you are preaching through a book of the bible. You come across a passage and struggle to get excited about it. It is not because it is a tricky passage, those can present a challenge and make you work. It is not because the passage doesn’t have anything valuable to say, all passages have some we need to hear. Which means it really isn’t so much about the passage as it is about you.

This struggle can catch a preacher at almost any time during his sermon prep. Maybe it hits at the beginning of the week as they are examining the passage. The preacher examines and studies yet just doesn’t feel thrilled about what is being said. And of course, guilt can naturally come because, what kind of preacher is not thrilled with the Word of God? But at the start of the process the preacher has time to internalize the passage, pray through it, do all the exegetical work, and hopefully through that whole process, gain excitement from God is telling them and what they have to tell their congregation. Yet sometimes this lack of enthusiasm can hit the pastor as he is going over his manuscript. He all of the sudden realizes that he is just not that excited about what he has written. And if he is honest, I bet that sense has been there since the beginning of his sermon prep.

Whenever this feeling of not being excited about the forthcoming sermon hits, it needs to be addressed. It needs to be addressed because a pastor or preacher not being excited about preaching on a passage is not an indication that there is something lacking in that particular passage. It is an indication that there is something off within that particular pastor. The pastor needs to once again humble himself before the cross, see where Christ is proclaimed within the passages, and rejoice in the Word of God. The pastor needs to truly feel the passion of the truth he is about to speak. It needs to be internalized, drive him forward, and spill out over the congregation.

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