Sermons

   Somebody asked me where I got all the sermons?  Immediately, I thought of a dozen quick, cute answers I could give, but the inquirer was serious in his asking, so I gave a little thought as to how I would respond.  My answer was that I have no one way to get sermons.  When I preaching through a book of the Bible, which is most of the time, I preach what is there in that text, taking whatever latitude of application the text will allow.  This is a great style of preaching for a pastor to his congregation, because the teaching of the Bible in the context that it is written.  Another method that I employ, is to take a particular subject and preach four or five sermons on that subject, attempting to take in what the Bible has to say about the subject.  This is a very effective teaching tool, as well.  In revival meetings, where the church has a good Bible teaching pastor, I tend to preach more topical sermons, where I take a random passage and apply it to present day life situations, with the idea of setting up a framework that the Holy Spirit will use to convict, convince, and convert the hearers.  As to the original question, of where I get the sermons, assuming that means the things I say about the text, the illustrations I use, etc, I get that from everywhere.   Sometimes it will be something in the newspaper, a book or periodical I have read, some incident that I observed, or any of life’s experiences.  I try to take care not to use the Bible as an excuse to talk about any of those things, but to carefully use those things to help people see themselves in relation to the Bible.