You are called to a daunting mission. Who has called you? What is the intimidating task at hand? God has called you to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ. Paul, the great apostle, missionary and preacher asked the Corinthians a revealing question in 2 Corinthians 2:16 concerning this inconceivable task: "Who is sufficient for these things?"
The call to preach includes the call to prepare biblical messages. This article is designed to guide you through this challenging quest; but first, I have a confession to make. Although I had preached weekly for 12 years (during which time I graduated from Bible College and Seminary), I didn't understand sermon preparation as I should. I have no one to blame but myself. Nonetheless, the Lord led me to study homiletics at the doctoral level with a focus upon preparing laymen to preach. It was during this period of time, culminating with the writing of my dissertation titled "Developments and Evaluation of a Sermon Preparation and Delivery Class for Laymen," that I finally could say, "Eureka." My sincere prayer is that whether you're a novice or experienced preacher that the following information will enable you to say, "I have found it."
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The acronym F.I.R.E. stands for familiarity, interpretation, relationship and employment. These four steps are essential to the sermon preparation process. There is another "fire" that first must be discussed without which no sermon sizzles. This fire is what kindles the F.I.R.E. of sermon preparation. It consists of the powerful influence of the Holy Spirit guiding God's servant through the preparation operation.
Interestingly, there has been much interaction about the ministry of the Holy Spirit in sermon proclamation. Sadly the same cannot be said of the preparation stage. It is the author's contention that the Holy Spirit who guided the biblical writers to pen God's Word without error is as essential to sermon preparation as to sermon delivery.
Before Jesus proclaimed God's Word in
Luke 4:16-19, Luke informs us that Jesus was filled with and led by God's Holy Spirit (
Luke 4:1) and that upon His arrival to Galilee (
Luke 4:14) from the wilderness, He "returned in the power of the Spirit." All of this occurred before Jesus quoted
Isaiah 61 during His preaching when He said, "The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor" (
Luke 4:18).
This power was not limited to our Lord. During a time of persecution, the early church gathered for prayer.
Acts 4:31 says, "And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness." It is imperative that the servant of God humbly seeks the Holy Spirit's illumination by prayer throughout the F.I.R.E. stage of sermon preparation.
