Note this first step takes place before we preach. In fact, it should come at the beginning of our preparation. We cannot build the sermon without being clear on what the heart of the message should be.

Identify a puzzle in life

 

Once we know what we want to communicate, we need to identify a puzzle or problem in life that this biblical idea solves. In preparing the sermon, we are playing the game of Jeopardy. That is, we’re looking for the question for which this passage is the answer. In particular, we’re looking for a puzzle that hits home in people’s lives, one that perhaps has kept them awake at night or that gives them indigestion when they think of it.

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Like the leaf in the middle of the trail, the more surprising and intriguing the puzzle, the more engaged they’ll become. Or like the slippery slope, the more poignantly they feel that instability, the more actively they’ll be searching for a solution.

So given the idea that, “What humbles us can unleash God’s power in our lives,” what is the puzzle? One approach would be to highlight the idea of unanswered prayer as described above. People have longstanding issues in their lives that they’ve been praying God would resolve. Perhaps it is a longstanding health problem. Perhaps it is depression, great disappointment, regret, or grief. Perhaps it is a relationship that isn’t what it should be.

Whatever the issue, we pray and we pray. We long for resolution, but often we continue to live with the problem. It may even get worse. The more time that goes by, the weaker our faith becomes. We get discouraged and we begin to lose hope. We wonder, “Why doesn’t God answer our prayer? He said He would. Does He not care about me? Do I not matter? Is it foolish to continue to hope He will help me?”

Once you’ve identified this puzzle, you’ve essentially written the introduction to your sermon. It engages your listeners, setting them up for the answer that the passage presents.

Determine how the passages solves the puzzle

 

Once your listeners are engaged in this puzzle, they will be motivated to solve it. They will be sitting on the edge of their seats to hear what you have to say. Many of them are living in that puzzle even as you speak. Now you have the joy to help them see how the passage you’re considering solves that puzzle.

You can point out Paul lived in this exact same puzzle. He repeatedly begged God to remove this problem and God did not. Then the puzzle was resolved for Paul, not by removing the problem but by changing how he thought about it. The light was turned on and He had peace. It all made sense. What was that solution?

It is at this point that you can introduce the idea of the passage: What humbles us unleashes the power of God in our lives. God’s power is made perfect in weakness. In contrast, God’s power is not known in human strength. The power of Christ rests on us when we are in the midst of our weakness! “For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

This solution to the puzzle brings satisfaction to our curiosity, but it also brings health to our souls as we humble ourselves before God to find His strength. So how do we preach so our listeners are highly motivated to learn? According to Peirce, internally-motivated learning begins with a puzzle. When people see and experience something that causes them to wrestle with an idea or situation in life, they naturally begin the process of searching for a solution.

A sermon that begins with a powerful puzzle is one that draws people naturally to the desire to hear what comes next and to understand how it all fits together. People are convinced the world should make sense. They want to believe God is good and can be trusted even in the midst of a confusing world. So when you highlight the puzzle and suggest the Bible contains a solution to that puzzle, they’ll gladly listen.

We then have the joy of solving that puzzle with the truth of the Bible! As we do this, people gladly will join us for the journey through the text, and when they next encounter this puzzle in life, God’s truth will shape their response.