Study Before Stealing

I feel a bit embarrassed to write this post. It's a bit of a confession, and I feel like I'm stating obvious stuff which people have been stating for years.

Preaching is most powerful when you simply study and preach the text.

I've been preaching/teaching for about 6 years now. However, during the first five years the longest I preached week to week in a single location was 12 weeks. Since coming to my current church, I've had to preach every week for the last 75 weeks, and since I'm in charge of the middle and high school, I frequently have to prepare two messages. Of course, like every other pastor, I do far more than simply teach.

So like most others I've turned to aids to help:

• Curriculum
• Commentaries
• Books
• Other preachers

Of course, turning to these for help isn't a bad thing, but what I've found myself doing recently is turning to these resources before I turn to scripture.

This realization came to me today as I was preparing a message on a specific text. Before I did even some basic study techniques, I turned to a John Piper sermon text. I just barely skimmed the text when it occurred to me,

"Why am I turning to John Piper before the Bible when preparing to teach the Bible?"

When I went back and turned to the text, things started to come alive. An even more message than I was planning started to emerge simply by using what was in the text.

This confession is just as much for me as it is for anyone else.

Isaiah 55:11 (New International Version)

¹¹ so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.