For most of my ministry I never
preached the same message more than once.
I’ve almost been manic about always doing the study fresh each week. I research the text prodding the Scripture
for clear understanding and searching for Biblical ways to apply God’s Word to
the needs of today’s culture. I used to
preach 3 times a week as an average. After
30 years that’s quite a pile of sermons!
How unusual it has been
these past two years preaching messages I wrote 5, 10 or even 25 years ago. But I find it’s never the same
sermon. It almost takes more work to recycle
a message than construct a new message.
Here’s why:
When I take a look at the
message written in 1989 about stewardship or prayer, there is a sense of the “raised
eyebrow”. Did I REALLY think that? I find that re-reading passages of
Scripture, and the way I interpreted them 25 years ago is different than what
the Word is saying to me now. As a
result I find myself challenging every word I wrote back then with what I have
seen God do in my life and ministry.
“Recycling” a sermon is
similar to what happens to a soda can thrown in the recycle bin. There is the basic metal, some used paint and
a little water and sugar left on the inside of the can. The people at the recycling plant put the can
in the fire. The paint and sugar burn away
and the metals are re-formed, re-useable!
In the same way, God
recycles my approach to His Word. God uses
the time in-between when a sermon was first written and preached to update my
thinking, ripen my theology. God’s word
never changes, but it does change us. I’ve
seen this in using previous messages, because my approach to preaching has
always been to understand the text first, and then ask questions of what the
text means to this human being, me, a travelling pilgrim in an alien world. The sermons I have preached are always
constructed on the answers to those questions – how God’s Word impacts a human
soul. And when the message is from God’s
Word, delivered to a heart ready to worship….well that never gets outdated.
“Recycling” sermons has been a real joy for me; I’m
seeing God’s tracks in the path of my life.
Today…for you
Has God been recycling anything in your life? Are you seeing His tracks on your path?
Same family problems re-visited?
Same financial crunch this month as last?
Loneliness creeping up on you?
Work, sleep, eat, and repeat the cycle becoming boring?
That’s the stuff of doing your best to present
yourself to God as a worker who knows and does the truth of His
Word.
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