Praise the Lord. Another sermon down. One more to go. Here’s what “The Life of David” looks like right now:
- Overview
- 1 Samuel 16 – God has His Own timing
- 1 Samuel 17 – Who is your Goliath?
- 1 Samuel 18-20 – Love, Jealousy and Obedience
- 1 Samuel 21-24 – Temptation and God’s promises
- 1 Samuel 25-27 & 29-30 – You offended me!
- 1 Samuel 28, 31 & 2 Samuel 1 – The death of Saul
- 2 Samuel 2-5 – Civil War
- 2 Samuel 5-9 – After you God’s friend?
The last sermon, #10, will be on David and Bathsheba. I’ve learned so much about preaching, planning, and God’s faithfulness through this series. I had the privilege to preach sermons 1, 2, 3, 6, 7 and 9.
Those scripture passages are HUGE! I don’t know if I would do it this way again. It might be best to break this story up even more to about 12-15 sermons.
That’s what I mean by “know your limits to go further.” I’ve gotten some great feedback / constructive criticism during this series from one of our teachers at the seminary and from my wife, Katya. They and others have encouraged me in this process, exhorting me to bring more focus to the messages.
For instance, I could probably teach three different sermons from 2 Samuel 5-9, the passage I thought from today. A lot of pastors actually try to do that, trying to squeeze every exegetical lesson from the verses they are expounding on.
I don’t know about you guys, but, when I do that, I end up having a wide, hour-long puddle of a sermon, instead of a narrow, deep well that the congregation can draw water from. It’s hard to drink from a puddle in the same way that it can be hard to receive deep, impacting truth from a sermon that is about everything and nothing at the same time.
All that to say, I’ll learning my lesson. Today the sermon was about 60% of the length from last week, much more focused, and (imho) just as deep / impactful.
Please pray for this week… I might talk to my pastor and ask him to take this one. WAY too much going on right now.
David & Katya 