Introduction

When I first started preaching, I made a big mistake in most of the sermons I preached. It was nothing catastrophic, but I now realize that my mistake certainly left my listeners feeling quite frustrated. In this blog post, I am going to share with you what my mistake was, how I corrected it and how you can avoid it when you preach.

Hello, friends! Welcome to my page. This ministry is for people who want to learn how to study the Bible correctly, how to share the Bible effectively, and how to lead biblically. If that interests you, you are in the right place.

Free Workshop For You

As a side note, before being called to be preachers, we are called to be disciples of Jesus. Now, I’ve been exploring this call to be a disciple for some time. In fact, I’ve created a free workshop titled, “The Call To Discipleship” that I’d like to put in your hands. In this free four-session workshop, I walk you through Matthew 4:18-20, when Jesus called his first disciples. One of the important principles we’ll discover is that your call to discipleship has nothing to do with your current knowledge or even your ability to preach. So, if that’s the case, then what is your call to discipleship all about? That is what we will discover together in this workshop! Click here or visit just head on over to marioescobedo.org/disciple to get this free workshop.

Now, back to my big mistake. Watch the video or scroll to continue reading.

Teaching

So, yeah. When I first started preaching, I made a big mistake in most of the sermons I preached that I’m sure frustrated my listeners. It was an innocent mistake, but still it was a mistake. I became aware of my mistake when I was coaching a pastor friend of mine on how to improve his preaching.

When I first started preaching, I would do an excellent job of telling my listeners what to do and why they should do it. What I neglected – and here’s my big mistake – was to tell my listeners how to do what I was encouraging them to do. And you know what? What my listeners needed more than anything was for me to explain to them how to do what the Bible was telling them to do. That’s what I mean when I say I was leaving them frustrated.

I’m Not The Only One :)

Now I’ve heard a lot of sermons and a lot of preachers in my lifetime. And I’ve discovered that I’m not the only one who makes this mistake. In fact, I would dare say that most preachers are heavy on explaining the what and the why but very light on explaining the how. There’s nothing wrong with explaining what and why – in fact it’s absolutely necessary. But what we want as preachers is not just to transfer information from the Bible. We want our listeners to live their lives according to what is in the Bible. The only way they can do that is if we explain clearly to them how to do it.

You see I discovered that as a preacher one of my primary responsibilities is to connect the dots for my listeners. I need to help them connect the truth in Scripture to what that truth looks like in their daily lives. The way to do that is to spend time in my sermon explaining the how.

Correcting My Mistake

So, how did I correct this mistake? Actually, it was pretty easy to correct. During my sermon preparation time I would picture one of my listeners sitting in the church as I preached. Now, in my mind, this person wanted to honor God with their life. I mean they really wanted to please God. So, as I formulated the main idea of my sermon, I would picture this person raising their hand and asking,

“Yes, pastor, I get it, but how? How do I do what you’re telling me I should do?”

During my sermon prep time, any time I formulated an important point or principle, I would stop myself and simply ask, “Yes, but how?” Let me give you some examples.

Example # 1

Once I preached a series titled “5 Habits That Propel You From Follower To Disciple.” One of the habits I spoke about was sharing your faith with people who don’t know Jesus. The main idea for that sermon was,

“Jesus expects his current disciples to bring him new disciples.”

Here’s what I challenged my listener to do:

“Share the message of Jesus with a non-believing friend before the end of this year.”

Now, the old Mario would have just thought, “They know what I mean. They’ll figure out what to do.” But as the new Mario who had corrected his mistake, I paused and asked,

“Yes, but how? How could somebody share the message of Jesus with a non-believing friend before the end of this year?”

And here’s the “how” that I explained to my listeners:

1. Pray for that person every day
2. Build your friendship with that person
3. Look for practical ways to serve that person
4. When appropriate, talk about spiritual topics
5. Present the message of Jesus as the Holy Spirit prompts you.

Now there was quite a bit of explanation I presented for each one of these steps. But spending time in my sermon to explain the how was the right thing to do. Instead of just telling my listeners what to do and why they should do it, I gave them a plan, a “how to” they could follow, to ensure they were living out the biblical principle I was presenting them.

Explaining how doesn’t always have to be a four or five step process. Sometimes you can present just two or even one thing your listener can do to live out the biblical principle you present in your sermon.

Example #2

For example, I preached a sermon series titled, “We’re Better Together.” For one of the sermons, I preached about Samson in Judges 16. The main idea of the sermon was,

“If you do not maintain your connection to the Body, you are headed for spiritual death.”

Here is what I encouraged my listeners to do:

“Surround yourself with people who will help you stay spiritually connected and growing.”

Once again, during my sermon preparation time, I paused to picture my listener raising a hand and saying, “Well, that’s great advice, pastor, but how? How do I surround myself with people who will help me stay spiritually connected and growing.” So, I took time preparing the how that I would share with my listeners.

In this case, the how was pretty simple. I said, “You might be wondering about how to surround yourself with people who will keep you spiritually connected and growing. Well, the way we do it in our church is through a ministry we call Life Groups.” From there, I went on to explain how being in a Life Group will help you to stay spiritually connected and growing. Then I was sure to explain how anybody could join one of our church’s Life Groups.

Following My Own Advice

Now, I’m going to follow my own advice here. I’m not just going to tell you what you should do and why you should do it, I’m also going to tell you how to do it.

So, how do you come up with the how for your sermons?

Well, the best way I’ve discovered is simply to describe what you do personally to apply the biblical principle you’re talking about in your sermon. After all, you should already be doing that which you’re asking your listeners to do. If you’re not, then don’t ask them to do it.

When I shared with my listeners how to share the message of Jesus with a non-believing friend, I was basically telling them how I do it. Now, you’re not trying to tell them that you’re perfect and that your way is the best or only way. Not at all. But, as their spiritual leader, they should be able to look to you for ways on how to live out spiritual principles.

Not only that, but when you tell your listeners how you do it, you can also share with them the pitfalls, struggles and obstacles you encountered and that they might encounter. Then you can share with them how to overcome those obstacles.

So let me challenge you to do something. As you prepare your next sermon, stop at key points, and ask yourself, “Yes, but how?” When you preach the sermon, challenge yourself to spend as much time explaining the how as you do explaining the what and the why.

You will see that your sermons will have quite an impact on your listeners, and they will know HOW to live according to what the Bible expects of them.