How The Holy Spirit Helps Us Improve Our Preaching

Illustration;In a seminary missions class, Herbert Jackson told how, as a new missionary, he was assigned a car that would not start without a push.

After pondering his problem, he devised a plan. He went to the school near his home, got permission to take some children out of class, and had them push his car off. As he made his rounds, he would either park on a hill or leave the engine running. He used this ingenious procedure for two years. Ill health forced the Jackson family to leave, and a new missionary came to that station. When Jackson proudly began to explain his arrangement for getting the car started, the new man began looking under the hood. Before the explanation was complete, the new missionary interrupted, "Why, Dr. Jackson, I believe the only trouble is this loose cable." He gave the cable a twist, stepped into the car, pushed the switch, and to Jackson’s astonishment, the engine roared to life.

For two years needless trouble had become routine. The power was there all the time. Only a loose connection kept Jackson from putting that power to work.

Unknown.

Many Christians are unconsciously trying to live out the Christian life without the power of the Holy Spirit. This is a recipe for failure.

Sometime back the Associated Press carried this dispatch: "Glasgow, Ky.--Leslie Puckett, after struggling to start his car, lifted the hood and discovered that someone had stolen the motor." Without the Holy Spirit’s power we are like that car without its engine. Associated Press.

Illustration:

1. The Holy Spirit helps us improve our preaching by making it more relevant, appropriate and contextually suitable for every person’s needs. Paul wrote, "Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the weak I became weak to win the weak, I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some." (I Cor. 9:19)

Ask the Lord to help you continually make your preaching more relevant, appropriate and contextually suitable for the needs of every person in all situations.

2. The Holy Spirit shows us how to make our preaching more holistic. Paul wrote, "Preach the Word: be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke, and encourage with great patience and careful instruction." (2 Tim. 4:2)

Ask the Lord to help you inspire, inform, instruct, edify, evangelize, persuade, encourage, love, lift, enable, and proclaim the whole counsel of God.

3. The Holy Spirit takes the word of God and uses it to accomplish God’s will in the hearts of each audience. Paul wrote, "Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God." (I Cor. 1:23,24)

Ask the Lord to use the power of the word of God to communicate power to some and wisdom to others in a balanced fashion.

4. The Holy Spirit uses preaching to show everyone their utter dependence on the Lord. Paul wrote, "For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake." (2 Cor. 4:5)

Ask the Lord to allow you to model your complete dependence on the Lord. Let your preaching reflect your willingness to admit your inability to succeed without the power of the Spirit for all things.

5. The Holy Spirit enables preachers to help people solve some of their most perplexing problems. Paul wrote, "We proclaim Him, admonishing and teaching every man with all wisdom so that we may present everyone complete in Christ." (Col. 1:27,28) Ask the Lord to enable you to have the wisdom necessary to provide answers to all the perplexing problems represented in your organization.

6. The Holy Spirit helps your preaching be more focus, productive and effective. Jesus said, "Some seed fell on the good soil. When people heard it they accepted the word with joy and produced a crop - thirty, sixty and even a hundred times what was sown." (Mark 4:19,20)

Ask the Lord to help you sow your seed in the minds of people who are ripe for harvesting lots of qualitative and quantitative fruit.

7. The Holy Spirit uses the word of God to meet the essential needs of every person. Jesus said, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be satisfied." (Matt. 5:6) Ask the Lord for an ability to preach to the felt, real, perceived and real needs of everyone in your audience.

Trust the Lord to allow you to preach in a way that touches the emotional, mental, physical, social, financial, cultural, educational, relational, and spiritual needs of every individual in your audience.