Factors In Choosing A Sermon Series
November 25, 2008Here at Charlotte Chapel we’re mulling over potential sermon series for next year. In no particular order, here are some factors that might carry some weight in deciding what to preach on next.
1. How long do we have for this batch of sermons (one year; three months; four weeks)?
2. What Testament did we preach from last?
3. What biblical genre have we not preached from lately?
4. What is the one greatest spiritual need in the church currently? (and what book/section of a book would best address that need?)
5. What portion of Scripture excites me at the moment personally?
6. What Scripture books/sections have I not preached on with this congregation?
7. If we’ve just preached through a relatively lighter book, what would stretch the congregation? If we’ve just waded through Leviticus, what might make for some lighter lifting?
8. Are there any clear and present theological dangers that need to be urgently addressed?
9. Is there a contemporary circumstance (9/11, credit crunch) that might call for or pave the way for a series of sermons?
unashamed 
The General Introduction to Martyn lloyd-Jones’ series on the sermon on the mount states:
“Why should we consider the Sermon on the Mount at all?…… Well, I do not know that it is a part of the business of a preacher to explain the processes of his own mind and his own heart, but clearly no man should preach unless God has given him a message. It is the business of any man who tries to preach and expound the Scriptures to wait upon God for leading and guidance. I suppose fundamentally, therefore my main reason for preaching upon the Sermon on the Mount was that I had this persuasion, this compulsion, this leading of the Spirit. I say that deliberately, because if had been left to my own choice I would not have chosen to preach a series on the Sermon on the Mount. And as I understand this sense of compulsion, I feel the particular reason for for doing so is the peculiar condition of the life of the Christian church in general at the present time.”
[…] “Factors in Choosing a Sermon Series” November 26, 2008 Colin Adams offers nine suggestions: […]
I know this doesn’t sound very “spiritual,” but more than once I’ve preached through a book of the Bible because I’ve recently come across a great commentary that I’ve wanted to “digest.” Pete Enns’s Exodus NIV Application Commentary was the stimulus for me to preach through Exodus this year (having done it back in 1990).
I’m always fascinated by the fact that I can never simply re-preach old sermons when I repeat a book that I’ve preached through before. The texts are the same, but I, my people, and the times are different!
If any man speak, let him speak the oracles of God. That Hideous Man expressed it well with MLJ’s words, not that I know anything, but I know when the Lord is with me, and the Lord is with me when we are with Him, hence my soul waits upon God all the day long.