The Sermon is Never Finished
Cleophus LaRue’s next principle of effective sermons is The Sermon as Continuous Creation.
The preacher is to always think on the sermon. Even after it is “ready” for preaching, the preacher is still thinking of new ideas and new ways to present certain ideas.
Even while the sermon is going on, the preacher may gain new insights that were not thought about until then. The preacher should not simply ignore “The Spirit” as he seeks to enlighten the mind in what to say. All Christians are promised the Spirit of Truth, we preachers must be foremost at allowing that Spirit to mold our sermons not just in preparation, but also in delivery.
Finally, LaRue notes that some preachers edit a sermon soon after preaching it. This is to add some of these “additions of the Holy Ghost” to our sermon so that it will be ready for future preaching.
In short, the great sermon is never done, not before you preach it, and even not after you preach it.
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Preparing a sermon is a very dynamic undertaking. You will never have enough of it because our spirit tells us to keep our sermon pro active even when it is already delivered. Meaning, some changes are inevitable even when we believe that we can use the same material on another occasion. Our sermons are often an “open-ended” materials.