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PREACHING SKILLSA Cup Running OverLearning to preach from the overflow of your deeply satisfying relationship with the SaviorDallas Willard
In my early days of ministry I spent huge amounts of time absorbed in Scripture and great spiritual writers. The Lord made it possible for me to spend whole days—without any issue of preparing for something or taking an examination—soaking up the Scripture. I literally wore out the books of great spiritual writers. This focus was foundational to my spiritual journey, to finding satisfaction in Christ.
There is no substitute for simple satisfaction in the Word of God, in the presence of God. That affects all your actions.
Characteristics of dissatisfaction
Preachers who are not finding satisfaction in Christ are likely to demonstrate that with overexertion and overpreparation for speaking, and with no peace about what they do after they do it. If we have not come to the place of resting in God, we will go back and think, Oh, if I'd done this, or Oh, I didn't do that.
When you come to the place where you are drinking deeply from God and trusting him to act with you, there is peace about what you have communicated.
One of my great joys came when I got up from a chair to walk to the podium and the Lord said to me, "Now remember, it's what I do with the Word between your lips and their hearts that matters." That is a tremendous lesson. If you do not trust God to do that, then he will let you do what you're going to do, and it's not going to come to much. But once you turn it loose and recognize we are always inadequate but our inadequacy is not the issue, you are able to lay that burden down. Then the satisfaction you have in Christ spills over into everything you do.
The preacher who does not minister in that satisfaction is on dangerous ground. Those who experience moral failure are those who failed to live a deeply satisfied life in Christ, almost without exception. I know my temptations come out of situations where I am dissatisfied, not content. I am worried about something or not feeling the sufficiency I know is there. If I have a strong temptation, it will be out of my dissatisfaction.
The moral failures of ministers usually are over one of three things: sex, money, or power. That always comes out of dissatisfaction. Ministers are reaching for something, and they begin to feel, I deserve something better. I sacrifice so much and get so little. And so I'll do this. The surest guarantee against failure is to be so at peace and satisfied with God that when wrongdoing presents itself it isn't even interesting. That is how we stay out of temptation.
Characteristics of a satisfied soul
We are long on devices and programs. We have too many of them, and they get in the way. What we really need are preachers who can stand in simplicity and manifest and declare the richness of Christ in life. There isn't anything on earth that begins to compete with that for human benefit and human interest.
One mark of preachers who have attained deep satisfaction is they are at peace and they love what they are doing.
When people hear a preacher who is satisfied in this way, they sense that much more is coming from him than what he is saying. When I hear a preacher like this, I sense something flowing from him. Preachers like that are at peace. They are not struggling to make something happen.
That is one of the biggest issues for ministers today because of the model of success that comes to us. We get this idea we are supposed to make something happen, and so we need services to go just right. The concluding benediction has hardly ceased before those in charge are saying to one another,
"How did it go?"
or
"It went really well."
The truth is we don't know how it went. From God's point of view it will be eternity before we know how it went. These folks are not at peace if they are trying to manage outcomes in that way.
One mark of preachers who have attained deep satisfaction is they are at peace and they love what they are doing. Peace comes from them. From such preachers I sense something coming to me that is deeper than the words. Hearers sense the message opening up possibilities for them to live. In the presence of this kind of preacher, people find ways of doing the good that is before their hearts.
That is the living water. Jesus brought people that opening up of possibilities. In John 8, when he said to the woman caught in adultery, "Go and sin no more," I don't think she felt, I've got to do that. She experienced Jesus' words as That's really possible. I can do that. That is one characteristic of preaching that comes from a satisfied life.
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