This is the on preaching podcast with H.B. Charles Jr.

The podcast dedicated to helping you preach faithfully, clearly, and better.

Good day and thanks for listening to the podcast.

In this episode, I want to talk to you about reading scripture in sermon preparation.

So I wonder if you've read T. David Gorton's book.

It's been out for a few years now entitled Why Johnny Can't Preach.

If you have not read that book, let me commend it to you to put on your reading list of books on the subject of preaching that you need to check out. Thank me later.

But I'll give this part to you for free. Gordon argues that Johnny can't preach because

Johnny can't read. It's a great chapter. It's a great point. And in a sense, in the real sense,

this is what I want to talk you about in this episode of the podcast. Your preaching will get

better when your reading gets better. That's true of all of your reading. I think really a summary

of the system of sermon preparation is that you

need to read, record, and reflect. Read, record, and reflect. You need to, the starting point is the

reading. You need to read widely. You need to record diligently, and you need to reflect prayerfully.

And so reading is, as I said, essential to growing as a preacher in general, but particularly

reading the text. There's a old story that I like to tell when I'm talking about the subject of preaching

about a preaching prof that goes into the seminary library and sees one of his students

at a table basically buried under a mountain of commentaries on 1st Corinthians.

And the prof says to the student, what are you doing?

He says, I'm writing a sermon on 1st Corinthians.

The prof replied, where's 1st Corinthians?

Do you get it? Too often in sermon preparation, we land on the text and then we look up what our favorite authors or commentators or theologians have to say about

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