I sometimes get asked why we don’t do more “practical” sermons or thematic sermons.
“Why don’t you guys preach on how to be a God-honoring family, or how to have a God-honoring marriage, or how to handle finances in a God-honoring way? That would be so practical. Plus, that’s what a lot of the other churches are doing.”
That’s a good observation.
It is true that at the Little Church we do not preach topical sermons. We always preach expository sermons. What does expository sermons mean? And how is it different than topical sermons?
Another great question.
Expository literally means explaining in a clear way. Expository sermons take a book of the bible and go through verse by verse explaining what the text means.
H. B. Charles Jr described the difference between expository preaching and topical sermons like this: “Ultimately, there are only two ways to preach; by exposition or by imposition. Either your preaching explains the God-intended meaning of the text or it sinfully imposes human speculation onto the text.”
There are two postures preachers can take in approaching the text they are going to preach.
First, they can stand under the authority of scripture and ask, “God, what do you want to communicate to your church through this text?”
Or, they can stand over the text as if they are the authority and know what needs to be communicated and declare, “This is what I want to say about Godly marriages. Now what texts in the Bible can I use to support what I want to preach.”
Did you notice the difference in the posture of the preacher in relation to the bible? There is a huge difference between these two perspectives.
I don’t ever want to put myself over God and God’s word. That is not my place. That is never the place of any preacher. The preacher’s role is to explain what God wants communicated to his church. And when preaching verse by verse through the Bible, it covers Godly marriages, Godly families, Godly sexual ethic, Godly use of money, etc.
The Little Church is committed to preaching God’s word. We do that by asking God every week what God wants to communicate to his church.
Lastly, did you know that our sermons are planned out at least a year out? We currently know what we are going to preach until the end of 2027.
Some people have wondered, but doesn’t planning out sermons like this so far into the future not allow for responding to current affairs as they happen?
Well. If you have been around the Little Church any chunk of time, it is uncanny how the texts that had been planned months and years ahead is exactly the text we needed to hear with the current affairs of the day. This hasn’t happened just once. But almost every single time there has been a major current affair, the text for that week is dealing with it.
And, every time that happens, we all remark – God is amazing! How did God know?!?!
So, why does the Little Church preach expository sermons? Because there is no other way to faithfully proclaim what God wants to communicate through his word.
Praxis: Faith in Action 