Deep Preaching

When I was a new believer, I was mesmerized by what I mistakenly thought was DEEP preaching. I remember listening in awe to sermons with OT symbolism and NT mysticism. Anything allegorical, esoteric, or eschatological got me excited, even if I had no clue what the guy was talking about. Looking back, I’m not sure these guys even knew what they were talking about.

I hate to admit it, but during my first few years in ministry, I tried my best to come up with “deep” sermons from obscure verses. My secret goal was to dazzle the crowd with my creativity and originality.

That all changed when I became an accidental missionary in the Philippines in 1984 and found myself preaching to a new church filled with newly-saved Filipino students Manila’s University-Belt.

These students didn’t care anything about my eschatology, and they weren’t impressed with my theology.

They just wanted to know Jesus. They wanted to know how to deal with temptation and persecution, how to forgive, and how to pray.

In time, I learned to preach easy-to-understand and easy-to-do sermons. I learned to be simple, clear, and practical.

That’s why I was really surprised recently when my friend, Pastor James Lowe (the real J-Lowe) told me that my sermon was DEEP. I didn’t understand until James explained that D.E.E.P. means to Describe Everything Extra Plain.

Now I’ve gone full circle. I’m back to preaching DEEP messages. I am doing my best to Describe Everything Extra Plain.