Last year I said one of the most difficult distinctions in preaching is the one between preaching among the congregation not just at the congregation. Earlier this month I offered up another vital nuance: preaching in the text not merely about the text.

Today I want to highlight another one. You gotta love precision.

The Framian perspectivalists might smell something here, but rest assured I have no intention of turning these distinctions into some homiletical triad. If you can do it, I’m all ears.

Here then is the distinction I want to briefly consider today: preaching from your experience versus preaching about your experience.

DANGER LURKS AROUND THE CORNER

A tweet by Piper actually stirred up my thinking on this issue. He wrote,

Amen. Nothing will teach a man to preach like the experience of cross-bearing. Sorrows will bend and break the preacher in ways no techniques of homiletics can. Lord willing, those formations of experience create Christlike pulpiteers.

But we need to recognize that experience is a dangerous thing when it comes to preaching. In an evangelical culture that craves authenticity, preachers will be tempted to include many personal anecdotes to connect with a congregation. Over and over, we are told, “You must be transparent. Transparency moves.” And they are right, it does move! Yet, we are preachers of the word, not self. Too many personal illustrations will lead a discerning hearer to say, “It seemed like there was more of Preacher in that sermon than Jesus.”

One of my favorite preachers growing up, who is still extremely popular, often gave sermons which felt like “The Story Factory.” His strength of illustration was, and is, astounding. To his credit, every illustration clearly illuminated biblical truth. However, as I matured what I craved was not hearing his personal experiences, but hearing a word-saturated sermon empowered by cross-shaped experience.

We need pastors who preach from their experience not just about their experience.

HUMBLE EXPERIENTIAL PREACHING

Here’s what I am trying to get at. Faithful preachers are obedient preachers. Obedient preachers are those who take up their cross and follow Christ. Such men will inevitably face hardship, pain, and suffering in the ministry. We need to let those trials function as something like sermonic seasoning. Open up a faithful preacher’s Homiletical Pantry and what should we find? Holy spices named Humility, Tenderness, Earnestness, and Reverence. Those qualities ordinarily come through Spirit-wrought experience and flavor the sermon with tasty holiness. And that, to update Mr. M’Cheyne, is what my people need most.

So how exactly does God’s mortal and pestle grind out godly sermons? Consider these examples:

• We have seen the ghastly stain of sin that still mars our heart. So when we preach on sin we do so from experiential humility.
• We have seen infants die and cancer afflict too many bodies. So when we preach on suffering we do so from experiential tenderness.
• We have seen friends and family, whom we’ve loved, dilly dally with the things of God and His gospel. So when we we call sinners to faith and repentance we do so from experiential earnestness.
• We have seen, through study, the blinding holy-love of God and the preciousness of His truth. So when we preach His word we do so from experiential reverence.

Preacher, don’t fall into the modern morass calling for sermons saturated with stories of your experience. Sprinkle them in when its wise. What’s best is saturating your sermons with the truth of God’s word falling from a soul shaped by the cross. Preach from your experience rather than about your experience.