Why your sermon must be an iceberg!

I was listening to a talk on leadership on Wednesday night as I drove over to Lancashire.  During the talk the speaker described leadership as being like an iceberg because people only ever see the smallest bit of what you do.  The bit that sticks above the surface.  They don't see the planning and meetings behind it, they don't see the things you try but which don't come off and so on.

It occurred to me that an iceberg is a brilliant illustration of what a sermon should be like too.  In that it also is the visible peak of a much larger body which the congregation will never see, or may not even be aware of.   When we preach people don't need to see all the work we have done in the original languages, they don't need to be bombarded with the 3 possible interpretations of this word or that word, they don't need to know the illustrations that were brilliant but would swamp the talk and distract from the main point.  In fact of we do it will distract and make people bored.

Most of your hard work will stay on your desk, or to continue the iceberg illustration below the water line.  What we preach should only ever be a small part of our preparation. It should be the distilled concentrate crafted so that it hits home and unleashes the word of God in the power of the spirit.  Fight the temptation to prove how hard you have worked, to prove what is underneath the surface, to show people all your working out.