Preaching a Text that Doesn’t Excite You

Consecutive expository preaching is going to lead a pastor to texts he’s not excited about. Whether it’s the purity laws of Leviticus or the prophecies of Daniel, the pastor is faced with a choice . . . to preach or not to preach?

Bryan Chapell, J. D. Greear, and Mike McKinley offer practical help on how to answer that question along with encouragement for how to get excited about texts you don’t initially understand.

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Related:

Do You Call Audibles When You Preach? by Erik Raymond
The Heart of the Expositor talk by Kent Hughes
Preacher’s Toolkit: What Should I Preach Next? by Julius Kim

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J. D. Greear (MDiv, PhD, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary) is the pastor of The Summit Church, in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina. Under Pastor J.D.’s leadership, the Summit has grown from a plateaued church of 300 to one of over 12,000. He serves as a Council member for The Gospel Coalition, and recently served as the 63rd President of the Southern Baptist Convention from 2018 through 2021. Pastor J.D. Greear has authored several books, including 12 Truths & a Lie (2023), Essential Christianity (2023), Just Ask (2021), What Are You Going to Do with Your Life? (2020), Above All (2019), Not God Enough (2018), Gaining by Losing (2015), Gospel (2011), Stop Asking Jesus into Your Heart (2013), Jesus, Continued… (2014), and others. He hosts Summit Life, a 30-minute daily radio broadcast and weekly TV program as well as the Ask the Pastor podcast.

Bryan Chapell (MDiv, Covenant Theological Seminary; PhD, Southern Illinois University Carbondale) is a founding council member of the Gospel Coalition and is Pastor Emeritus of the historic Grace Presbyterian Church and President Emeritus of Covenant Theological Seminary. He now leads the Administrative Committee of the Presbyterian Church in America. His preaching and teaching are broadcast in many nations through Unlimited Grace Media, and are also available at unlimitedgrace.com. He is the author of many books, including Unlimited Grace, Each for the Other, Holiness by Grace, Praying Backwards, The Gospel According to Daniel, The Hardest Sermons You’ll Ever Have to Preach, Christ-centered Worship, and Christ-centered Preaching, a preaching textbook now in multiple editions and many languages. He and his wife, Kathy, have four adult children, and a growing number of grandchildren.

Mike McKinley is the senior pastor of Sterling Park Baptist Church in Sterling, Virginia. He is the author of Church Planting Is for Wimps (Crossway, 2010); Am I Really a Christian? (Crossway, 2011); Did the Devil Make Me Do It? (The Good Book Company, 2013); Passion (The Good Book Company, 2013); and The Resurrection in Your Life (The Good Book Company, 2015). His most recent book, co-authored with Mark Dever, is 90 Days in Ruth, Jeremiah and 1 Corinthians (The Good Book Company, 2016).