Preaching on a Passage You've Preached Before

[Blood-Bought Pilgrim]

For those of you who have more experience preaching, what is your procedure when preaching on a passage which you've preached on before? Assuming you have access to your preparation (notes, outline, etc.) from the past, how and how much would you use that material?

I'm in this situation with regards to the passage for this coming Lord's Day, and I don't want to do redundant preparation work, but I also want to make sure I'm not lazy and that I truly allow my heart to be shaped by the passage as I prepare to preach.

Thanks for your insights!

 

[Taylor]

I’ve had to do this before, actually on back-to-back Sunday evenings. The first time I preached rather straight-forward exegetically through the passage. The second time, I preached in more of a William Perkins’ The Art of Prophesying style, where I drew a particular doctrine from the text, and then preached the doctrine. Of course, I still aimed at being exegetical, but it was from a different angle.

 

[Blood-Bought Pilgrim]

I’ve had to do this before, actually on back-to-back Sunday evenings. The first time I preached rather straight-forward exegetically through the passage. The second time, I preached in more of a William Perkins’ The Art of Prophesying style, where I drew a particular doctrine from the text, and then preached the doctrine. Of course, I still aimed at being exegetical, but it was from a different angle.

That's an interesting way to do it! In my case, the instances are a couple years apart, so I'll have to do some refreshing either way; but I could change it up in some way perhaps.

 

[mgkortus]

I recommend warming up to the text again before looking at your old material. But then after your initial meditation and exegesis, I believe it is permissible to skip an in-depth study of the original language and the reading of commentaries. Feel free to draw from your previous material for those those things, using your old material as a sort of commentary. Then put the old material away when you "write out" your sermon (this will help keep you from using the exact same language and phrases in both sermons).

Also, it is worth noting that very few, if anyone, in the congregation will remember that you preached on that specific passage years ago. And even if they remember that you preached on it, they will not remember what you preached. Certainly we must never use that as excuse for laziness as preachers, but it does take some pressure off of us when, for whatever reason, we come back to a text for a second time.