“Too many sermons focus on the biblical text, but fail to exposit the main point of the scriptural passage under consideration”

but in good topical preaching, though the text determines the message, it’s multiple texts. Expository preaching isn’t simply “the text determines the message” but “ONE text determines the message”.

I agree that sequential preaching through a book isn’t automatically expository preaching. I would contend that it shouldn’t be solely expository, but a mix of styles in order to preach the whole counsel of God.

Most of the “topical” preaching I’ve seen doesn’t really reflect any coherent knowledge of systematics, sad to say. Rather, it’s more of using the texts involved as a springboard to say what the speaker wants to say, generally conditioned by the culture of the speaker. I’d dare suggest as well that both topical and expositional preaching would be blessed by a better condition of systematics, one that is informed by sound Biblical/OT/NT theology, at the very least as a boundary for reasonable exposition.

And lest it be said that I’m just sour grapes, I do sometimes hear topical preaching done well, with that OT/NT/BIblical/Systematic grounding, and it’s a huge blessing. I just don’t hear it often enough, and if (as) men of God prove me wrong one sermon at a time, I will rejoice.

I’ve been preaching the psalms since October 2015. Tomorrow I’ll preach Psalm 111. But rather than 150 in one shot, we’ve taken a few breaks along the way. When we finished Book 1, I preached a 7-week series on our core values as a church. After Books 2 & 3 I preached through Titus. After Book 4 I preached a series on the sins Jerry Bridges dealt with in Respectable Sins. I take breaks around Christmas and Easter, and for special services like baptisms.

Not sure where we’re going after Psalm 150, but I’ve got a little time to figure it out and lots of good stuff to choose from.

[pvawter]

I’ve been preaching the psalms since October 2015. Tomorrow I’ll preach Psalm 111. But rather than 150 in one shot, we’ve taken a few breaks along the way. When we finished Book 1, I preached a 7-week series on our core values as a church. After Books 2 & 3 I preached through Titus. After Book 4 I preached a series on the sins Jerry Bridges dealt with in Respectable Sins. I take breaks around Christmas and Easter, and for special services like baptisms.

Not sure where we’re going after Psalm 150, but I’ve got a little time to figure it out and lots of good stuff to choose from.

we did Psalms on Wednesday’s for a few years. After that we kept on going to Proverbs.

Your approach is basically the way I do things. I am preaching through Acts, started 1/17/16, 164 messages so far. It looks like we will finish up chapter 14 by November, then we break for a Christmas series. There are other breaks through the year, sometimes because something comes up, or I am away, or I’m not ready for the next passage in Acts! At this rate, we will be another three years before we are done!

Length of Series:

I have been a pastor for over 40 years without a gap. I was accepted as the pastor of Victory Bible Church (Chicago) on June 1, 1979, and went immediately to Highland Park Church (Kokomo, IN) on Dec. 1, 1983. For my first 20 years, I did 2 (mostly) expository sermons (Sunday morning and Sunday evening) and then twenty years ago went down to one (I often teach Sunday nights, but I don’t prep a sermon).

I did the Life of Christ is 2.5 years straight through. I often did a series that took 6 months to a year or more.

The problem with this, however, is that some people do better with the theological (Romans), while others enjoy narrative (like I Samuel) and others ethical/practical living stuff (like Proverbs). If you preach only one genre for a long time, people think of your preaching as only that genre, no matter what you have done over the years.

My styles are very different when I preach narratives from prophetic or poetry. If you break up larger books into chunks (to which you eventually return), it helps those who struggle with one type of literature endure, knowing that it will not last forever.

About 15 years ago, I began breaking my series up into segments. Back in 1979, when I just started, a pastor I respected (he officiated at our wedding) told me he never preached a series more than 6 months. Wished I had listened to him then.

Breaking big books into differing series also reviews what is taught, and this, in turn, helps people retain better.

Varying the speed and thoroughness of a study is helpful. For example, I don’t want to preach Ezekiel like I preach Romans or Ephesians. In Ezekiel, I will have more difficulty holding attention, so I will do highlight chapters and certainly skip the temple measurements, only mentioned their importance to prove a literal millennial temple.

When i end a series, people are usually wishing I would go on. I want to leave them wanting more, instead of “good grief, I’m glad this is over.”

Psalms is a good case in point. I preach The Psalms of Asaph and The Psalms of the Sons of the Korah. Nice, compact series. Soon I will do Psalms 1-5. By the time I was done with the Psalms of Asaph, a few people (good people) were restless, wanting to move on.

So this is not a consumer-driven approach as much as a human nature approach.